Reflection...

Thus far in the semester we have used pen and paper to create a work and used a computer to type and display the same work on a website. When given the original assignment to hand write an autobiography and turn it in I outwardly groaned. I felt handwriting something and turning it in for a grade was sloppy. I also knew that handwriting it would take longer and the probability of having to rewrite it multiple times was high. This turned out to be true, no spell check or backspace proved to be problematic. I also was constantly concerned with my penmanship, rereading it over and over again making sure it was legible. Writing it out with pen and paper was frustrating, it looked unprofessional. The margins were not always straight, my handwriting grows and shrinks depending on the word or if my hand cramped and I was unable to rearrange paragraphs by dragging my mouse around. Although frustrating it was helpful. In middle school and the start of high school we were forced to hand write papers as our first draft then move on to typing them. I never really understood this process and found it tedious. I now understand that when you hand write something you truly do spend more time on it, you are forced to. I’m not sure how many words per minute I type but it is surely much faster than what I can write with pen and paper.



This realization was supported after completing the second part of the assignment. We were instructed to type and post on our personal website the same autobiography expanding a little without having our handwritten autobiography as reference. This too I was frustrated with; having been pleased with the work I created with pen and paper. I tried to recall what I had written by hand and could remember bits and pieces but not exact wording or the way I had assembled it. I was content with the piece I created online until I got my original hand written one back. The handwritten version was much better, and I admittedly spent more time on the handwritten piece. This may be a novice theory but the simple fact that handwriting something makes you slow down in a way computers have abolished. Yes, proof reading is preached and practiced but it is not the same as handwriting something. Before taking that pen to paper you are forced to truly think about the sentence you are going to write, backspacing is not an option.



Beyond the content of the piece handwriting gives you a whole different idea of formatting and color scheme, decisions that are made when creating a website, book, magazine. Handwriting something adds something special because no one else can every have your exact handwriting. There have been a couple books published called Post Secret, all it is are people secrets or thoughts written on postcards and bound in a book. This at first sounded uninteresting but the secrets are each unique in text but the book includes a picture of the original postcard with the secret on it. The postcards are sometimes photographs or magazine clippings as well as just plain postcards. Most of them are handwritten using different color pens, markers and many styles of handwriting. Yes, all of this could be done with computer graphics but I kind of like imagining people writing their secrets quickly and rough with a black sharpie marker on a hated high school snapshot.



We have discussed in class that different writing and formatting styles are used according to their purpose. You would logically expect a more professional style of writing on our course website versus a personal website or blog. Graphics and color scheme would also be more neutral and easy to read whereas websites visited for entertainment can be louder. Although professional websites tend to be more neutral they are not without color, graphics, photographs and a general theme. Writing text that is to be posted on the Internet on any website I feel is completely different than writing for a magazine or book. There is an underlying assumption that the Internet in generalities is meant for “browsing” quickly gathering information usually stopping at many websites in one sitting. It is to the benefit of the author to add visual aids and quick links for their viewer.



I would like to have a better understanding of the effects of color and design on how the viewer is taking on your web page. I have a very plain taste and want things to be clean but I have noticed in class that I am in the minority. Many other students are drawn to the loud colors and over sized photographs. I would like to compose something that will be catchy but not overly aggressive.


I cannot say that having to keep a blog or create a website with an autobiography left me feeling completely exposed on the Internet. I have a facebook, so the idea of being “online” is not new, but it is a little scary. My facebook is bare, almost no information on the info section and limited pictures. The comments that I make and receive are mostly topical and of no real genuine importance, I plan to keep it that way. I was relieved when our autobiography had a theme, based on our relationship to technology. This felt a little less invasive, but I still knew that I would need to make my autobiography funny or with limited details of myself to truly feel comfortable. I know that once you post something on the Internet although you can delete it on the surface it is embedded somewhere. I feel in knowing that anything I post needs to be well thought out.