It is quite true that graphic elements and textual elements are not often found in such close quarters. In my own personal writing, I spend so much time trying to perfectly describe settings, people, and actions. Why is it so wrong to show instead of tell? When did we decide that multi-dimensional writing was to be the exception and not the rule? I would be interested in experimenting with this concept. It seems that this visual presentation could work on a lot of levels. If I figure something cool out I will definitely be posting my efforts.
Also, I freakin' love Magritte! He did so many pieces commenting on this theme. His ideas concerning perception and reality are fascinating, and if you have a chance all of you should look into his other major pieces.
In regards to Sosnoski, I think that hyper-reading can be looked at as a negative reader quality. But I prefer to look at it as an element that writers could use to their advantage. Rhetoric involves writing for your audience. If you know that your audience is full of hyper-readers how do you write for them? I imagine it has a lot to do with highlighting the critical points that you need to get a across so that skimmers can easily grab important information. Also, if you can grab a reader with a few points you could potentially turn a hyper-reader into a focused-reader.
I enjoyed everyone's A/V projects! All of you are so talented and creative. I was amazed by the different topics that everyone chose. My only complaint is that we don't get a chance to do another assignment just like it!
Tee-hee, I know! Yours was really good, fyi. I get so serious. You covered serious without serious. Another go would be welcome.
ReplyDeleteAs a writer I think you just have to accept the fact that not everyone is going to read your stuff from front to back. You just need to focus on doing your best and hope that you can at least make a dent in the readers minds. The key (like you said) is getting the readers attention and sucking them in as fast as you can. If you lose their interest in the beginning, the rest of your work is going to be a loss to them.
ReplyDeleteHey! I really enjoyed your A/V project. I can tell you have an eye for filming because you understand how to tell a story. That takes being a good writer. So about your post I agree when you say: "I imagine it has a lot to do with highlighting the critical points that you need to get a across so that skimmers can easily grab important information. Also, if you can grab a reader with a few points you could potentially turn a hyper-reader into a focused-reader." A writer should know that most people are skimmers, so get to the juicy stuff!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I agree with highlighting the critical points so skimmers can grab important information. So much of the message of a text is imparted by the reader. It seems to me this concept would be dependent on the type of piece that the writer is producing. I am thinking of the wetlands sequential that was used as an example in one of the pieces we read a few weeks ago (can't find it for the life of me!). The author made the point that by arranging the information on the page in a way in which different groups of people could pull the information they were most interested in made the piece more effective at communicating complex data. I think this is effective for communicating data but wouldn't work as well for say a novel. I suppose one could argue that Cliff Notes are an approximation to data summary sheets, but they are far short of key words arranged in different colored columns. Even Cliff Notes have paragraphs, sentences, chapters, etc.
DeleteMy point is, I think it would be really disappointing to have an author highlight what they thought was juciy stuff for me. I might glean something from their writing that was not their intention but I can only come to my own conclusions.
I think that you make a great point in the struggle of trying to write so much detail when storytelling, why not just SHOW what is trying to be described. In just showing a reader a description, I feel like the beauty of the words become lost. But, powerful imagery also carries with it a lot of words, so to find a happy medium with both of them would be an amazing sight to see and read.
ReplyDeleteIt is truly hard to write for an audience of hyper readers. The question of how do you write for these people is difficult because it depends on what you are actually writing. The point is to effectively write in a manner that is fluent and the points are clear. That is the way that hyper readers will truly understand your thoughts, and interpret them in the appropriate way.
ReplyDeleteLove this thread, and nice work in prompting it with your own good ideas, Carson. I especially like the ideas you all are circulating about how *writers* ought to think in a world of hyper-readers. Nice thinking, y'all.
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