What sorts of things should a writer consider before putting 'pen to paper'?

Distinctions between Writing and Speaking

 Speaking and writing serve different purposes. We usually do not duplicate in writing what we communicate orally, and vice versa. Throughout history, a mystique has often surrounded the written word, perhaps because of a perception that writers are privileged or talented.

The spoken word has been less revered. You may or may not agree with the analogy that the writer William Safire draws, ‘The spoken language does not have the same standard as the written language, the tune you whistle is not the orchestra’s score’.

Most writing is slower than most talking. We can speak at 150 words per minute, listen at 2.50 words per minute, read at 360 words per minute, but type at only about 60 words per minute. And of course it is highly likely that what we type will need to be revised, so the writing process takes even longer.

When we write, the reader is seldom present; when we talk, the listener is usually present (in time , at least, if not in location). When we speak, our words are accompanied and assisted by the tone, pitch, volume, rate, and rhythm of our voice. We emphasise and punctuate with our gestures, our eyes, and our facial expressions.

When we write, we have no assistance from these physical cues, we have only our words and how we present them.

Why are your writing?

 Consider the following reasons why people write. A you read through the list, think about why you write.

I write…

• ·      To express myself
• ·      To find out what I know, to create knowledge
• ·      To articulate and develop ideas
• ·      To thin, to help ‘firm up’ my thinking
• ·      To understand, to gain insight, to sort things out
• ·      To help me remember
• ·      To communicate
• ·      To convey information
• ·      To persuade
• ·      To praise, to thank, to recommend
• ·      To defend myself, to support a position
• ·      To develop, maintain, or enhance a relationship
• ·      To stimulate, to motivate
• ·      To record, to make official, to make legal
• ·      To get published
• ·      To identify my competence
• ·      To effect action, produce a response, implement, get things done

Now go back and carefully reconsider any answers that you did not select. You will probably find that most of the answers do apply to you. Consider, also, whether all of these answers could be subsumed under the statement: I write to solve a problem.

By identifying what you are writing and how you will write it correctly, your writing can dramatically improve from the beginning, helping to focus your piece and therefore achieve you original goal of the text.

Reference:

Putnis, Peter and Petelin, Roslyn, 1996, Professional Communication: Principles and Applications, Prentice Hall

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What are some of the issues you need to consider when designing text for the web?

Today, more and amore documents are intended for web sit distribution. Some of these documents will only be read on-screen and never printed. Other readers will print your publication on a desktop ink-jet or laser printer for later off line reading, however.

As Hardware and software costs continues to drop and new technologies such as computing and wireless devices gain popularity, more and more documents may never be printed in the traditional sense of the word. For this reason documents will often need to be re-written for the changing times.

Potential problem Areas

As a general rule, always design for the worst possible circumstances. If you design for “worst case” scenarios, not only will your design survive the harshest of reading circumstances, but your design will be even more successful in normal, everyday circumstances For

Remember that Online reading is harder than normal

On screen reading is far more difficult than reading a printed document because of the differ way your readers eyes encounter your message. Onscreen reading involves projected light.

Your readers are, in effect, starting into the lens of a slide projector. The individual letters making up your message are projected onto the screen. This creates more foreground/background contrast or difference in brightness levels than involved when reading a printed document. This added contrast increases eye fatigue.

Reading a printed document involves reflected light . The letters stand out against their background because the black letters and white background absorb different amounts of light. As a result, the contrast range is not as much, so there’s less eye fatigue.

Partial Page View

Another difference between print and onscreen reading involves the limited amount of text visible at a time on scree. When reading a printed document, readers can se the entire page, typically a vertical rectangle.

Without physical activity, scrolling though the page or moving their head, they can quickly skim the document, going directly to point of great interest and easily seeing how the individual paragraph they’re reading relates to the page as a whole. They can easily read from the bottom of one column to the top of the next.

Onscreen reading, however, typically reveals only a horizontal rectangular view of a page. This makes it harder for visitors to get a “big picture” view of what they’re reading. It also makes it difficult to return from the bottom of the page to the top of the page. Readers of pint publications encounter an entire page at a time.

Reference: Parker, Roger, 2003, Looking Good in Print, Paraglyph Press

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AFL to make landmark broadcast deal

Media 3

Summary

The AFL is about to make the most expensive sports deal in Australian television history with starting bids at 1.5-1.6 billion dollars.

My Opinion

When reading these ridiculous figures today I was honestly not all that surprised, it was like waking up and reading ‘public doesn’t like taxes’ as front page news. Sport is absolutely massive business in Australia, not to say it isn’t everywhere else, we Aussies just like to take it to another level entirely.

The great thing is business love it even more than they do, everything for the ball they kick down to the brand of water to players take a sip front rakes in advertising and product placement money and that kind of buying power is equally insane for television.

The ownership of AFL rights has been tossed around for year to year until only the richest of the rich could afford to pay out for the guaranteed viewership, but is that really a good thing for the viewer?

This year I sat down and watched the grand final despite not being an especially big fan of the sport and as the game grew boring I found myself noticing the bombardment of advertising.

It seemed that every time a player took a mark the umpire would halt the game and an add would play and it noticeably took away from the experience. Unfortunately though, this is just apart of what makes sport so appealing to big corporations and as they shell out record levels of money it is unlikely that you, the consumer will come out with the better end of the stick. Simply put, bigger deposits only come with the condition that more money can be made than before other wise known as capitalism.

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FM Radio becoming less cool?

Media 2

Summary

FM Radio is slowly becoming less cool, drawing less and less attention for advertisers while AM is even worse.

My Opinion

Radio is something that is close to me personally and that’s not really going to change so forgive me if I get personal here. I have worked in a community radio station since I was 12 and in that time I have learnt more than a few things about radio. To put it simply I do think that radio, both AM and FM are dying however I think it will be a very long time before they disappear. The reason for this is very simple, people drive cars to work and everywhere else and that situation is not going to change. Even when technology advances enough that cars can drive themselves or public transport becomes the norm, I think I am not alone in saying that sometimes having entertainment use everyone of your senses can make it feel more like a chore than entertainment, especially as technology becoming used in all parts of our everyday lives.

For this reason what I think we will be seeing in big networks of national broadcasting stations rather than individual stations in each state. This is not a good thing by no means but it is an unfortunate side effect of a money hungry media industry where profit is most certainly prioritised over the quality of the content.

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