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Rhetorical Observations Assignment Final Work

After much work on the Rhetorical Observations Assignment from the Wysocki Book, I have compiled all of the work into three parts.  Part 1 is the Categories for Layouts, Part 2 is the Category for Analysis and Part 3 is Activity 6: Observing and Analyzing Web Pages as a Strategy for Designing for Particular Audiences.

PART 1: 

Here are some of the categories that my partner and I came up with for categorizing our collection of layouts. 

Ø     Advertisements vs. Feature Articles

Ø     Layouts with Nature vs. No Nature

Ø     Historical Figures/ Celebrities/ Others

Ø     Both Genders/ Males/ Females

Ø     Text/ Captions/ Headlines/ Titles

Ø     Text and Image that were related vs. Text and Image that were not related

 
Re- reading some of the articles for this activity demonstrates that there are clearly more and different ways for categorizing a collection of layouts. 

 
There are some layouts that are strictly informational, while others are specifically created to persuade readers to purchase a product.  The layouts that are informational usually contain more text and less images, while on the other hand, advertisements contain more images and less text. 

 
As far as colors go some layouts can be categorized as using only a limited amount of colors, while others use a wide array. Some layouts stick to cool colors like greens and blues, while other layouts use strictly serious colors like brown, gray, and black. Though the colors used are bright, there is no color that is too bright or that would be considered out of the ordinary.  One interesting observation that I made was that when the color red was used in a couple of layouts, the color was found in only one object or specific place within the headline, in other words the color red is a strong color and was used methodically.    

 
Most of the lines found in my collection of layouts are horizontal.  The use of straight horizontal lines creates an impression of order in the layouts.  The use of shapes in the layouts also contributes to the impression of order.  For example nice neat rectangles and squares are used as frames for text or images. 

 
The fonts used in the layouts are typical for magazines and ads with no font seeming too out of the ordinary or difficult to comprehend and read.


Almost all of the layouts in my collection contained one or two points of emphasis or focus.  The emphasis on the focus is created by a contrast in the surrounding text and colors.  The points of focus in my collection of layouts are either people or objects, very rarely is the point of focus text. 

 
Another category is targeted audience.  For example the layouts that are targeted for women are usually advertisements that speak to the insecurities of body image that are common for this gender.  There is even an ad that promotes a “MIRACLE CREAM”, the wording in this ad is positioned next to the perfectly symmetrical face of a model.  One interesting thing that I noticed is that as far as gender representation is concerned most of the layouts whether ads or feature articles are directed at women.  Also my collection contains more women than men, the women for the most part appear to be smiling happily. 

 
For balance and symmetry, most of my layouts appear to be balanced symmetrically, meaning that there are hardly any layouts with asymmetrical images or text.  It is interesting to note that these layouts appear to all be following certain guidelines or rules that call for creating a sense of “order” in which nothing is places outside of margins, no image is too loud or out of place.  All of this appears to suggest that even within visual design there must be a sense of harmony that retains the viewers or readers attention by being eye catching without being too distracting.

 
PART 2:

CATEGORY FOR ANALYSIS: Focal Point, People vs. Objects as the focal point of different layouts.  The two categories that seemed to be most striking are the ones that dealt with the focal point as objects vs. people or a person.  When the person was the focal point, meaning at the center of the layout usually this was a feature article about that person.  For example there were a couple of articles featuring Dr. Drew Pinsky and Amy Pohler. Two separate articles highlighted these people; the layouts featured pictures of them and this was followed by interviews that were full of text with question and answer type questions.  The pictures placed them at the center of the layouts and depicted them in a positive light, airbrushed, smiling, perfect lightening.  A couple of other layouts also featured people as the focal point; these were ads for different products.  In these ads people were demonstrating the products effectiveness for improving different aspects of one’s life.  An ad for Weight Watchers, an ad for Lancôme makeup, and an ad for Ameritrade, all featured layouts with one person as the focal point, big font lettering for the product and smaller print for a more detailed description of the product.  One interesting thing that caught my attention was that when the people were the focal point of the layouts there were no nature elements found in that same page.  For example the people in the focal point of the layouts are nowhere near trees, grass, or plants, which is more commonly found in the layouts with objects as the focal point.  These layouts seemed somewhat smaller than the layouts with people.  Perhaps the scales are different for objects and people, I assume that this may have something to do about trying to make the people look as real to the readers as possible, a small image would maybe not work as well.  Also when the focal points are objects the objects are food, solar panels, cartoons, roses, and Styrofoam cups, these are not all strictly advertisements.  Some of the objects are placed at the center of the layout and are simply promoting an art gallery or a recipe.  When objects are placed as the focal point of the layouts, the text or reading seems to be less personal and more to the point.  For example when the focal point of a layout is a person, the text appears to be trying to appeal to the emotions of the readers, for the most part in order to get some sort of positive response to the product that is being advertised.  When the focal points are objects the text appears to be more factual and informational, with few if any references directed for emotional appeal of the viewers. 

 
PART 3:

Activity 6: Observing and Analyzing Web Pages as a Strategy for Designing for Particular Audiences.

Purpose:  The purpose for creating a web page for ENG 570 (Teaching Writing With Computers) is to gather relevant information about different strategies and practices that can help teachers of writing.  Since everyone in the class is creating their own web pages I assume that at a later day we will be able to look at one another’s pages and share ideas and information.  I also believe that creating and sharing our pages with one another and possibly a wider world wide web audience will also open some doors for networking amongst teachers. 

 
Possible Audience:  Possible audience that may view our “English grad student” pages may be other grad students, particularly in the field of English.  Other audience possibilities may be professors of this and other universities, students, peers, teachers and even family members.  Audiences that are involved in the field of teaching English such as professors, students, teachers and peers will have high expectations for the websites that we are creating.  This wide audience will have higher expectations as far as content, quantity, and quality of the work that will be placed in the website.  If the audience knows that this is work from students in a grad school program they may also feel that the work we produce must demonstrate some sort of intellectual ability and development.  Also I believe that the audience will expect a degree of clarity and focus on whatever writing we place on our websites. 

 
Web Pages Viewed:  The following are some of the web- pages created by grad students that I viewed for this assignment.  I also viewed some web pages created by English Professors from different universities.


(1) http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=211&DID=1251&rcss=print&print=yes

 
(2)  http://legacy.lclark.edu/~krauss/hatchetweb/index.htm

 
(3)  http://srufaculty.sru.edu/erica.scott/escott.htm

 
(4)  http://faculty.winthrop.edu/richardsonk/

 
(5) http://www.csun.edu/~hceng028/Summer/bridge.html

 
(6)  http://pegasus.msmc.la.edu/english/students/casssand/index.htm


After spending some time looking at web pages created by students and professors in the field of English I can see that there are some common aspects as far as organization and content.  Presentation and appearance of these websites have some similarities but for the most part they all look different.

 
Guidelines:

 
Organization of Information and Material Presented:  All of these websites have their information broken down into different sections or blocks.  Website’s 1 and three look a bit different than the rest because these place all of the information on one single web page with a few links.  The other websites present some information on a “main page”, but there is also a section of to the side or on the bottom with different titled sections and links to those sections, example Websites 3, 4 and 6.  These websites look a bit more orderly and professional than the ones with one main page containing all of the information.  By breaking the information up into different sections a viewer if free to click on areas that may of interest without having to scroll up and down looking for a topic. 


Title, Name and Introduction:  Each of these web pages has a title located at the top

center of each page.  Web pages 1, 2, 5 and 6 do not have a name of the creator of the

page next to the title of the page.  Web pages 3 and 4 have the name and other

pertinent information about the creator of the page.  I think that having the name or

names of the creators of the web page along with their educational degrees helps the

viewers of the pages decide whether the page is of any help to them.  I think that

including and excluding this type of information will have on impact on the number of

people that use the resources found on these pages.  If the name and information provided

looks reliable (Website 4) then viewers are more likely to use that page as a source of

information.

 

Images and Graphics:  Web page 1 contains absolutely no type of images or graphics. 

Web page 1 contains a medium size picture of the students on the main layout.  Web page

2 contains a small image of the campus on the top right corner of the main layout.  Web

page 3 contains small movable graphics at the top center of the page.  Web page 5

contains a small blue design along the edges of the main layout.  Website 6 contains a

border on the left hand side which includes some decorative symbols.  Images and

graphics do have an impact on what a viewer thinks about each website.  Even though all

of these pages demonstrate some expertise on web design and the topic of teaching

English, the inclusion or exclusion of images and graphics add to the level of credibility

for each page.

 

The creators of these different web pages appear to have dedicated extensive time to the

information they provide and also on the actual web page. The content on most of these

pages appear to be reliable and useful.  One thing that they all have in common is that all

of these websites have a lot of clickable links and resources that direct viewers or readers

to other web pages or sources of information.  Also I believe that even though each

of these websites were created with a difference purpose in mind, the ultimate goal was to

disseminate information through the World Wide Web in order to help others in the same

field.


After this activity I believe that my web page needs a lot of work!