What is Style? Part 2

After a number of assignments in which we’ve observed the various styles in writing, language, technique, illustration, and other elements, I’ve decided that the simple word “style” envelopes a broad range of ideas. However, to be more specific, I would say that style is the way in which writers allow their personality to shine through their writing. We all have our own way of doing things, especially when it comes to writing, and this idea of style is what makes writing so interesting; various styles allow us to appreciate the diversity and differences in all writers. It’s also interesting that oftentimes our own individual style goes unnoticed until it is brought to our attention by others-essentially, style occurs naturally in many cases. Yet, as we’ve noticed in many assignments, like the visual rhetoric essay and readings, style can be very intentional and purposeful. In a word, style is individuality.

If I were asked what I learned from ENG 328, I would say that I learned to understand and appreciate new writing techniques and concepts that I had been unfamiliar with prior to taking the course. For example, I had never taken the time to think about writing as a technology, the enormous value of something so simple as a pencil, nor the complex thought and planning that goes into writing and illustrating a comic strip. I also learned that there is more to writing than putting words on a piece of paper in the form of 5 paragraphs. This was refreshing since so often in college, we students are often forced to produce endless amounts of seemingly meaningless jargon that will soon be forgotten after it is turned in for a grade. The course allowed me to take the time to think of writing in a new light, and as a future English teacher I value those experiences and hope that it will help me be a more innovative and creative teacher of writing.

The Most Important Web Guideline

I found Spiderpro to be the most beneficial in terms of this revision assignment, and I also found that the most important guideline to follow in web design is to keep it simple. Spiderpro’s section on Navigation seems to relate very well to this idea, and is an area that I wanted to focus on for my web page revision. Since I like to see things on the web that are simple and easy to follow, I wanted my website to have the same effect. Therefore, I looked to Spiderpro’s tips: “Do always apply textual links,” “Do supply a link home,” “Do use a table of contents,” “Do use short routes,” “Do keep menu items related,” etc. The ideas seemed somewhat obvious and like common sense; however, not having much of a background in web page design, it was helpful to be reminded of the “obvious” elements that go into the design process. After reading the Navigation section, I looked at my initial web page and knew I needed to format the homepage differently in order to include clear links to other pages and make sure that an audience outside of the class would be able to navigate and understand the site easily and thoroughly with little effort on their part. Collectively, Spiderpro’s tips embody the idea of the user-friendly web page, and are presented in a simple way, unlike Lynch and Horton in their Web Style Guide, which was much more dense and difficult to follow.

Paper Style vs. Web Style

After looking at SpiderPro 100 Dos and Don’ts of Web Design and Lynch and Horton’s Web Style Guide, I have found a number of similarities between paper style and web style. Out of the many, I think that the most important is that of good organization. Everyone can appreciate clear and structured writing much more than unorganized, disheveled pieces whether they’re online or on paper. In my personal experience with writing as a student, I know that I’m always concerned about my organization in essay assignments and other written work that I produce, and I’m always appreciative of clear writing during peer reviews/edits as well. Readers simply have better understanding of text when the information is given to them in a simple and structured format. The same goes for web users. One of the best stated quotes in Lynch and Horton’s Web Style Guide is: “The best information designs are never noticed.” I find this to be so true because if I am on the web and am able to navigate a site with ease, even if I’m accessing it for the first time, it’s obviously one that was designed carefully. However, when I come across a site that leaves me puzzled and scrambling around, clicking on several different links in order to find what I’m looking for, I’m much more aware of the inconvenience and poor design of the site. No matter how you look at it, if the paper/web is simple to follow and organized well, the reader/web user will gain more understanding and benefit more from the information provided.

On the other hand, there are several differences between paper style and web style as well. One interesting difference between the two is the amount of information that is in front of the reader at one time. When considering paper style, it’s most common for all of the writer’s information to be in one single page, book or file. On the other hand, with web style information is separated into different links and pages so that the user can easily jump from here to there without rummaging through information that he/she is not concerned with. Web style allows for users to look at the content in the order that they wish to view it and if the web design is effective and simple, the users can do this in a very easy fashion. I like this idea, because often when I’m reading or skimming a text, I would like to be able to pick out the information that is most vital immediately; however, this is difficult to do. Therefore, this is one difference between paper style and web style that definitely makes me appreciate the web a bit more than paper!

In addition, I think another difference between paper style and web style is the use of imagery. As far as paper style is concerned, unless the writing is in the form of a magazine or children’s book, most written documents aren’t going to have many graphics or use of colored text. Instead, paper style requires that the imagery take place within the text itself—descriptive words and colorful language. But for web style, imagery can be used very easily in that the use of colored text, backgrounds and graphics are common and actually encouraged. While both uses of imagery are effective, they are certainly very different.