Reading Response 9

I am looking at an article titled "Cities that Smell" in a magazine.  The writing is presented as lists with different headings, each naming a city and what it smelled like at one point in time.  There is a picture of the statue of liberty.

Summary
In his article "Seeing the Text" Stephen Bernhardt argues for the importance of how a text visually appears.  Different techniques for organizing writing can have different effects of how the writing is interpreted.  Elements such as symmetry, contrast in colors between the text and background, and grouping similar looking sections together are all parts of the laws of gestalt.

Synthesis
This article relates to John Berger's article "Ways of Seeing" because they both discuss how something looks effects how it is interpreted.  John Berger argues that changes in the pose and expression of women without clothing in old European paintings determines whether they are nude (being revealed for the pleasure of the observer) or naked (showing themselves as a piece of art).  Bernhardt claims that how a piece of writing is organized and how other visual qualities effect its appearance.

Review
This article was difficult for me to follow.  It has a lot of useful information and advice but it was not presented in a way that was very easy to understand.

QD
4.  Specific formats help keep essays structured and on topic.  Specific formats also make essays easier to follow and review.  Not having a specific format would have its pros and cons.  It would enable extra creativity in formating your writing but it would also make the essay harder to organize if you are not good at thinking of your own organization pattern.

AE
4.  Facebook has many ways that it guides the user.  On the left hand side of your homepage it shows different pages you can view and you messages, events, and friend groups.  In the top right it shows different ways you can change your Facebook.  To make interactions easier on Facebook it should be updated so that you can choose what kind of post you want to see on your news feed (statuses, music, pictures).

After You Read
McCloud would have presented this article with pictures to give the reader a better understanding of his points.  Rather than write about how text should look, he would have presented multiple pictures as examples rather than just including one document.  I prefer McCloud's way of writing articles.

MM
Visually thinking about text is most appropriate in comics, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, and other places where images can be used to compliment text.  Project two will probably include the most visual thinking of text because it will include other elements than just text.