Brief 3Website analysis

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Brief 31. Essay

2. Website

create on: www.weebly.com

weebly tutorial:http://help.weebly.com/beginners-guide.html

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Brief 3

http://laurasiwrite.weebly.com/

www.stianiwrite.weebly.com

www.severedthumbs.weebly.com

http://captainheeneyssplendtacularwebsi.weebly.com/

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Examples of students’ websites 2012

Analysis of a website:an image-text essay

Example essays

http://iwrite2011.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/3/2/4632467/imagetextexample.pdf

www.stianiwrite.weebly.com

http://abouttogoham.weebly.com/

THE ESSAY

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•Organisation of information•Vocabulary•Sentence structure ( passive, nominalisation etc)•Tentative language•Substantiation of claims (in-text referencing)•Reference list (APA)

The academic essay

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• “Your essay contains a high proportion of description as opposed to analysis.”

• “Your essay is not an analysis as such. It is a description of various parts of the site.”

Analysis vs description

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AUT Online: https://autonline.aut.ac.nz/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D69811%26url%3D

Nielson, J. (2007), Writing for the web: Research on how users read on the web and how authors should write their web pages. Retrieved 26 June, 2007 from: http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/

Warnick, B. (2006). Rhetoric on the web. In P. Messaris and L. Humphreys (Eds.), Digital media; Transformations in human communication, (pp. 139 - 146) New York, NY: Lang.

Wysocki, A. F. (2004). The multiple media of texts: How onscreen and paper texts incorporate words, images and other media. In C. Bazerman and P. Prior, (Eds.) What writing does and how it does it: An introduction to analyzing texts and textual practices, pp. 123 -163, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Also : Common Visual Design Elements of Weblogs by Scheidt and Wright http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/common_visual.html

References

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• In the twenty-first century, multimodal texts are in the ascendancy and visual communication has become a core component of the world of work and of our lives in general.

• Newspapers contain photographs, diagrams and changes of typeface. Company letterheads are carefully designed, including the choice of graphics and colour of the paper to craft the company’s image. We now take it for granted that an electronic text, such as a page on the web, will use more than one of the language modes.

• Therefore the literate citizen must develop a knowledge of visual codes, … in order to interpret written information.

EDUC6751 Knowledge and Communication Technologies

Multi-modal texts

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• Genre

• Typeface

• Textual structure

• Sound

• Visuals

Categories for analysis

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The visual presentation of a page or screen gives you an immediate sense of its genre.

Genre

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The genre of the big sports websites

IAAF

FIFA

NFL

NBA

IRB

IFNA

ITF

Genre: 2

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style / size / font etc

Typeface

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Textual structure

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• Web authors are ‘advised to write for easy scanning, because web readers do not read word for word’.

• Conciseness - content is expressed in ‘chunks’ or independent nodules

• Discouraged from inserting outlinks - the goal of commercial web design is to create ‘stickiness’

• Liberal use of white space.

Warnick, B. (2006). Rhetoric on the web.(pp. 141-142).

Textual structure: 2

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• Users won’t read your text thoroughly

• The first two paragraphs must state the most important information

• Start subheadings, paragraphs, and bullet points with information carrying words

http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/

Textual structure: 3

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Visuals

• Shapes

• Colour

• Photos / drawing / paintings

• Charts & graphs

• Videos / animations

Visuals

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• Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image.

• Visual literacy is based on the idea that images can be “read” and that meaning can be communicated through such reading.

EDUC6751 Knowledge and Communication Technologies

Visual literacy

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Visuals : shapes buttons, highlights,outlines, borders, etc

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Blue Peace, tranquillity, truth, dignity, power, melancholy, coolness, heaviness. Regarded as being therapeutic.

Yellow Happiness, cheerfulness. Can denote caution, decay, and sickness.

Red Warmth, urgency, passion, heat, blood, excitement, danger and hostility. Used as an accent colour, it can promote expectations and quick decision-making.

Green Growth, fertility, health, cheerfulness, vegetation, money. Signifies life, new growth, energy and faith.

Grey Cool detachment, bleakness, and lack of intensity.

Purple Wealth, royalty, sophistication, intelligence. Also the colour of passion and love.

Black Death, rebellion, strength and evil. Associated with the supernatural, it can also suggest inner strength and determination, as well as power and formality.

White Purity, chastity and cleanliness.

Black and white Nostalgia, seriousness, truth, detachment.

Brown Credibility, stability, and neutrality.

Orange Warmth, strength of personality. Associated with autumn, it also has broad appeal.

Visuals: colour

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• n

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Visuals photos / drawings / paintings

Visuals: charts & graphs

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http://www.unicef.org/

http://news.armani.com/en/giorgioarmani/framesoflife/#presenting/nina

Visuals: video / animation

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www.aut.ac.nz

Essay: Analysis of typeface : example

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The use of typeface

For most of the informational text the AUT homepage uses a sans serif font, either Ariel or Verdana. According to Wysocki (2004), the use of typeface is “a major visual strategy for a text’s composers” (p.127), and can provide insights into the way a writer wants to relate to a reader. The predominant use of sans serif font suggests the desire for a contemporary, technological image, such fonts having been developed to represent the modern rational industrial world (Wysocki 2004). A desire to be seen as innovative and contemporary is reflected by AUT’s recent adoption of a U.S. college font for its logo, rather than the traditional crest of a

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European university. However, the colours used and the overall regularity of typeface suggest a conservative dimension to the webpage. Wysocki (2004) observes that black on a white page is traditionally associated with academic or more formal writing, as is the overall use of only one or two typefaces in a text. Therefore, while the AUT website visually conveys a modern sensibility, supported by the words contemporary, unique, and innovative in its introductory statement, the largely white background and regularity of typeface in black, white or grey, Wysocki (2004) would assert, also conveys the underlying conservatism of the institution.

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The use of typeface Use section headings

For most of the informational text the AUT homepage uses a sans serif font, either Ariel or Verdana.

Describe the visual elements in the text.

According to Wysocki (2004), the use of typeface is “a major visual strategy for a text’s composers” (p.127), and can provide insights into the way a writer wants to relate to a reader. The predominant use of sans serif font suggests the desire for a contemporary, technological image, such fonts having been developed to represent the modern rational industrial world (Wysocki 2004)…..

Theorise what these elements and their relationships with other elements on the page represent, and how they influence or connect with the reader.

In-text reference source material to set up and support the claims in your argument.

Therefore, while the AUT website visually conveys a modern sensibility, supported by the words……

Summarise claims

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•Set up your website

•Email url to studio lecturer

•Choose a site to analyse:

pick a genre you are familiar with

pick a website that offers plenty of scope for analysis

Week 9

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