“Seeing the Text”, Steven Bernhardt

IWA: 2/18/13 Part 2

Summary: In his article, “Seeing the Text”, Steven Bernhardt attempts to tell his audience, English teachers, that it is important to teach students how to visually lay out their papers. He argues that layout is as important as the actual writing itself because it helps to properly convey ideas, changes the way the audience perceives what I written, and makes the paper more visually appealing.

Synthesis: This article is similar to “The Sticky Embrace of Beauty” because it informs us how to properly lay out our papers so our audience gets the full effect of what it is we’re trying to tell them. Both of them have shown us just how important a visual layout is to proving our argument.

QD 1: I believe this type of writing can be hard to read because I have come to the belief that this type of layout is generally used in a paper I won’t care much about. It has given me the assumption that what I am about to read will be dull. It’s also very plain an boring to the eye so helps me lose interest very, very quickly.

QD 3: Based upon the structure I have come to know I often feel like I’m writing the same paper just filling in the blanks based upon my topic. This is mainly because of the two year English course I took in high school where all our papers followed the same format. To change this I should find a different layout that is more visual to keep the audience interested. Based upon the reading I would say he’d want writers to stress their arguments with sub headings with varied font sizes so it catches the eye better.

AE 1: I don’t think I ever strayed away from the traditional writing format because it was what I had “grown up” with. However I think I could maybe add different headings with different font sizes and such to keep the audience interested.

AE 3: Gestalt basically means how visually appealing your paper is; whether it is straightforward in a typical fashion or varied. Knowing this helps me better understand what Bernhardt wants us to take away from his article and shows me how to properly set up my papers so my argument is more effective.

AE 4: I often visit Facebook which guides you by stressing “important” stories on your newsfeed that they think you would be interested in, a side bar that shows you top stories and who’s online, and of course a search bar. I would say they guide you pretty well and don’t need to make any improvements.

After you Read: I think McCloud would’ve shown Bernhardt’s argument in a creative way using his cartoons and comparing whatever it was he was talking about in cartoon form next to a written paragraph of what it was to show how layout is everything.

Afterthoughts: I found the article to be rather dull and tiring to the eyes after reading the McCloud piece. I believe it did show many valid points though such as the fact it’s okay to stray from a traditional writing format to keep the audience interested.