Writing about Comics Part 1

Growing up, I never was into reading comics, they always reminded me of some sort of action hero stories, like Batman or Spider man, which didn't appeal to me. Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud, is the first comic book I ever read. The positive aspect is that it teaches the reader how to understand and interpret comics, but I don't have a lot of experience in that, so this was all new information to me. At first this book was hard to read, not because of the text or language, but because of the way you have to read the words in a comic. The lines and bubbles were hard for me to read without getting distracted and wandering off to the drawings. I caught myself completely forgetting where I was at, and what the topic was about! After a few chapters of practice, I was able to get the hang of things and found myself flowing through the reading much easier, and enjoying it as well. I thought a lot of the illustrations were helpful and noticed the words changed for me with the illustrations.

I found a comic strip off the web using the site onlinecomics.net. This site allows you to read different comics, which are categorized either by genre or style. The comic that I found interesting is called Croaker's Gorge by Steven Ogden. This is about a boy who moves from the city to the country, and meets a bunch of smart-alec talking animals living in a polluted swamp behind his house. This comic is for people of all ages. This comic reminds me of when I was younger, and my parents taking my brothers and I on vacation up north. We hated it, couldn't wait to get back to the city life, we always were so bored! The boy in Croaker's Gorge hates moving there, and the animals don't make it much easier. I think it's hilarious.

The scene that I want to talk about in relation to McCloud is funny, and I chose this because it resembles the format for the comic that we have to create in class. Take a look at it right here. There are 3 frames, which is what we have to create for our comic as well.

According to McCloud on pages 70-71, the transition used is called Subject to Subject, or #3. This type "takes us from subject-to-subject while staying within a scene or idea." (pp 71). The reader involvement is needed in order for the transition to take place, where is he walking to; his room, kitchen, or is he going outside? The next frame takes us to the scene outside, but stays within the same subject. The other idea I want to point out it is the idea of Time Frames, which is Chapter 4 in McCloud's book. On page 101, there are demonstrations of how authors play with the frames in order to show time. They can either make the frames larger, or spaces between them larger as well. I found this comic interesting because he is shown walking from one frame, to the next, as if we are taking the time to walk with him. I thought this was a cool technique used, that I didn't see in McCloud's reading.

Picturing Texts on the Web

When I hear the word 'text' I immediately think of words. After reading chapter 1 of Picturing Texts, I was able to realize that there is more to this word then just words on paper. Images, pictures, symbols, and words are all apart of the definition of the word, text. From this chapter I was able to develop a language needed to use for describing the concepts involved with the texts. These concepts include, balance, classification, comparison and contrast, description, emphasis, metaphor, narration, pattern, point of view, proportion, and unity.

I found a web page, with an image that I found interesting in relation to the concepts of Picturing Texts. The picture is called Tangerine, a photo taken by Justin Grant. First, take a look at the picture right here.

The first concept I believe this picture relates to is balance. This picture brings an equal amount of weight on each side of the photo. The necklace is a tangerine, that is hanging over one side of the eye, but is balanced out by the chain hanging on the other side of the face. This is also balanced by the shape of the necklace as well. One side is shaped like a tangerine, with a colorful, smooth surface, while the other is a silver, chain texture. This balances out the photo.

The next concept I will talk about in relation to this photo is emphasis. The face of the woman captures our attention the emphasis is towards the tangerine over the eye. After looking at the picture I, find myself being drawn towards the tangerine. The colors and the detail of the tangerine may have an affect as to the emphasis of it in the photo. The color of the tangerine is orange in the photo, which is bright, and causes the viewers eyes to be directed towards it.

I do believe that there is some sort of a pattern in this photo. I don't necessarily think it's as intense as the Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang, but I do believe there is importance to it. The color of the eyes, with the color of the lips, skin, and necklace all seem to blend together. These patterns communicate to the viewers to direct our attention to where the photographer, or author wants them to go. The color of the tangerine is the brightest, and so the photographer has emphasized this for the viewers to direct our attention towards it.

Peer Review Recap 2

For the second essay of this class, writing style rules, we used a different program to peer review. The program we used is from wiki, called wet paint. Personally, I did not like this program at all. I had a lot of technical difficulties from the very beginning with this. I wasn't able to log in, it was telling me I was using the wrong password, or wrong email. The problem was that I was using the correct password. It wouldn't email me my password, and then it would say that I was already logged in with my user name. This took up a lot of time that I could have been using to review people's essays.

I did not like the tools that were available for use to edit the work. I had to constantly go to the toolbar to change the color I wanted to type with, it wouldn't allow me to just type. I wasn't able to cross out sentences the way I was with Google Docs, I had to actually type 'cross this out' which I felt looked sloppy. I don't know if there are tools that allows you to edit papers this way, but I didn't know where they were.

After looking at my essay, I realized that there wasn't much, of any, helpful corrections. I needed to help for this essay, and don't feel like I got the same amount as I did with the first essay. Another thing that I didn't like, was that some people's papers overflowed with comments, I don't understand why, maybe their the popular ones, whatever.

I would suggest using the Google Docs program. It's way more efficient, and productive as well. I felt like it was more intimate with our groups, and so the reviews were much more helpful then they were while using the wiki.

What are others Saying?

After reading a few of my classmates blogs about their feelings towards Strunk and White and Williams, I was able to see that there are people with the same feelings towards Strunk and White as mine. Many people agreed that after reading Strunk and White they had gained specific answers about grammar rules that they always had. Rebecca made an interesting statement in her blog about Strunk and White, "I was turned off when these authors put down writers who don’t follow their strict rules." (http://rcreteau.blogspot.com) I think that this is a big issue for students that are reading this book, and are trying to get a benefit towards their writing style out of it. I agree with Becca, because I felt the same after reading some of the issues that seemed to annoy Strunk and White. I found myself being turned off to what they had to say, and found that a lot of the issues they had didn't matter all that much in a persons writing style.

As I was looking at the syllabus, I must have gotten something mixed up because I thought that we had two days to read Williams entire book (not something I would recommend!) I would have to agree with Rudi stating, "Williams' book is far better, more useful and more in-depth, but also harder to use" (http://clocklife.blogspot.com) I found that this book was much harder then Strunk and White, but after class discussions I was able to comprehend each chapter much clearer. I felt that the information from Williams was a lot more beneficial as a college student. I personally don't feel that grammar is that big of an issue nowadays, with spell check so handy, but the Eloquence and Concision of writing truly makes a difference in our work. I enjoyed reading what others in class had to say about Strunk and White and Williams, I gained a new view towards the authors as well.

Comparing Strunk and White with Williams

As I was reading through some of my blog postings, I reflected back on what I said after I read Strunk and White's Elements of Style. After I read this book I really enjoyed the information that was available for me to practice. I realized that this book contained a lot of answers that I had questions to as a writer. I feel that this book is focused towards the technical part of writing, rather then the quality or eloquence of it.

Joseph Williams' book Style: Toward Clarity and Grace does begin with the same type of format, or information about writing as does Strunk and White. During the beginning 0f the book Williams begins by teaching the basics needed to write clearly, with a proper flow and emphasis of writing as well. I believe that a lot of these elements are similar in both books. Towards the second half of Williams, he goes into more depth about the eloquence and grace of writing, assuming that we can now write clear, coherent, and appropriately.

Strunk and White never seem to go into detail as the way Williams was able to. I feel that Strunk and White were directed towards a less advanced audience, and so this book was starting at the beginning, or back to the basics as some would say. I feel like Strunk and White were much more opinionated, and were trying to teach their audience how to write without annoying them. I feel like Williams directed his audience towards a much more advanced writer. Even though the beginning chapters begin with a lot of basic rules, it still seems to be more advanced and depth then Strunk and White ever really get to. I also feel like Williams is much more complex, and there is a lot of information to learn, but feel like this was very helpful for a senior in college.

Revising with Williams

After reading Joseph Williams' Style: Toward Clarity and Grave, there are a lot of helpful tips for a Style of writing. I found a passage from the 'Admissions' link in the EMU Catalogs. This passage states, "Eastern Michigan University is open to students who have the potential to succeed academically as determined by a review of official high school records and/or college records. Admission to the University is based on a combination of factors including, but not limited to, the review of high school or college grade point average, high school or college curriculum and scores on standardized tests.

I revised this passage to state, "Eastern Michigan University is open to students who have the potential to succeed academically. This is determined by a review of official high school and/or college records. Admission to the University is based on the review of high school or college grade point average, high school or college curriculum and scores on standardized tests.

I found that the passage I chose to revise was unclear, it wasn't easy for me to read and understand. After I read it, I had to read the passage again because I couldn't comprehend the direct message. I used Chapter 2, titled Clarity, to help revise this passage.

I felt like this passage was making the reader work too hard, because we have to re-assemble and sort out the actions in our minds. This is discussed on page 18. I tried to fix this by separating the first sentence into two. I eliminated a few words, and felt like this was easier to read. I also eliminated words from the last sentence. I felt like there were unnecessary words in this sentence that only took the reader away from the topic. I made the sentence shorter, causing the passage to flow and easier for the reader to understand.