Brief 3
Website analysis
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Brief
Brief 33
1. Essay
2. Website
create on: www.weebly.com
weebly tutorial:
http://help.weebly.com/beginners-guide.html
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Examples of students’ websites
2012
http://laurasiwrite.weebly.com/
www.stianiwrite.weebly.com
www.severedthumbs.weebly.com
http://captainheeneyssplendtacularwebsi.we
ebly.com/
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THE ESSAY
Analysis of a website:
an image-text essay
Example essays
http://iwrite2011.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/3/2/4632467/imaget
extexample.pdf
www.stianiwrite.weebly.com
http://abouttogoham.weebly.com/
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The academic 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)
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Analysis vs description
• “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.”
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References
AUT Online:
https://autonline.aut.ac.nz/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_gr
oup_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flaun
cher%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
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http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/common_visual.html
Multi-modal texts
• 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
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Categories for analysis
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Genre
Typeface
Textual structure
Sound
Visuals
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Genre
The visual presentation of a page
or screen gives you an immediate
sense of its genre.
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Genre: 2
The genre of the big sports websites
IAAF
FIFA
NFL
NBA
IRB
IFNA
ITF
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Typeface
style / size / font etc
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Textual structure
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Textual structure: 2
• 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).
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Textual structure: 3
• 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
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http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
Visuals
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Shapes
Colour
Photos / drawing / paintings
Charts & graphs
Videos / animations
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Visual literacy
• 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
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Visuals : shapes
buttons, highlights,outlines, borders, etc
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Visuals: colour
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.
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Visuals
photos / drawings / paintings
• n
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Visuals: charts & graphs
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Visuals: video / animation
http://www.unicef.org/
http://news.armani.com/en/giorgioarmani/framesoflife/#presenting/nina
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Essay:
Analysis of typeface : example
www.aut.ac.nz
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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
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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.
Therefore, while the AUT website visually
conveys a modern sensibility, supported by
the words……
Summarise claims
In-text reference source material to
set up and support the claims in
your argument.
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Week 9
• 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
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