Master of Design program

Surprisingly, a significant amount of work involved in the Professional Writing major is visual and design-related. “Editing,” “Writing in the Professions,” “Writing for the Web,” and “Print, Layout, and Design” are all classes dealing with the visual just as much as it deals with the written.

These classes and their subject matter are reflective of a growing trend in writing; today’s writers must be proficient in a number of areas in addition to writing.  Consistent 21st writers also have to be editors and designers, especially in my desired field of magazine journalism.

In my reading, I came across a graduate program that offers a degree that blends visual and written communication.

Carnegie Mellon University offers a Master of Design in Communication Planning and Information Design (CPID) (http://www.cmu.edu/hss/english/graduate/mdes/index.html). According to CMU, it “is a two-year professional program for students who want to explore the new arts of communication and the creative potential of the interplay between words and images in traditional and innovative media” and the program is jointly offered by the English Department and the School of Design.

The purpose of the program “is to prepare students for advanced levels of professional employment as communication planners and designers in the areas of print communication, design planning, systems design, dynamic information design, interactive multimedia, and internet communication.”

There are two unique attributes to this program:

1. An emphasis on collaboration: The program stresses teamwork as a way of maximizing learning experience and simulating a real world work environment.

According to CMU: 

“The CPID program provides a balanced mix of collaborative work and individual exploration. Some recent themes of exploration include new narrative structures in new media, visual voice and identity in print and digital formats, visualizing complex information spaces, and strategic planning for communication systems. Recent project sponsors include clients such as Microsoft, EliasArts, Samsung Electronics, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the United States Postal Service.”

2. A functional consciousness about the cutting edge and staying current in order to give program  grads the best opportunity to be effective in a professional environment.

CMU:

“As we begin the 21st century, however, new technologies are revolutionizing the environment of communication. Computing and new media are appearing at every level of communication design, blurring the traditional boundaries between creation and production, writing and designing, strategy and implementation. With a broader view of the information landscape, writers and designers are expected to tackle the planning of complex communication systems, as well as take increasing responsibility for both the verbal and the visual aspects of their work. The need to relate more complex information to a greater variety of audiences demands that writers and designers expand their individual roles and collaborate in formerly unexpected ways.”

“To better prepare students for the new role they are increasingly asked to play as communication planners and designers, there must be new arts of communication and a new field of research and inquiry. The new arts will combine words and images, sound and motion, using technologies from print to video, from photography to interactive multimedia.”

CMU’s design school is highly praised and respected and this program deserves consideration as I near graduation.

Some Thoughts on Blogging

Last year, the Wall Street Journal published an article called “America’s Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire” (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124026415808636575.html). In the article, authors Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne describe the startling advent of blogging and why the trendy medium has become profitable. The authors write:

“In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters.”

“...we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their primary source of income. That's almost 2 million Americans getting paid by the word, the post, or the click...”

I realize blogging is popular, commanding the attention of countless established celebrities, pundits, and intellectuals, and launching the careers of countless more. But I’ve never been comfortable with blogging, mainly because I don’t have anything to say or if I did, I don’t think anybody would care to read it.

There are two major issues with blogging identified in the article:

1.) The challenge of integrity in providing information

Penn and Zalesne write:

"[Blogging] could make us the most noisily opinionated nation on earth.”

"Less and less of our information flow is devoted to gathering facts, and more and more is going toward popularizing opinion. Twenty-four-hour news channels have been replaced by 24-hour opinion channels. The chatter is the story.”

“Almost no blogging is by subscription; rather, it owes it economic model to on-line advertising. Bloggers make money if their consumers click the ads on their sites. Some sites even pay writers by the click, which is of course a system that promotes sensationalism, or doing whatever it takes to get noticed.”

Blogs prioritize opinion over objective, informed analysis, which contributes to a societal discourse dominated by insatiable, regressive hedonism instead of to the education and research that are key to civility and informed citizenship.

2.) The narrowness of success

Penn and Zalesne report:

“Demographically, bloggers are extremely well educated: three out of every four are college graduates. Most are white males reporting above-average incomes. One out of three young people reports blogging, but bloggers who do it for a living successfully are 2% of bloggers overall.”

Blogging isn’t profitable or constructive for everyone and highlights and maybe even exacerbates how certain views and backgrounds are prioritized over others.

Online Resume

Next month, I plan to apply for an internship and need to update my resume. Generally, I’m on top of things when it comes to keeping a clean, updated resume at the ready but in the last few months, I haven’t done the best job of maintaining my resume. A major reason for this is that I haven’t really done anything noteworthy or resume-worthy. Also, I’m not satisfied with the layout and visual appeal (or lack thereof) of the current document so I don't even look at it. But since I have to submit one for this internship, I’ve renewed focus and plan to produce a better resume.

I did some online exploration and found an article from the New York Times titled, “An Online Toolbox Starts With a Polished Résumé by Joshua Condon (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/technology/personaltech/02basics.html) In the article, Condon breaks down some fundamentals to getting the most out of an online resume.

I've summarized the fundamentals:

KEEP YOUR RÉSUMÉ AT THE READY. Always maintain an updated resume and keep it online via email so that it can be sent to employers quickly.

DON’T WASTE YOUR FORMATTING. It’s easier to keep the online resume in PDF format. This ensures that more people can access it across different technologies. PDF documents act as a universal language in the world of professional documents.

MAKE AN INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING. Utilize social networking sites like LinkedIn and Xang to get your name out there and meet people with similar expertise and interests.

SHOW YOUR E-MAIL SKILLS. When sending a number of files to employers or colleagues, instead of sending droves of emails with monstrous attachments, provide links to file host sites like drop.io and filedropper.com that allow sizable, organized uploads.

THINK BEYOND THE RéSUMé. There are ways to market yourself other than resumes. Personal websites are good ideas in addition to posting presentations or visual projects on Flickr and YouTube.

THINK BEFORE YOU POST. When posting work from other places of employment, it’s important to use caution because a lot of the time, the work will be the property of the company for which an employee worked.

THINK BEFORE YOU POST. Be careful with personal social networking, questionable photos, and negative comments and posts. If an employer detects unsavory material online of a perspective employee, there’s a good chance that employee will not be hired despite any professionalism.

You’re Failing as a Web Developer — and Here’s Why

While creating a personal website for my Writing for the Web class, I researched a few different websites that I thought might be useful.

I stumbled upon www.webdesignerdepot.com. This is a website dedicated to discussion about design, both print and online. According to their website, Webdesigner Depot is “an exciting new platform designed to explore different web and graphic design techniques, great examples and best practices” and the “blog is a joint effort and collaboration between leading designers around the world which contribute a wealth of expertise on all fields of design, such as coding, typography, Photoshop tutorials and more” (Webdesigner Depot). A substantial amount of the content deals with suggestions in concepts, methods and news in design. Some of the stories included are “40 Excellent Logos Created with Helvetica” and “The Evolution of Apple Ads.” I’ve perused the blog and read a number of the posts and have to express appreciation and confidence in the comprehensiveness, organization, and visual appeal in the site.

One of the more interesting articles available is “You’re Failing as a Web Developer-- and Here’s Why.” (http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/04/youre-failing-as-a-web-developer-%E2%80%94-and-heres-why/)

The article lists 8 reasons why web developers and designers don’t reach their full potential or lose relevance. They are as follows:

You Have No Intention of Ever Turning Down a Client
Summary: Working for any client who will pay isn’t always a good thing because some clients will unflinchingly demand what they want to see and not what’s necessarily best for the design of the website, which compromises the consistency and appeal of your portfolio. Instead, designers and developers should prioritize clients they can work well with.

2.You’re the Proverbial “Jack of All Trades”
Summary: Knowing how to execute a variety of web design jobs is a good thing but taking up an inordinate amount of jobs for a client or project on a regular basis begins to hurt you in the long-run because attempting to remain proficient in too many areas prevents up-to-date specialization in one area. Instead, focus on becoming competent and staying cutting edge in a few specific areas.

You Don’t Do Any Networking
Summary: It’s simple. “One great way to ensure you’re staying on the cutting edge and keeping up with standards and best practices is through networking, both online and in person” (Webdesigner Depot). Attend conferences and events and get active in social networking to build your...social network.


You Can’t Justify Your Design Decisions
Summary: Designers become too obsessed with the aesthetics of the website and get away from the focus and purpose of a site. Some designers even become imitators of other pretty sites without even remotely treating their own project with respect. Designers should treat every project as unique.

You’re A jQuery Ninja, But Can’t Code Raw JavaScript
Summary: Developers should be familiar with raw JavaScript and be able to execute with the language rather than predominantly relying on jQuery. Those well-versed in JavaScript are better developers.

You Never Think About Progressive Enhancement
Summary: Progressive enhancement deals with making the website compatible across a number of technological situations like older browsers and JavaScript users. Some developers don’t plan for these situations at the beginning of the project but wait until mid-project, if at all, to address the issue.

You Think “Specs” are Glasses
Summary: Designers and developers should make it a priority to know and be able to converse about the latest web standards and CSS and HTML specifications. These standards determine the future of the internet in terms of look, accessibility, and functionality. A developer aware of these standards is more attractive to employers and has a more informed understanding of his/her job.

You’re Preparing to Post a Comment on This Article to Explain Why I’m Wrong
Summary: Web professionals need to consistently step back and reevaluate their goals and objectives.This is important for staying current and building a friendly online community of designers and developers.

A Response to “Visual Social Semiotics: Understanding How Still Images Make Meaning” by Claire Harrison

Claire Harrison’s article “Visual Social Semiotics: Understanding How Still Images Make Meaning” is highly informative, perhaps, at about 15 pages, too informative. She starts out by providing an overview on semiotics, social and visual. She then discusses different categories of images and representational metafunction. She finishes up with interpersonal metafunction and then finishes up with  compositional metafunction. I appreciate Harrison’s commitment and willingness to educate the reader and present the information in organized form. I do, however, believe that Harrison could sum up the entire article in one sentence: Images affect the people looking at them.

Harrison talks about how angles are used to make something look a certain way, esteemed or lowly. She talks about symbols and icons and I understand it’s important to go beyond the pretty picture element and get into the science of using images properly. But the information needs to be slimmed down and simplified. There needed to be an overview in the beginning to let the reader know what to expect. The sections on semiotics needed to be condensed. There was good use of tables and examples though.

On the ideas in the article, as stated before, I think the material is common sense and intuitive but I understand the necessity of technicality. The most interesting part of the article was a reference to Rene Magritte’s “The Treachery of Images,” in which the artist tells the viewer that the image of a pipe is just an image. I appreciated the Baudrillardian overtones. Baudrillard, a French philosopher, was a major critic of modern society for its addiction to virtual reality and obsession with images and hyperreality. I thought using Magritte’s painting added a good deal of credibility.

Finally, I think all people should be aware of at least the basics of semiotics because all of us accept and perpetuate visual representations without really evaluating their origins, methods, and effects.

A Response to “The Implications of Single Sourcing for Writers and Writing” by Locke Carter

Locke Carter is an expert in technical communication at Texas Tech University and in his article “The Implications of Single Sourcing for Writers and Writing” he details the effect single sourcing has on writers. He defines single sourcing as “producing documents designed to be recombined and reused across projects and various media.”  Some examples include the memo format, or the 12 point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced format that characterizes academic writing.

Carter goes into how single sourcing occurs in a more professional setting like a corporation or a firm that has a manager and has multiple employees. In this regard, an example of single sourcing would be a new way of technical communication that all employee must follow (employees being technical writing for our purposes). So, it could be a new email format imposed by the boss or a new format for writing proposals or using a new technology. Also, single sourcing doesn’t have to be a new thing. Writers can be hired by companies that have already implemented single sourcing. But Carter’s article talks about single sourcing from the perspective of a writer reluctant to accept it.

The reaction of writers to single sourcing is presented as typical. Writers like any other comfortable employee don’t like change and perceive the change as a threat to their job because they may not be able to master the technology or the format or they feel the change is a disregard for what they do, the science and art of writing in its barest form.

Carter concludes his article by saying single sourcing is good for technological innovation and progressiveness; it’s good for writers to know more than just how to write, it’s good for writers to know how to maximize their abilities.

I agree with Carter for the most part. I do, however, feel that Carter doesn’t take into account the newer more tech savvy generation that for the most part would more than willingly embrace technology. Also, I think Carter doesn’t acknowledge the increasing number of education programs and writing programs that emphasize tech skills.

source: Technical Communication, Volume 50, Number 3, August 2003

A Response to “Writing for the Web Versus Writing for Print: Are They Really So Different?” by Judy Gregory

Judy Gregory, communication specialist at the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology in Australia, wrote an article in the journal “Technical Communication” called “Writing for the Web Versus Writing for Print: Are They Really So Different?”

Gregory explains seven major guidelines for writing for the Internet as opposed to writing:

“Structure and design are concerns for Web writers”
“Write no more than 50% of what you would write for print”
“Write for scannability”
“The Web encourages restless reading”
“Split information into coherent chunks”
“Web writers can’t predict where the reader will start”
“Readers ‘pull’ the information they need from the Web”

The author goes on to suggest that the best way to compare print and web writing is by evaluating what she calls “genre” or “the recognizable communicative purposes of documents. According to the author, genre “is primarily characterized by the communicative purposes that it intends to fulfill.”

The major flaw in Gregory’s theory (if there is one) is that there is no difference between writing for the web and writing for print.

Firstly, the seven differences, which may or may not be her original observations, that she details are not differences at all and she touches on that in the article. For every difference that she lays out, she goes back and says that there are similarities. After all, print recognizes all types of genres, all types of lengths, all types of purposes and all types of languages. Written language started with print and continues with print and therefore any document or purposeful writing that appears anywhere other than print is the result of something that was originally printed. In other words, the web writing is just print writing that’s not on paper.

Some have suggested that the web has changed language, that Facebook, instant messaging and email have shortened and altered written and verbal communication and therefore has uniqueness and prescience over print.

There are two issues with this:

1.) Such an idea disregards purpose. Not everyone uses shortened language all the time on the web, nor do we use it all the time off the web. Context matters. Professional emails should not and do not too often include “LOL” nor do all web sites have emoticons. To say the web has changed language and changed writing is to disregard all other communication that isn’t the shortened or representational web language.

2.) Such an idea disregards human nature. If language has changed, it is not due to any new medium. Human nature demands change and evolution. Consider that language, which is made up of innate, objective structures, had and has evolved for thousands of years without the Internet and without electricity. To say an invention has changed that which is human nature is similar to saying that nuclear weapons has led to more war. The opposite is true. Humans have an inner drive for competition that existed before and after the invention of nuclear weapons, but since WWII, the magnitude of war has diminished.

Writing is writing, print or web.

source: “Technical Communication, Volume 51, Number 2, May 2004