Webwriting...

It's been a busy week...
I'm afraid I'm not feeling very witty tonight. And, certainly not about class, even though it isn't being held this week. (Did everyone email their persona/audience statements?) But, we do need a fifth posting, don't we? And, it must be about the class. Hmmm. I'm reading the Web Style Guide—Ch 3: Site Design. I was a bad girl and printed it out, so I can read it in obscure places like the doctor's waiting room, the car (did I say that?), and sitting in bed before nodding off. What can I say? It's been a busy week...

The chapter gives a ton of useful info for "real" website designers. I find it difficult to read long stuff online (for all the reasons they give you in the web style guide), and even after it's printed out. But, I hope to gain some insight from the chapter into the actual design of my web site, which is now upon me. I expect to have a busy rest of the semester, too. That's okay. When all's said and done, I'll be able to build a website, which will be amazing in itself. And, I'm enjoying the writing aspect of it all, as well (despite my grumblings tonight).

On Reading and Commuting

I've never been fond of commuting.
By train is bad enough, but commuting by car can really wear you down. At least on the train, you can sleep, read, balance your checkbook, talk to the person next to you (or friends or family on your cell phone, although I hear this is a no-no). In the car, though, you have to pay attention. You have to drive. You have to brake, constantly, for the idiot ahead of you who hasn't learned how to drive yet and shouldn't be on the road between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. Don't get me wrong, of course there are things you can do while driving—donning make-up, eating, talking on the cell phone—I've even tried praying—but I'm constantly looking for new activities to help me make good use of my time in captivity and, generally, to forget where I am.

One weekday a couple of months ago, while sitting in stop-go traffic, feeling my blood boil, I was possessed to reach into my briefcase and pull out The Mermaid's Chair, by Sue Monk Kidd. A friend had loaned the book to me, and I was sitting there in the car thinking about how the book might end (the protagonist had gotten herself into quite a mess). Well, I found that if I propped the book up on the steering wheel, I could glance up and down enough to follow the plot in the book and also watch the breaklights ahead of me. First thing I knew, I was at the office, and I had no memory of that horrendous drive! It was a beautiful thing.

With later experimentation, I discovered that fiction works better than nonfiction (I guess you don't feel the need to highlight parts of it, which adds a layer of complexity to the procedure), and that smaller format, big-print paperbacks work better than hardbacks, paperbacks of larger format, or small-type books. The DaVinci Code was difficult, as it was in hardback, but A Beautiful Mind is killing me. (The logic and game theory to absorb; the teeny print. I'm not even bothering to look up the footnotes.) The best was Angels and Demons, a small-format paperback that moved quickly (very quickly). First thing I know, I'm actually reading again, and I always thought I didn't have the time. The big thing is remembering where you are on the page when you look up, and looking up often. Maybe it helps to be cross-eyed, which I am.

Yes, I tried books on CD. Try "reading" a John Grisham (e.g., The Broker) over the course of two weeks while you're commuting. If I ever did that again, I'd also get a copy of the actual book, for the weekend, when I feel compelled to "just finish the damn thing." David Sedaris's Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim was thought provoking, and, as it was a series of skits (a "book" you can put down), the CD did lend itself to the commute.

Oh, one more thing. No, I'm not crazy, but yes, I've had people tell me I am. They shudder when I pipe up and confess my latest driving habit, and I can tell from the look in their eyes that they want to ensure that they're never on the road the same time I am. Well, there are worse things I could do. Like go out on the roads between 7:00 and 9:00 am on a weekday without knowing how to drive...

Caveat:Children, do not try this at home, unsupervised!

P. S. All print books mentioned are available at http://www.amazon.com.

Hot Text: Ch 8

Yes, it's homework day!
Chapter 8, another worthy read. (Although, I guess the guy in the photo—I'm getting the sneaking suspicion he's the author, or at least one of them—is eating "chunky soup" as an illustration of writing chunky paragraphs. Ack!) The chapter talks about how to go about building really effective paragraphs. Except that you put the main info first, not last (as you would for print)! Dealing with context was interesting, too: use connectors, refer back to earlier ideas, avoid in medias res. How to write the beginning sentence? Just write the paragraph as you normally would (for print), then move the last sentence so it's first. Brilliant! I was sitting there wondering what to do about that one.

Here's a site where Jakob Nielsen gives some webwriting tips:
http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/.

Hot Text: Ch 5

This chapter is so true, and not only for the Web! As a long-time editor, I can really relate to keeping copy concise. Many times we had to edit to fit in various situations: Most times, space is the limiting factor. (A book cast-off and all financials point toward a 600-page book, but the author sends in manuscript that will typeset with the proposed specs at 700 pages! Or, a magazine article needs to fit on one full page and no more—that's all the room the issue has for it!). It's amazing what you can do to cut text when you have to—and I mean rewriting to condense, not eliminating content. BUT, you must always be careful not to change the meaning of the sentence or to reduce to the point of confusion. I think you have more leeway with this in books and magazines than you do with web copy, where the reader's eye is already challenged a great deal.

Click here to check out Strunk & White's Elements of Style, the classic on writing concisely, if you're not already familiar with it.

Rant

OK. For those of you who can't stomach the religion and politics of others, or don't like to see the word "sex" in print, I suggest you sign off now. But, the rest of you, read on. The release of the Grand Jury's report on sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia this week has me ticked (see http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/12707654.htm), and I need to vent. The report documented (hundreds of?) cases where priests abused children in their charge, and when they were accused, rather than being turned over to the civil authorities, they were merely moved by the archdiocese to other, unsuspecting parishes, allowing them to strike again. I didn't read the report, but from the sounds of it, proper authorities were never notified (can you say "cover-up"?). Well, I'm a cradle Catholic, but admittedly through the years, I've moved farther and farther toward the fringe of the church, less and less likely to just follow along and do whatever I'm told, without thinking about it. Not that I haven't known about the scandal and its many implications. My daughter was attending college in Boston when it all broke out up there a few years ago. I wasn't surprised. When you run a Church like a business, rather than by faith, all kinds of things can happen. And, when you forbid people to question and discuss issues that concern their church and that are important to them, you create even more problems. This isn't the Middle Ages, after all.

So, relative to all this, I have a few comments to make:

1. I don't think the issue is so much that some men who happen to be priests have a problem, called pedophila, which harms children. It's more that the Church was concerned through the decades in keeping the crimes quiet, presumably in order to protect its reputation, rather than in protecting the well-being of its children. Quite a few years back, we had a pastor about whom (he and the altar servers, that is) rumors began to fly, and then, mysteriously, he was gone, allegedly taken ill suddenly. Yes, he was ill all right; his name was in the Grand Jury's report this week. That's what's pissing me off. I find it easier to forgive the priests accused than the church hierarchy who kept it all quiet. Actually, that priest wasn't any friend of mine. He was arrogant and cold (maybe he had a problem with women?) He said all the right things, but I never felt that he really connected with people.

2. The problems inherent in an institution where there is a dictatorial (let's call it feudal) hierarchy of authority (each person swears obedience to the man above him—and yes, I think the fact that there are only men in authority is part of the problem) are almost insurmountable. No one can question authority. There is no transparency, no system of checks and balances. Problems aren't resolved as they would be—naturally, it seems—in a more open system. Conflicts of interest abound. At the parish level, the pastor is in charge and usually doesn't like to be questioned. Obviously, I'm not very involved in my church. I'd drive him nuts, although I'd like nothing more than to have an honest conversation with him, one where he respects my opinions and is opened-minded toward them and to the opinions of others.

3. Along with the articles published on this topic this week, there was one that addressed a different issue: the presence of gay priests in the Church (see http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/12717057.htm). In the article, the unnamed source said that the pope was soon to issue a decree that the Church would no longer accept gays in the seminary (evidently, there had been a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in effect; this would now be changed to one that via investigations at seminaries would actively root out gay men before they could become priests). What they plan to do about gay men who are already priests, I don't know, but if everyone's celibate, what's the problem? Two comments on this: (a)Why was this article timed to coincide with the release of the Grand Jury's report? I think I can answer that: in the article, the pope was quoted as saying that "there was a need 'purify' the church after the deeply damaging sex scandals of the last several years." Excuse me? Purify the Church of what, gays? I think, rather, that we need to purify the Church of pedophiles, together with all administrative clergy who felt that protecting the reputation of the church should take precedence over everything else—don't you agree? At least, I thought that was the issue at hand... I read elsewhere that sex experts agree that homosexuals are no more likely than heterosexuals to be pedophiles, which would make sense to me, but perhaps this week the Church needed a scapegoat, a detraction from the real issues? Hey, at least they're consistent: Let's protect the reputation of the Church at all costs, even if it's at the expense of gay men who are serving the Church celibately, as are, presumably, heterosexual men. With their shortage of priests, you wouldn't think the Church would be too choosy. But, again, they have a history of making the wrong decisions.

In my opinion, what the church needs is married priests, who function in normal family situations (and can therefore relate to the people they are supposed to be spiritually guiding), who have sex (and who therefore are capable of thinking about something else;we have a family joke about our current pastor: that he works "sex"—e.g., lust, adultery, etc.—into every sermon. Well, no wonder—it's probably all he thinks about. In fact, we need men and women priests, working together to bring a sense of balance to the Church. Women were demoted for some reason about 200 AD and haven't been back since, except in subservient positions. From what I understand (is that the right word here? In truth, I really don't understand it), it has something to do with Jesus setting precedent by chosing only men as his Apostles. Well, with all the male chauvinists back then (believe it or not, there were even more than there are now), who would have listened to women who were trying to start a church? The timing wasn't right, and Jesus knew it; women were considered little more than property. And, of course, there are other theories out there concerning Jesus's opinions about the place of women in the church, but I haven't researched the facts enough on that one to comment here...

OK. I'm through. That felt good—almost as good as sex. (Father, close your ears.) I invite your comments, pro and con.

Sailing

And now for something different... Weekday race night is Wednesday at the Nockamixon (PA) Sail Club. And, what a beautiful evening we had. We did only two races for lack of wind, but I couldn't think of any place (local, anyway) where I'd rather have been to see that glorious sunset, water turning pink and turquoise, reflecting the sky, and so on. There was so little wind, in fact, that as first mate (and only crew member), I had to actually hold out the jib (and blow on it--no, only kidding), in the hopes that it would catch any small puff. But, despite the conditions, my husband and I (he's the sailor; I'm the convert), in our 19-ft Lightning, took a first and maybe a third (we think; results weren't posted). It was touch and go in the second race as we were eased out by a Santana 2023R at the first mark and then fought to catch up (in the first race, we were out ahead from the start). Afterward, with about nine comrades, we headed to the Country Place Restaurant for some food, drink, and racing recap. What a nice little oasis in an otherwise hectic week!

Here's the link to the Nockamixon Sail Club:
http://www.nockamixonsailclub.org/

More Webwriting (9/20/05)

OK, I see the point of Ch 1 (pp. 14-25), although I have to admit that I did sneak a peek back into the previous pages of the chapter, just to get some context (sorry, Elizabeth!). Looks like a lot of instruction on how to write web pages for your particular audience, if you were employed by the business sponsoring the webpage, including doing user profiles, etc. The way I figure it, I'll be writing this stuff to suit myself, but after class discussion, maybe I'll see the light. :)

Here are a couple of sites about webwriting that I found interesting:
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/
http://www.efuse.com/Design/wa-writing_and_the_web.htm

Webwriting (9/19/05)

Ah, a different kind of animal, this posting to blogs.... For one who uses the Web as a source of "official info" only--I've never made the time to surf--the idea of recording personal info, thoughts, and so on, for all the world to see is intriguing. About the book, Hot Text, Ch 1 pp. 14-25 (yes, class, the reading is to p. 25; there's a typo on the class site, per Elizabeth): This was a difficult read, maybe becuase we began in the middle of the chapter. I found I needed some context, to put the info into focus for myself. It got better, though, and I look forward to this week's class discussion!