Vulcan Text?

I am finding much of this text to be logical common sense. Does that mean I am a Vulcan? I hope not, pointy ears don't look good on me.

The need for websites to be 'user-freindly' is something that many web authors forget. They do not take readers needs into consideration when designing websites. Simple links with simple explanations work wonders for the general population and I definatly agree with his statements regarding the amount of text on a single page - less is more!

I remember when I was creating the website for my writing group (now defunct) - keeping critical elements the same throughout and making each page easy to get to and easy to read were of the highest priority. I created the original website with Front Page and did not know much about HTML (I still don't but that is a whole other story!). I used animations but only on the home page - before you actually entered the site and I am not sure if this is something that I would do today.

The website for Quill & Quire (http://www.quillandquire.com/) is a good example of many things Killian discusses in the text. The banner tells about the site and navigation buttons are located on the left side of the page. They use the short 'blurb' style followed by a link to the full article.

I also really like the way the POD publisher LULU (http://www.lulu.com/) has their site set up. Links are easy to follow and are quite extensive. If you want a tour of the publishing process you just click on the link for it and then each section is linked individually or you can take the complete tour.

'Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.' - Cyril Connolly

In my last 'Writing for the web' class we we discussing the merits of the following article:
www.useit.com/alertbox/9695.html . The article looks at 10 areas of websites that tend to get visitors out of sorts. Some of my comments as to the causes of bad searches regarded meta tags that weren't specific enough and/or did not allow for misspellings and bad page titles which do not clearly reflect the actual page content etc.

Some of my current peeves with websites are: pop ups, banner ads, flashing icons, animations, broken links and bad writing. Especially pop ups! Those dang things drive me absolutely crazy - especially if they are the ones that keep taking you to some disgusting porno site!! Thank the web gods for Pop Up Blockers!!

Watched "An Inconvenient Truth" the other day. I am not too sure I agree with everything but I DO agree that global warming is a problem that has been ignored for much too long. Scientists have been warning us of the problem for many years; it is too bad that so many politicians and policy makers ignored them. Maybe the problem would not be quite so dire if they had have listened all those years ago and started to work on better policies then. Ahh well, I am just one small voice in the maelstrom of propaganda. I wonder if enough small voices could, together, drown out the wild yammering of industry crying the blues over imagined lost revenue.

That's it for today

‘The blog is certainly another tool for writers out there to break their way in. But being a blogger does not make you a great writer.' - Julie Powell

My First Post

As a creative writer I an always interested in anything which will help me improve and develop new skills. I received my Creative Writing Diploma from Surrey Continuing Ed in 2000 and am currently a member of Print Futures: Professional Writing's 2007 graduating class. This is a two year program at Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C. Canada. We have studied Communications, Language Studies, Interpersonal Communications, Research, Technical Manuals, Editing, Copy-editing & Proofreading, Writing for Magazines and the Web, DreamWeaver, and Adobe InDesign.

I would recommend the Print Futures program to anyone with an interest in a professional writing career. The skills developed will serve in good stead for those looking to enter almost any communication field other than actual journalism (most papers still require a Jounalism degree). Graduating students are well prepared for employment in communications departments (government/corporate/non-profit) magazine layout and publishing and public relations.The program includes a 180 hour practicum between the second an third semesters, lots of hands-on instruction and a 87% employment rate within three months of graduation.

I hope to add some samples of my writing within the next couple of weeks.


'The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it.' - Leo Rosten