Readers Response #9

In the article "Seeing the Text”, Stephen Bernhardt discusses the concept of how a text is presented and its effect on who picks the text up. Visual appearance has a lot to do with how appealing it is to certain people. One of the most important ways to draw someone into text is through images or the certain way the text is set up. In most of the advertisement, resumes, and many other documents we use a mixture of images and words to make it look presentable to the reader. In this article, Bernhardt shows us that these work together when it comes to how it is portrayed.

This article is really in a way connected to McCloud’s. They both introduce the way that people unknowingly connect images to different symbols and in this case presence. Without realizing it, how you present a text has a lot to do with the attraction people have to the text.

Before You Read:

2. With a text heavy advertisement I am most drawn to the image. I think the text emphasizes the image by drawing your eyes to the image. Being the only image, your eyes are horizontally drawn to the image.

QD:

4. I think you are supposed to write an essay in a specific format to make it easier to understand. Unknowingly your eyes are drawn to specific things when it comes to

AE:

4. A website I visit often is the Ohio University home page. It guides me by having a directory bar on the side of the page. I think the website does a good job at guiding someone to finding what they’re looking for. They also have a search bar to help with guidance.

After You Read:

1. I think that McCloud would have represented this argument just like Bernhardt. They both cover the concept that by taking first look at something you associate it with other things and presence can draw someone into a text.

MM:  In all the formal writing assignments in this course I think that questioning constructs requires the most visual thinking about presentation for text. In order to complete this assignment you have to really think outside the box about how a construct is constructed.

I really enjoyed this article. I can relate to seeing a magazine or text that appeals to me so I end up picking it up and taking a look. I also think that presentation can go a long way with how successful something turns out to be.