Response to "Seeing the Text"

            In his article “Seeing the Text”, Stephen Bernhardt hopes to show readers and writers that making a text visually appealing can change a message and alter appreciation for a text. He argues that fonts, color, graphics, and other visual aspects can really have an effect on how an individual reads and understands a text.

            This article is very similar to the article “Vocabulary of Comics” in the McCloud uses a comic to visually show readers what he is talking about. The articles differ in that their messages aren’t the same. In “Vocabulary of Comics” McCloud is showing us HOW things represent objects, whereas Bernhardt is showing us what representing objects can do for us.

            I found this article very interesting. Before I read this article I never thought to change my font from Cambria to anything different when writing something not for personal use. Now I see that changing font, font size, color, etc., can actually be useful in sending a message, and how the message is received.

Before You Read

            It is hard to look at a written article and not read it. I am writing this before I have read the Framing the Reading section and I can see two pictures, some indents, titles, and a heading (the number 1).

Questions for Discussion and Journaling

3.)

            I do feel like I am writing the same paper repeatedly. Writing always seems so formulaic to me and each research paper always seems like the same process. If I add visual clues this will stop because my writing will no longer feel like a list of facts, but more like a collaboration of facts to create a well-written paper. Bernhardt would recommend I do this by leading the reader instead of showing the reader.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

2.)

            Changing the font can have a profound effect on a paper. If I change the font to a bold, heavy font, the paper seems to come off as aggressive. If the font is changed to Comic Sans though, the paper comes off as annoying (I hate comic sans). When typing in Cambria, what is being used now, the paper doesn’t necessarily seem boring, but it does seem formal and informational.

After You Read

            Scott McCloud would have represented Bernhardt’s argument perfectly, as visual elements are obviously and extremely important in comics/cartoons. McCloud would have drawn out pictures and used different fonts and font sized to show the reader information visually.

Meta Moment

            To me the most appropriate time to visually think about a text is when the text is about something physical, which is just what seems natural to me. The writing assignment for this course that calls for the most visual thinking about presentation of text would be project #2.