Comments on: #WeekendWatch: Create Information-Rich Signposts

By: Faizal Zulkifli

Faizal Zulkifli — Fri, 09 Feb 2018 06:44:48 +0000

I found that this video analogously treats a document structure just like a road where signposts are used to guide the reader in the way of understanding our webpage or text. Confusing signposts would surely divert the reader away from getting the main points of our writings as they would tend to just skip the whole paragraph just like how a driver would surely make a detour if he or she is not confident with the specific road. The F-pattern is actually what most readers nowadays use when skimming a document so it is our responsibility to adapt that structure into our document design by using the signposts suggested by the video.

By: Katie Cox

Katie Cox — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 19:56:04 +0000

I think that the type of header used definitely depends on the audience that’s the author is trying to reach. For something like The Onion (satirical articles), teaser headlines is exactly what they should be using. The rules are a bit different for more serious publications like the New York Times or Washington Post. But even when I scroll through Google News in the morning, I’m looking for the articles with the most interesting titles. Sure, I might get disappointed with the quality of the article, but if the headline didn’t grab my attention, it doesn’t matter how well written and informative the article was because I’m not going to read it. For scholarly articles (research journals and the like), I think that this video hit the nail on the head with what information the title should provide.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 03:01:32 +0000

I found this video helpful in better understanding the importance of formatting headlines, subheadings, article summaries, and links. I believe this will be especially helpful to me this semester during my senior design project. Our final design and construction proposal will be more than 80 pages of narratives, summaries, and technical details. With this in mind, I plan to keep the information in this video in mind when formatting the document as a whole to better help our professors and industry professionals as they review the content of our proposal.

By: Tripp Agnor

Tripp Agnor — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 20:23:45 +0000

This video was a great resource to help learn about headings, subheadings, summaries, and links. Being able to properly format headings, summaries, and subheadings really help the readability of whatever you are writing. Links are a very important aspect of summary writing when it comes to online documents or articles. Being able to insert a link for the reader to just click on and take you to another important page to gain more information is very helpful for the reader. However, one bad aspect in regards to online links are these “teaser links” the video referred to. Teaser links are becoming more and more prevalent in the online world, but for our purpose, when we are writing professional documents for commercial or other companies, teaser links are not looked as appropriate since they often take you on tangents that are not related to the document. So being able to limit the use of these teaser links, and incorporating useful summaries, headings, and subheadings will add to the overall content of your document.

By: Zachary Cohen

Zachary Cohen — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 15:56:51 +0000

I thought this video was pretty interesting. I’ve never really thought about the elements that make up a good website. I feel like all of the information outlined in this video could be summed up into ensuring that you make it clear what your reader is looking at. I know that personally I like websites with bold headings above the different sections that way I know what everything is. It allows me to navigate through the website much faster and find the exact information I’m looking for. I’ve never had to design a website before but if I did I would definitely do it keeping what I learned from this video in mind.

By: Cassie Bienert

Cassie Bienert — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 01:02:00 +0000

As a science major, I have been reading a lot of scholarly journal articles. The information is very dense and the language is hard to understand. However, the style of these articles follows the advice given in this video. The first thing you read in a journal article is the abstract, which summarizes the entire article and helps you get an idea of what the full article contains. It can help you decide if the work will be helpful before reading through it entirely. There are also headings to differentiate background information, methods, results, the discussion, and the conclusion. Without these in place, I could not imagine having to dissect the article and find relevant information. These headings may not be in place to make important information stand out but it does make the article easier to read and more appealing. These articles also do a good job at avoiding wordiness. Although they contain a lot of information, it is usually concise and relevant.

The F shaped reading pattern is helpful to know. I hope to publish articles in my future and now I have a better idea of where to place text so that it is more likely to be read. And although it isn’t common to include links, I do see how it would be beneficial to hyperlink to websites offering more information pertinent to my research.

By: Mariel Jastrebsky

Mariel Jastrebsky — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 21:27:33 +0000

I found this article really interesting because I normally do teaser headers to entice the readers, however I didn’t realize that having teaser information deterred them from reading. However there needs to be a balance because the teaser text needs to be able to tell you something that the article is about, but not reveal all of the information. I honestly don’t really think about making subheadings just because I think having the heading along with quality information in the summary of the article is most important, however I can see how it can be an asset by providing the readings with a little more descriptive headline before they get into the bulk of the text.

By: Josh Detwiler

Josh Detwiler — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 22:04:18 +0000

As an example of linking with PDFs, this is an example of a link to Intel’s documentation on the x86 system architecture which is a 4810 page PDF. The hash at the end “#page=604” jumps straight to their specification of the ADD instruction for x86 assembly code.

https://software.intel.com/sites/default/files/managed/39/c5/325462-sdm-vol-1-2abcd-3abcd.pdf#page=604

By: Josh Detwiler

Josh Detwiler — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 21:55:17 +0000

I actually already use this — this exact format that was used in the video. When I’m writing user documentation, I break it up into the title/headline, an intro/summary, subheadings and their respective content, and a resources section at the end with links. The links get referenced throughout the documentation and also are collected at the bottom. This way, the user/reader knows which links are relevant to their topic as well as the whole project (analogous to parenthetical citations and a works cited page).

I think this video is really useful for technical writing. Using signposts gives a more elegant design and it also helps search engines catalog the document’s content. Headings and subheadings are most commonly their own HTML tag which differentiates their content from the rest, even allowing direct linking to that part of a webpage. For example, on the Math Department’s webpage of faculty members: http://www.math.vt.edu/people.php?content=list&type=Faculty, I can jump straight to the L section by appending #L to the end of the URL. That functions as a direct link to that section of the webpage. PDFs have similar functionality online for linking a particular page of many.

By: Mackenzie Knox

Mackenzie Knox — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 21:37:50 +0000

This was a great video that helps illuminate another approach to organization. We continue to see the same themes over and over again but just by a different approach or explanation. A important new idea I found in this post was no teaser headings/headlines should stand on their own. Click baits article are a popular phenomenon currently, and if you want your work to be take seriously, you need to avoid that genre of writing. Click baits are a joke now so no respect will come to your article if you use that method. The summary should be straightforward, letting the reader know if they are in the right place. I know as a reader I get frustrated reading through an entire article just to find out it did not contain the information I was seeking. Always keep your reader in mind because they determine the success of your article.