Week 2 - Purpose, Audience, Genre - Task #3 part #2

I have chosen to follow realjohngreen on twitter. He is one of my favorite authors and just released his sophomore book, Paper Towns. His first book was An Abundance of Katherines. Since I hope to eventually work in the publishing industry with YA fiction authors, I decided it would be interesting to peak more into their world.

I then proceed to look up John Green's blog... http://www.sparksflyup.com/weblog.php. This blog is an outlet for John to vent and rant on whatever he so fancies that day. It's also a fun way to get to know a little bit more about the authors personality.

The intended audience is obviously his current fans/readers. Since he writes YA fiction it is logical to assume that he also is gearing his blog to that age group. people of similar age and with similar interests as himself (i.e. Book Nerds).

He uses witty language and humorous videos and discussions that leave his readers wanting more.

Week 2 - Purpose, Audience, Genre - Task #3

I only tried one of the blog directories to find the type of blog I wanted. I used http://www.blogcatalog.com/.

Through this I found this blog... http://budgetbride.tumblr.com/.

I really like this blog because if you haven't noticed in my profile, I am currently planning my 2010 wedding. Since my fiance and I are both still in college we do have a budget to work within so I have been scouring the internet for great ideas, tips, etc on how to pull off the wedding of my dreams within my price range.

This blog is amazing because it is written by a bride who was in our exact shoes and has decided to share her story with the world. I love how each entry title features a link to another website or blog that has useful tips and info. Plus the author really personalizes each entry so it's fun and exciting to read.

I'm definitely planning on continuing to follow this blog.

Week 2 - Purpose, Audience, Genre - Task #2

Q. What blog did you choose?
A. I chose to investigate the One Million Footnotes blog found at http://onemillionfootnotes.blogspot.com/.

Q. Who is this blog directed to – who is the audience?
A. This blog appears to be directed to anyone who will listen and read the random musings of the author, Geof Huth.

Q. What is the central focus of the blog?
A. Geof described this blog's prospectus as "Footnotes to a nonexistent book, a series of observations, a novel without the plot, the autobiography of an imagination, linked poetry of the everyday world, an impossible goal." Each entry is written as a glimpse into a larger more complicated story that we are left to only wonder about.

Q. What kind of theme or design strategies did the author use?
A. Geof used a basic Blogger template to setup his blog and the format works effectively as it chroniclizes the footnotes in descending order.

Q. Do you find this blog useful/interesting/well designed? Why or why not?
A. Although the fact that you are only receiving a one sentence story that often is written very confusingly, I do find this blog to be intriguing. It motivates analysis of the author's thought and writing process and seems like a useful exercise to generate innovative ideas.

Q. What other information might you like to see in this blog, or what other kind of design could the author have used that might have been effective?
Although for the purposes it serves this blog features everything it should, it would be nice to see further explanation on the footnotes themselves. But then again I guess that would defeat the purpose of them being called footnotes.

Q. How is the author constructing his/her/their digital identity?
A. When you view Geof Huth's profile you discover that he participates in a long list of blogs. In each one he reveils a little bit about his style and personality and by investigating each one in whole you can piece together the digital persona that Geof wants to exude.

Q. What are the similarity and differences in their approaches?
A. In this case, there is only one author so therefore their is no one to compare his approach to.

Introduction Essay

Eighteen years, ten months, twenty-one days, and nine hours ago (give or take), a little girl was born. A pleasant surprise to her free-spirited parents who never planned on life outside the two of them. She grew up as the only child in a world flowing with the steady stream of her parents loud, adventurous friends. She was showered with love, attention, art, and really good books.

Being raised to have much older friends, she was always too smart for her own good and her “mouth” frequently got her in trouble. But they loved it... this loud, quick-witted, large-eyed little girl with spit-fire comebacks and the ability to be content in entertaining herself with art and books.

From an early age she knew exactly what she wanted to be: an artist, a writer, or a teacher. Ok maybe not “exactly” what she wanted to be. Now she’s a college student studying to be a graphic artist. She aspires to work in the publishing industry as a desktop publisher, designing the kind of books she’s loved to read throughout her life. And maybe one day she will teach graphic arts vocationally.

She finds that communication is the vital thread that has stitched together the panes of her life. Whether it was in the art where she tried to convey her view of her world pictorially. Or in the written pages she typed for teachers, newspapers, friends, and employers. Business cannot exist without the transferring of thoughts and ideas from person to person. Neither love, nor art, nor life itself.

Unfortunately a large sum of mankind takes for granted the basic need to learn how to accurately express oneself properly by the verbal means of speech and writing. It’s that dreaded subject in school. That dreaded thought of “grammar.” Every person is born with the capacity of intelligence, it’s how they learn to convey that, that shows the world their true potential.

I look forward to this writing class, as I have all my past ones, as an opportunity for me to gain greater skill in my use of the written word. Whether words are strung together for creative or technical or business purposes, they are our greatest tool in impacting others.