Rhetorical Choice

In the beginning of this unit I didn’t have much thought about rhetorical choice. I was very set on my papers and work being formal and simple. Blue or black ink on a white background was how I learned schoolwork should be done. So it was in blue ink and a white background that I expected all our work to be done our blogs and websites. Never thinking what the look as a whole could do for the information.
Our first blog was pretty bland and boring. We had a black background with white font. I never thought anything of it until we switched around our blogs and were given a different background. The new background had lots of colors. Some even had images in the back such as a tree with a sky, or grass and some flowers. Others are less pretty and more formal, which worked just as well. These ones had bold colored backgrounds like our original blogs but are much more accepting to the eye in that the colors are softer and “happier”. It wasn’t until we switched to these layouts that thought of how much what our page looks like effects what the reader is reading. The old blog had much darker colors and I feel made the information that was on the page dark as well. With the bright colors and blue skies on our new site I feel the information can be seen from a different angle. The curiosity of what the other pages looked like brought me to seek out other groups and group member’s pages. This showed me how important a look is to its page.
The example in class with the girls website on deforestation also brought some important facts to my attention. Not only do the colors and the background of the site matter but the set up and layout as well. How the tabs on that student’s page switch positions and color after you click into the informational tabs of the site caused me to think of how I would set up mine. I decided to keep mine clear and simple as to not distract the reader’s attention away from the information. I keep them in the same positions on the page through out the website only changing the color scheme slightly on the open tab to allow the reader to see which one it is they are viewing. I feel having to bright of colors or too big of changes from page to page on the website adds distraction of the readers attention from what it is you want them to be focusing on. It is for this reason I keep my pages format very similar. I have the same tab layout from page to page, same picture and picture positioning and in the pages after the introduction the areas of information are organized the same with two columns for information.
It was brought to my attention in class while discussing each others sites with classmates that having something other than just one full paragraph on each page would benefit how the reader see’s your information. I think having just one long paragraph on each page discourages the reader from wanting to read it unless they are very interested. Originally I had all my information on each page gathered in one large intimidating paragraph. But now I’ve broken them up more, making it easier to read. I believe this will help to make the reader much more intrigued.


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