Small Things

Unit: Publishing Practice 212 - Writing for Computers
Weekly Thoughts for Teaching Week 5

Finally, we are away from that awful C-2-C book. Hell, as much as I dislike reading off a screen, the web-articles are far easier to read, and what's more - THEY MAKE SENSE!

I hadn't really given much thought to what nanopublishing is, but I have to say that I'm disappointed that it's not as interesting as it first sounds. And I'm not the only one. My nanotechnology-studying friend was very put out when he discovered nanopulishing is not some wonderous culmination of his field and ours. Who can blame him?

The first reading kept coming up as Not Found, so I can't really place a comment on that one right now. Yes, Adrian, this one seems to have disappeared as well. Or maybe I'm just typing it in wrong, either way wouldn't really surprise me.

Now, as for the "how to write a better weblog," it seems pretty practical, not only from a journal writer's point of view, but pretty much from any writer. Although, some of it would clearly work better for articles than it would novels. One of the first things that Mahoney does is to show the difference between professional and amateur writers and I have to say that I prefer to read somewhere between the two examples. That New York is magnificent in the spring is all good and fine, but not living in New York, I would like to know what makes it so magnificent. Not that the amateur example really demonstrates this, but it shows that there is some level of passion for the city. Much better than a cold statement that the professional offered. As for "patience, readers, all is not lost," well, I'm yet to find reassurance. Yes, it's not just the internet that has shown degeneration of language skills (just the other night the news reported that "a woman from blah was attacked by another woman with a man. I'm sure they didn't mean the second woman attacked the first using the man as a weapon, but that's what it sounded like) but it does have a lot to answer for. I know my own writing skills go considerably awry while I'm writing this and the point is I can't be bothered going back and changing it later. Hands up who else can.

The third site seemed all dedicated to blogs, which just takes all the interest away. We were supposed to be looking at the categories listed on the right. Yeah, they're listed all right, about 3/4 of the way down the page. By then the magnitude of blog links really puts me off. I don't read blogs. I have almost no interest in them. The only blogs I read are those of a precious few friends and I mostly figure if they have something worth telling me, they're going to say it to my face. Have you ever come across anything so frustrating as trying to search for something (article, image, etc) and keep finding your google links taking you to blogs, through which you have to wade for hours only to find that the material is fairly insubstantial? It's not like I actually expect anyone to read this.

I'll try the first site again later, and hope.