Reflection

Over the semester, I've learnt that there are many issues that needs to be considered in publishing and design. I am now able to relate and utilize theories of document design from Reep (2006) on the importance of page balance, spacing and graphic aids. 

I've also learned about the reading process and multimodal texts which is important in giving direction to understand the text from Walsh (2006). It's also important to consider Halliday & Ruiqaiya's (1985) context of situation and context of culture when writing as texts and images are perceived differently by individuals who are with different language skills and cultural understanding.

As a blogger myself, I love using multimodal texts as pictures and text help each other balance out and also makes readers understand easier by relating to the pictures. But there is also a need to take into consideration of the target audience and tone of text as in my personal blog, I can use a less formal language with short forms and emoticons. With this weblog talking about document design, I need to take note of things such as the font used to ensure readability and a more formal and third person tone when addressing the issue.

This has benefit me in terms of writing for difference audience and I have now developed more skills in document design!

References
1. Halliday, M.A.K & Ruqaiya, H 1985, 'Chapter 1: Context of Situation', Language,context and text: aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective, Deakin University Press, Victoria, p. 3-14.

2. Reep, Diana C. 2006, ‘Chapter 4: Principles of Document Design,’ in Technical Writing, 6th ed., Pearson Edu, Inc., New York, p.173-190.

 

3. Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts,  Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Australia, vol. 29, p. 24-37.