Effective Website Creation

Most important to me is function. Is the site meant to entertain, inform, persuade? From this question a person can decide further issues. An effective website needs to be organized logically with respect to its necessary content. A site meant to express or entertain needs to be designed under the realization that visitors to the site most likely have no need to be there. The site is visited due to potential interest in the subject matter. Sites like this must be more creative and entertaining than others meant simply to offer information. These sites meant to inform need less flashy graphics and colorful displays because chances are, visitors use these sites based on a need for the info.

Reading 2-8-08

I often find myself criticizing ads which emphasize style over function for products such as SUVs and trucks. I find almost no use in purchasing one and not using its primary functions. A bachelor who works as a computer analyst whose hobbies are limited to golf and movies has no need for a Dodge Ram Quadcab 3500 or such. A golf bag could fit in a Neon. What is the necessity of overabundance of functionality when it is not put to use? Advertisements certainly do wonders to dupe people into buying what they don't need.

Peer Review

The peer review session certainly helped, at least marginally in giving me other viewpoints to base my paper on. Since the paper deals with primarily personal issues and memories, review is limited to writing technique and fluidity of thought. Content cannot very well be scrutinized. In that respect though, the session allowed me time to work out technique improvement.

Discourse Community

My understanding of discourse communities is basic at best, but its formula seems to follow common sense. First and seemingly most important is the necessity for a common set of goals. Without this, there is little need for a specialized intercommunication between individuals. When focusing on professions, this is easy to understand. For example, a laboratory technician and an elementary school teacher have dissimilar career goals. A specialized vocabulary or communication technique is not necessary or even practical. However, a second laboratory tech would have use for communicating with the first as a way of furthering career expertise and understanding. In this respect, discourse communities seem defined by the individual bettering the group in order to better the individual. The language and jargon used by these individuals in their speech and writing promote the growth and maintenance of the whole. Another good example might be law enforcement officers. Communication is available and efficient throughout that community due to its personalized language. The ability to send information and recieve feedback quickly is paramount toward the efficiency of the group. Common sense would make me assume that in each community, there is a level of expertise in the given field or genre which each member must possess in order to be useful to the group. In this sense, certain fields, such as the law enforcement community, might have many loosely connected sets of discourse communities with varying degrees of experience and usefulness for each other group.