Response 4/6/11

“An often-overlooked element of design is the visual treatment of text itself. In this definition of text, text does not include your word choice or the structure of your argument. Instead, it refers to the look of the words on the page. Are all the fonts the same? Are key ideas written in a text larger than other text? Are some words in bold? All of these choices influence the way your document looks and is perceived by your readers. Depending on the type of paper your instructor has assigned and the preparation rules or style guide required, subtle varia- tions in text might be your only design option.”   - From pg. 334 of Klein and Shackelford

            I liked this particular paragraph because it represents what Klein and Shackelford put a lot of their emphasis on. Unlike Williams, I felt Klein and Shackelford focused more on the smaller details of design within writing, such as font size and lead size, whereas Williams focused more on the design of a document as a whole. I felt Klein and Shackelford’s article was more technical based and they seemed to come from a more academic point of view rather than strictly a design point of view.  Klein and Shackelford also seem to emphasize structure a bit more than Williams.  Both articles do share similar points of emphasis as well, such as Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. Overall they both cover very similar topics within their articles, but Klein and Shackelford seem to emphasize more strict guidelines, which may or may not be applicable (in my opinion) depending on the type of writing your doing. Williams clearly puts a stronger emphasis on creativity, which I think can help a writer express their thoughts more freely, rather than being tied down to stricter guidelines.  I definitely agree that we should think about design in all our texts, as both articles emphasized this.  Regardless of how each article differed, the main points they were trying to get across involved the design of your writing, and how you can use different elements of design to make your writing better. 

            I think the rhetorical effect of MLA style is that it makes your writing look more professional.  Whether or not what your writing is valid or of good enough quality to be a finished product and serve the purpose for which you are writing it, MLA at least makes it appear like it is a professional piece of writing. This could be very helpful in business situations or when creating a piece of writing which you want the reader to take seriously and allow them to believe that you as a writer put serious thought and time into the piece.