Blogging is new and fun

Dear readers,

I am one of those bloggers who loves to express myself but it's a shock to see the size of the blogosphere! Can you believe that 184 million of people worldwide have started a blog and 346 million reads blogs (Technorati 2008) ? It's fun to know that we are part of the community too!

So, what are the trends and types of blogs that pull our interests? I personally think that online diaries are one of the famous trends. 74% of netizens in Asia voted that they're more interested in blogs written by friends and family (IndiaPRwire.com 2006). Besides that, political blogs are becoming more popular especially in Malaysia. Why? It's simply because the people can voice out themselves about the politics in Malaysia.

Some of the political blogs are:

• Lim Kit Siang
  http://blog.limkitsiang.com/



• Teresa Kok
  http://teresakok.blogsome.com/



• Anwar Ibrahim
  http://anwaribrahimblog.com/

Now, what about Europe? Blogs are the "in" thing in Asia but 30% of the people in Britain haven't heard of blogs (Brook 2006). Maybe they don't really know the benefits of blogs. In Malaysia, blogs are widely used to do business. Me and my friend used to own a fashion blog and we earn money by selling clothes online. Moreover, some bloggers earn money through advertising (Technorati 2008). Nevertheless, politicians in Malaysia find blogs a wonderful place to spread words to the people. I would say that blogs are really useful. You can learn almost everything through blogs. Food, music, movies, fashion, books, politics etc. You name it and you'll have it!

References

Technorati 2008 , State of the Blogosphere (Online, accessed 6 June 2009).
URL: http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere

Brook. S 2006, Blogs struggle to impress in UK (Online, accessed 6 June 2009).
URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jun/20/pressandpublishing.newmedia

IndiaPRwire.com 2006, Blogging Phenomenon sweeps Asia (Online, accessed 6 June 2009).
URL: http://www.indiaprwire.com/pdf/pressrelease/200611281175.pdf

What is a good document?

Purpose

This blog will discuss about the importance of document designs for designers and also readers. The target audiences are students and lecturers who have interests to increase their knowledge regarding document designs.

Document Designs

What is a good document? In order to form a good document, many factors have to be considered especially the design and writing of a document. Let's start with document designs. Document designs can simply be connected to the act of writing and designing. First of all, good document designs allow readers to read efficiently. Based on the previous group presentation slides below, there are changes that must be made in order to let the readers to read efficiently or in other words, effectively.

Before

After

For instance, the information in the previous group assignment slides are too much and draggy. Readers might not understand the meaning of 'salience' theory. Thus, I have made changes to my slides by representing the information in point forms. It is easier for readers to understand and most of the them would scan through bullet points list rather than reading the whole sentence in a document. It is important to sum up the important informations that readers want to know. Moreover, the slides have too much empty spaces which might not capture reader's interest towards the topic. Although it is related to document designs but the slide is just too plain for readers. Good document designs should consist of visually appealing elements instead of text only. For examples, I have made changes to the slide below by adding images.



Before

After

In conclusion, it is really important for document designers to understand the needs of the readers in order for them to understand the messages that are trying to be conveyed. In my upcoming presentation, there will be more improvement in the slides with better writing on the points and designs. It is hard to define what good writing is. If a reader is interested or able to understand the writing easily, then it is good writing!Last but not least, it is all about the communication between the readers and the designers.


References:

Bastoky, G 2008, Definition of Document Design, viewed 6 April 2009, <http://www.bastoky.com/DocDesignDef.htm>.

Morkan, L. L 2007, Visual Rethoric in the Appellate Brief, viewed 5 April 2009, <http://raymondpward.typepad.com/newlegalwriter/2007/08/visual-rhetoric.html>.

Nordquist, R 2009, The Characteristic of Good Writing, viewed 5 April 2009, <http://www.grammar.about.com/od/yourwriting/a/characteristics.htm>.

Putnis, P & Petelin, R 1996, Writing to Communicate, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Schriver, A. K 1997, Dynamics in document design: creating texts for readers, Wiley Computer Pub., New York.