Overall, my blog is decent, and it gets the job done, but there are a few things I can do to make it a much easier to read. On one hand, I like how plain my blog is. It consists of a background of a variety of books and a conservative black text written over white space. It actually captures my personality somewhat in that it's not too wild, but after submitting several posts on my blog, it has become boring to look at just the text. The Norton Field Guide suggests using visuals such as large headings, pictures, and tables or charts. Although I can't employ a chart into my blog very easily, I definitely like the idea of some pictures and colored headings, and I'd like to use it in my blog somehow. I think I can also use the idea of breaking up big points into smaller paragraphs in order to make my blog more effective.
The layout of my current blog fulfills the assignment, or purpose of the English 15 Rhetorical Writer Blog, but it doesn't do so in the most creative way possible. Adding this sense of creativity to my blog will make it much more pleasing to the eye to read, and this is what I hope to do.
After making a few changes, I am now much more pleased with the appearance of my blog. Before changing a few things, I felt my blog was rather boring and plain. After the changes however, I feel the blog has gained a sense of excitement. The first change I wanted to make was to include a picture. At the same time, I wanted the title of my blog to stand out greater than the title of some of my blog entries. I turned this into one step and created a title banner at the top of my blog which contains my blog title alongside a picture that applies to it well. The banner really stands out against the relatively plain background and really makes the entire layout easier to look at. In addition to the title of the blog, I changed the individual titles of each blog entry to show up blue. I did this in hopes of emphasizing each individual entry and make the entry title stand out better. Beforehand, the titles were all black (the same color as the text), so I think the bright blue color eliminates the boringness that was shown before. I also made changes to the text itself. Before the changes, the text was a very conservative one called "Georgia." I replaced it with a text that gives the page a little bit more of a fun look without going overboard with anything along the lines of "comic sans." The text I have chosen I feel is appropriate for a college English course.
After seeing the title text color on Google News, it provided me with the idea to use it on mine. Something about the blue title and black text on a white background felt smooth to me. I also attempted to model my blog after the style that CNET uses, in which entry titles would be visible, but only 3 or 4 lines of the content text would be visible on the home page and you would have to follow the title link to view the whole entry. This would have condensed my page down and drastically increased the neatness of it had I been able to find this type of layout.
These new layout choices I made are meant to reflect how I hope to write. I want my blog to appear neat, interesting, and flow smoothly just as I want to write in this fashion. These choices I make satisfy the criteria of the blog because they are meant to improve my blogs layout, and the blog is meant to improve my overall writing skill.
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