Response to Response Essays

The three response hypertexts that I think are deserving of an A grade are those published by Alycia Rose-Isaacson, Randy Holaday, and Lauren Tsugawa. I chose these three for several reasons. One is that all three displayed a continuity in their hypertexts, by means of both the formatting of each linked page as well as with the flow of the contents on their pages. This is something I tried to do with my response as well, and can therefore appreciate the effort that goes into keeping things simple yet scholarly.

Alycia’s response was one of my favorites because it did a few things that I wanted to do with my own page extremely well, and I think that I could learn from her in order to make my pages even more effective. To begin with, she chose a simple, yet sophisticated style for her background, and by keeping this the same for each page, she maintained a continuity that I have great respect for. In addition, by putting the navigation bar on the right, she did something atypical and different, making her page a little more unique than most others. With regards to content, I also really enjoyed reading through the pages. She kept them clear and easy to navigate. She presented to subject matter without digressing on any tangents. She also asked a lot of questions within the report, and one thing that I learned from her was that at the end of each page, she presented a paragraph about the importance of what she was talking about. I left my pages more open-ended for the reader to build off of on his or her own, whereas she did a good job of wrapping up each topic in a more circular manner.

What drew me to Ryan’s website was his manner of writing. He takes a neutral stance in presenting the data and at the end, poses questions for the reader to consider and jump off of when navigating the rest of the pages. It provokes critical engagement, something that I hope my own response was able to do. Each of the pages in Ryan’s website is succinct and to the point. I think I can learn from this because some of my pages make several points that have the potential to be broken up into individual pages for the sake of keeping the readers’ interest.

Lauren’s response appealed to me because at first sight, you see a very scholarly looking page. Before one even gets to the content, the page is aesthetically eye-catching. Interestingly, while this same format is not maintained in the subsequent pages, I enjoyed the writing and examples presented in these pages. What I learned is that while I thought that continuity meant keeping each background the same, Lauren was able to do so with a different design to each page. This is something that I can consider doing on my projects in the future. I particularly enjoyed the “It’s raining 300 men” mash-up example she posted on her site. Another thing that she did which I would like to incorporate into my websites in the future is her way of incorporating examples into the writing in such a way that the writing directly next to a picture or youtube video will be describing the purpose of putting that video there. She manages to do this without breaking the continuity of the whole page because the videos seamlessly fit into the larger topic presented on the whole page.

Overall, I think all three website deserve a good grade because they did a good job at balancing both content and presentation, making sure that neither one was over the top so that there remained a balance between the two.