Thursday, April 05, 2007

3D writing


Writing for the web is a profoundly different skill than writing for other disciplines. Composing an article in MS Word or with pencil and paper is a two-dimensional process. What you write on the paper is all there is.


Writing on the web is in three dimensions. You not only see what is on the screen but there are infinite layers behind it that you link to.


Click here: two dimensions.


Click here: three dimensions.


None of you go home and read MS Word documents. All of you go home and read documents on the web with text, images, links, animations, etc... Writing and reading in three dimensions is an essential skill now for any field you plan to pursue. That is what you must practice on your blog. Many of you have rich, multi-faceted entries with links to important information. This is writing in three dimensions. Some of you have paragraphs with no links, images, or anything that is beyond two dimension writing.


Is there a place for 2 dimensional writing? Of course. If you are writing for yourself (journal, diary, etc..) there is little need for writing in 2D. But if you are writing on the web it is inherently a conversation not a lecture/speech. You should make this as rich a conversation as possible.


Go back and look at your last few entries. Resubmit anything you feel can be improved and become more three dimensional. Don't get left behind as the world switches to 3D writing. Work on this skill!! Your blog is your website. People from around the world read it. Make it the BEST example you can of your writing, coding, and web design skills.


2D: I am Brandt Schneider. I have a daughter named Claudia and I teach Web Design at Seymour High School.


3D: I am Brandt Schneider. I have a daughter named Claudia and I teach Web Design at Seymour High School.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

your "click here" for the two dementions does not work.

Mr. Schneider said...

I think you may have missed the whole point.

Anonymous said...

That's so funny! He may have, indeed. But I was looking at something more literally 3D writing, not just links, but a programm with which I would be able to write in a graphical 3D space, placing some sentences below, others above, still others to the sides of a first sentence s, creating multiple choices. Either you could go from "family" to "hell" or to "heaven" or to ... . In your conception of 3D, which is good (and I agree with the point you are making), there is only one way. klaus speidel