Chris’ Website: https://blogs.ubc.ca/chowey/2021/10/13/an-emoji-story/
Chris and I had many similarities in our emoji stories such as we both chose a TV show and used the title as a starting point for readers. Chris wrote, and I agreed, that if you weren’t to start with the title of your show the rest of the explanation would have no context and therefore, be very confusing for the readers. Context is such an important element of explaining any story. Titles and or thesis statements can help to provide context to readers such that the rest of the text that follows makes more sense.
One of the differences between Chris’s emoji story and mine was that Chris used “/” to split his sentences. I was not sure how to punctuate my story. Instead of using the forward slash I used extra large spaces between pictures. I think Chris’s method made things more clear which is helpful in a project where there are difficulties in communicating the intended message.
Through looking at Chris’s emoji story, and reflecting back on mine, I have learned a lot of the importance of clarity and the impact of interpretation from a viewer’s perspective. Words, images, videos, audio, and all forms of text or communication require an element of interpretation on the viewers side. Whether a reader is looking for the details in sentences through vocabulary, tone, pitch, point of inflection by a reader/speaker, or looking at images to tell a story, they all require interpretation. The more attention to detail the author can implement, the clearer their message. There are, depending on the mode of text, aspects of the text that are out of the control of the writer. For example, in the case of the emoji story there are limited amounts of emojis to be used to explain ideas. These limitations can create confusion and increase the amount of interpretation from the reader. As producers of text, and as readers, we need to take into account limitations of the text we choose to ensure we are not reading into something that is not there.
While Chris’s emoji story was difficult to navigate I found his blog very easy to navigate. I really liked the way he has set up his home page providing a link to each assignment stated in words and a picture. The picture draws your attention to some of the context of the assignment without even reading the title. As a viewer or reader, the navigational ease is welcomed by viewers as it’s more likely to grab and hold my attention than something that is difficult to navigate.