Week 9: 3 Posts, 1 Question

1. "Spoken language is perceived as a continuous flow, with no audible gaps" (67). I have often wondered why actors in Shakespeare’s plays recite lines so quickly; yet, the text clearly shows punctuation marks. I had always been taught, as an English student, that punctuation either adds emphasis to or affects the speed of a sentence. Apparently, I am wrong.

2. Lupton describes design as a "transmedia" enterprise in that authors and producers create worlds of characters, places, situations, and interactions that can appear across a variety of products (75).

3. Stacks of lowercase letters are awkward because the ascenders and descenders make the vertical spacing appear uneven, and the varied width of the characters makes the stacks look precarious (91). I am guilty of committing this design crime on several occasions. To alleviate the problem, I usually hit the spacebar in an attempt to line up the letters. Needless to say, it never worked the way I'd hoped.

Question: How is it that in "enhancing the readability of the written word", typographical design also helps readers "avoid" reading?