Factors of Style on CNN

I heard today that a man did a study at a university to see if typeface (font) plays a role in how a paper is graded. He found that using Georgia actually betters your grade by a third of a grade. So I guess it's a habit I need to create, starting with this blog. It's also slightly larger than times new roman, as you can tell, so writing with this typeface I can type less and you can think that I'm typing more. That means less work for me and more time I can use looking at rocks.

I looked on the CNN website to see what kinds of style factors were used and I found a few different things. The first thing I noticed was that it was written in sans serif. It is a web page, so as we discussed, they use that so the words look clearer and less blurred together. Its a good tactic in a news website where a lot of info is given written very small. Another thing they used was the bold type. This emphasizes important ideas and also links the reader to similar subjects in other articles. Also it is used for titles and headings to articles. I also notice the length of the lines. The site is designed to keep the attention of the reader. Especially the first half of the article is easier to read due to shorter lines. It is easier to hold the reader with lines that don't span the width of the site. It's also interesting that CNN employs straight quotation marks instead of "curly" ones. This gives me the sense of professionality. It definitely affects the voice of the article.

I think its interesting to see how an atmosphere can be set just by the way the type appears on the page. I'll certainly notice that a lot more in the future. Thanks alot Nicole. You bring out simple pleasures in my life. Now I can't look at mountains or even type without thinking analytically. Life is getting more interesting everyday. Right.