Intro:
I am performing a rhetorical analysis on the Stevenson Villager. The Villager aims to keep students and readers informed about what is going on at Stevenson, through various modes with different types of articles.The Villager is a website that is updated weekly by journalism students that attend Stevenson. The website features the latest news on the school, and highlights certain occurrences on campus. Some examples of articles include Relay for Life, how the science majors prepared for the showcase, as well as highlighting the athletes of the week. Furthermore, the website contains various modes, such as pictures and videos in order to gain the attention of it’s readers and communicate individual writers point across. Diving deeper, the purpose of the website is to provide students with a medium they can access to stay in touch with what is occurring on campus. The intended audience for this website is for students, including perspective ones, parents, alumni, teachers, and anyone else who is interested in keeping up with what is happening at Stevenson.
Visual:
Looking at this website visually, it is thought out nicely and is easily accessible. Tuning into the font, it is readable and it seems to go well with the color scheme. The splash of green in the title emphasizes the name of the website effectively. By making the font white and grey, it blends in nicely but is not “bold” to readers to an extent where they feel as though it is almost “screaming” at them. In terms of the layout, the way it is designed makes it easy for its readers to navigate the website, and encourage them to explore it. The variety of categories provides readers with a range of topics they could be interested in, such as sports, reviews, and features. By including the search bar at the top, it allows the audience a sense of freedom and control as to what they want to look for and what exactly they choose to look at. Spatially, the website is thought to be well spaced out, having a bar on the right side, and various articles going down the middle, all with having different categories at the top.
Aural Mode:
Despite the inclusion of various modes, there is little to say when it comes to aural. There is only sound when it comes to the videos that are present. Having sound present in the videos is extremely important to peak the viewer’s interest and add a different element. The volume and tone in each video is at an appropriate setting.
Spatial Mode:
Referring to visual again, the way the website is spacially organized makes sense. The search bar at the top allows viewers that have a specific targed article to get there, instantly, which is not an option when it comes to non online resources. By having articles in the middle, it draws attention to them and gains viewers. It does not feel too crowded, yet it does not feel like there is a lot of empty space either. The combination of filling the page and not filling it at the same time makes for an appropriate layout.
Gestural Mode:
By looking at the people on the website, it seems evident some were camera ready, and some didn’t even know a camera was there. In videos, some of the people involved act like there isn’t a camera, and some do. There are no gestures that feel out of place, and everything is fitting for the website and its contents.
Linguistic:
The language on this website is easy, simple, and informative. By making the language easily understandable, it gives the potential to broaden the audience and have readers focused on the articles, since they can understand them.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, The Villager’s usage of various modes and affordances play a vital role in captivating it’s readers. All the modes come together to create a website that provides students and other viewers with accurate and real time information as to what is happening at Stevenson. If the website lacked any of the modes, it would be missing something that has been a key contributor for it’s success.
1. In your thesis, you gave a ton of information and factual information on the purpose and examples of the Villagers. your intro was to the point and focused on all that the Villager has to offer. You did not however, make your thesis debatable to where an argument could have been made.
2. You were very successful in mentioning and giving examples for each specific mode, visual, spacial, gestural, aural and linguistic. Each mode well explained.
3. When taking about affordances, you did not mention too many in their own light. In your “Aural” section, you mentioned the site not having enough sounds throughout. Which is a great one to mention, but that was the only one that stuck out to me. I think you could obligate more space for your affordances and break them down individually.
4. You did not use screenshots or images in your analysis. I think that would have really helped your statements because you mentioned some great examples of modes. Adding screenshots would have pushed the image forward to actually have reference to the details you were talking about when you mention the colors, the spacing, the fonts and things like that.