Thlog #8

I don’t know if I am the only one but I felt like the reading for this week was not a little tricky. It was not the language that I was getting caught up in but rather the way in which the information was presented. Since it was written as a comic I kind of took it as not being “true”. I think it is because typically comics don’t have information that is worth remembering or using. I found it hard to take notes of what was happening. It was difficult to collect my thought when reading because I was preoccupied with scavenging through the images to find the text as well as pulling out info that was relevant. I was also trying to track where to read next because it is not a usual text of reading left to right I was thinking to myself “do I read this box or this one?” a lot of the time. The comic did succeed however in sharing useful information. It brought forth components of writing that are in the back of our minds such as flow and angle. Growing up we aren’t really taught to focus on these things, they “come naturally” and those that are gifted writers have these techniques but in realistically they are things everyone can work on (especially me).   

            I think this is ironic that I had difficulty reading the comic because it was on how to write and being clear. Maybe it is because I am not used to reading comics and that's why I had such a hard time keeping track of everything. Reflecting on this I am seeing more and more how genres have their own norms and customs almost. It is like learning a new language. If I were to practice reading comics more I would eventually get better at understanding where to read and when to read it (instead of skipping to a box that looks more interesting). Just like if I practiced writing comics, the more I did it the more I would get the feel for it and I'd just keep improving.