Page 90 - Virtual Research Lab flip book

CHAPTER VI
How the Form and Function of Books Impacts the Reading and Writing Process
IF you have read this far in my series of essays, your experience has to evoke some awareness of how, for better or worse, publication formats impact the reading process. Whether a document is published as a co- dex on paper, or on a website for free distribution like this, or in some kind of eBook format for an eBook reader, such as a cell phone, computer or a specialized device such as a Kindle or an iPad, impacts not only the way you read it but also how much you enjoy the process, and how effectively the text communicates the author’s intentions. From the New York Times website, on January 13, 2011 I read, watched, and listened to the 33 minute speech that President Barack Obama delivered in Tucson, Arizona honoring those who were killed or injured by a madman. Apart from the grand eloquence of the writing and delivery of the President’s speech, what was most remarkable to me was that I could watch, listen, and read the speech simultaneously. As the video played and I listened to the President’s voice, the text of his speech appeared on the newspaper’s web page to the right of the embedded video screen. The text was displayed in such a way that I could use a cursor to move the video forward or backward and the text would move in syn- chronicity with the video and sound. On the web page with the speech there was, as usual, a way to post comments to the newspaper or social media sites regarding the speech, or to share the article with others over the web. Though I understood that this technology was not new, I had never before read, watched, and listened to a speech in this way, and in my opinion this
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