Exegesis

‘Form has function’ was first introduced by Louis Sullivan, an American architect. His study of form and function ignited many perspectives and opinions from reviewers and document designers alike as the basic approach of design. According to Bear (1997), form refers to the format and overall look of the design page and function is simply defined as the purpose of the piece. The understanding of form and function is, however, crucial in order to construct an argument as an approach for designing fundamentals. The basis of form and function threads on a grey line, as the understanding of which leads the pack for designing is conversely vague. Nevertheless, Nadgouda (2006) argues that function serves as a guide to design the form and steers the designer to narrow down the options. He adds that the form has a function or duty in which might become redundant if the form does not bind with the function. Consequently, Westerlund (2002) explains, a designer usually intends an artefact to have some functions. He also adds that this influence the way he or she designs the artefact and chooses to shape its form in such a way that it gives the user clues to the intended functions. It is clear that by doing so the form itself becomes an intended function. Multimodal texts are those texts that have more than one mode, so that meaning is communicated through a synchronisation of modes (Walsh, 2006). As a result, the usage of multimodality texts is vital in any productions. The multimedia presentation, flyer and a newspaper front-page lie within this mode which brings along to the blend of genre. Typically, the word ‘genre’ plays an important role as an aspect of multimodal texts. Genre is considered a category of works that have the same fundamental purpose, will present a similar structure and will obey to similar conventions (Antunes, Dias & Costa, 2001). The meaning an audience construct from interacting with an artefact depends both on its genre, the function and on the form. The artefact’s genre and form is a key function that can help the user in finding, understanding and using the other functions an artefact offers. While it is important to understand that to make a useful artefact we need to show its functions, one needs to know that the artefact’s form plays a pivotal role in establishing function.

In relation to form and function, the new textual intervention based on Emily Post’s original work was translated to French. According to Raymond (2005), French is a language spoken around the world by around 90 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 54 countries. He goes on to add that French is the 2nd most influential language. Based on this justification, it is easy to assert that reproducing Emily Post’s etiquette in French will mean reaching and departing information to a wider audience, whose command of English language may not be enough to fully understand Emily Post’ work. Also, the decision to rewrite the original was based Vygotsky (1962) notes that written speech is a separate linguistic function, differing from oral speech in both structure and mode of functioning. Because the function of written language is different of that spoken language, writing is more readily a form and source of learning. Putnis & Petelin (1996) states that for writing is the form of language using that is slowest, most deliberate, most accessible, most conveniently manipulable, and most permanent. Since writing and reading are intimately connected, it is essential for the original version to be translated according to how readers read, and to write in a reader-sensitive, reader-based way. Therefore, taking into account Putnis & Petelin’s (1996) theory of how texts are not context free, the original version is translated with extreme care where the information is structured in a logical and narrative order for readers to fully understand the work.

Where the textual intervention one was designed on a multimedia platform, Walsh’s (2006) multimodal text study was the basis of the presentation artefact. Walsh (1996) explains that multimodal texts may incorporate spoken or written language, still or moving images, they may be produced on paper or electronic screen and may incorporate music and sound. Therefore, the textual intervention was designed as a multimedia presentation incorporating spoken language, still images and music. The purpose of each of these texts is to engage the reader in a literary narrative and the affordances of the modes, verbal and visual, are therefore designed to maximise the engagement in story and to create particular effects such as humour. With the multimedia presentation, the purpose is not only to inform the reader, but to engage them so that they become involved in the presentation itself. Thus the affordances of the words of the text, particularly the imperative verbs, are crucial for communicating to the reader. Walsh (2006) asserts, as educators we need to determine the specific features of reading that occur and that are needed for the synchronous functioning of the modes of print, image, movement, colour, gesture, 3D objects, music and sound on a digital screen. The idea of multimedia presentation itself corresponds to the potentials of electronic technologies in transmitting large amounts of information. Kress (1997) states that the rapidly increasing use of visual modes of communication has a complex set of cause, the simultaneous development and the exponential expansion of the potentials of electronic technologies will entrench visual modes of communication as a rival to language in many domains of public life.

In the process of creating the flyer for the textual intervention two, various print design elements, principles and forms were used to create the print genre. However, there were many factors to consider before applying these principles such as the socio cultural context of the text, the purpose of the text, the audience of the text, expectations of the particular discourse community and the relationship the text has with other instances of the genre (Paltridge, 2000). Two of the design principles applied in the flyer are proximity and unity. Proximity is used in the flyer feature as the paragraphed texts are placed closely to promote closeness and wholesomeness. Unity is practiced in the fact sheet as the pages are uniformed and grace similar layouts, colors and backgrounds. It is learnt that the reader uses images and words in the print genres to build interpretations in which expectations of the audience is fulfilled. As Shriver (1997) noted, document designers need information about the process of interpretation itself in order to grasp the reader’s understanding of documents. Besides that, a line drawing of Emily Post was inserted behind the building abstracts in a form of a cloud so that readers are highlighted of Emily Post’s involvement in the etiquette conversation. According to Reep (2006), a line drawing is a simple illustration of the structure of an object or the position of a person involved in some action. She mentions further that the drawing may not show all the details but, instead, highlights certain areas or positions that are important to the discussion. Also, the colours used to designed the flyer is limited to draw reader’s attention to similar types of information and on top of that, for the highest possible contrast, white fonts with black background were to designed to improve readability. Too much colour reduces readability and distracts readers (Reep, 2006).

Kress (1998) states that newspaper front pages position genres such as opinion, report and advertisement in relation to each other, and provide them with different degrees of salience and framing, and thereby endow them with particular valuations. In relation to this understanding, the artefact introduction was designed as a newspaper front page to present the reader with an introduction of Emily Post and introductions to all three textual interventions with a varying degree of relation between them. As Kress (1998) asserts, newspaper front pages construct relations between different events in the news. The front page designed features an introduction of the first and second artefacts on the left side and another on the bottom of the page. Perhaps it is the greater emphasis on visual composition that is structured along the dimension of the main subject in the centre of the page. For something to be presented as centre means that it is presented as the nucleus of the information to which all the other elements are in some sense subservient (Kress, 1998). This is the case in which a background of Emily Post is designed on the centre of the page and the rest of the elements are placed surrounding the main subject. In accordance with the target audience of the artefacts, the salience of the centre is a fundamental spatial symbol in Western culture. The layout of the front page also plays an integral role in creating importance among the elements designed on the front page. Kress (1998) mentions that regardless of where they are placed, salience can create a hierarchy of importance among the elements, selecting some as more important and more worthy of (immediate) attention than others. Readers will be able to judge the importance of the various elements of the layout by looking through the borders between each artefact introduction and their amount of detail in each column. As Kress (1998) states we judge salience based on the visual cues and that salience is not objectively measurable but results from a complex trading off between amount of detail and texture shown.

In conclusion, the issues pertaining to artefacts vary from many aspects such as different design principles, contexts, elements, forms and function. However, the major issues relating to artefacts remain consistent throughout the process of completing Assignment 2 such as changes in text, layout and designs depending on target audience and contexts. These were apparent as text and layouts varied between the print and multimedia, complying with purposes of each genre respectively. With this, document designers face the uphill task of gaining positive schemata’s from readers through respective genres. As Campbell (1995: 83) notes, a text that is poorly organized will not elicit the appropriate schema from the reader’s mind. She adds that the organization of text influences the way we acquire, use and remember information as well as increase the likelihood of transfer of new knowledge to the future. Therefore, Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996) have challenged the notions of traditional literacy’s emphasis on print in the light of the growing dominance of multimodal texts and digital technology. It is clear that written texts are only one part of the message and no longer the dominant part, and it is not sufficient for literacy practices that are needed in our information era.
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References

Antunes, P, Costa, CJ, Dias JF 2001, Applying genre analysis to EMS design: the example of a small accounting firm, Seventh International Workshop on Groupware, pp. 74-81

Bear, JC 1997, Form and function in design and publishing, About.com, viewed 11 October 2008, <>

Campbell, KS 1995, Coherence, continuity and cohesion: theoretical foundations for document design, viewed 7 October 2008,

Kress, G 1997, Page to screen: taking literacy into the electronic era, Allen & Unwin, New South Wales.

Kress, G & VanLeeuwen, T 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford.

Nadgouda, A 2006, What came first: form or function? Fadtastic, viewed 11 October 2008,
< http://fadtastic.net/2006/10/12/what-came-first-form-or-function/>

Putnis, P, Roslyn, P 1996, Professional communication: principles and applications, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

Raymond, G 2005, French a language of the world, Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. SIL International, France.

Reep, DC 2006, Technical writing, Pearson Longman, New York.

Walsh, M 2006, The textual shift: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no. 1, pp. 24-37

Westerlund, B 2002, Form is function, Department of Numerical Analysis and Computer Science