Egos...a writer's worst nightmare Kilian. Ch. 6

So in the interactive medium of the Web, writers must keep their own egos offstage and engage the reader on terms of equality and shared interests. The webwriter expects to learn as well as teach, to move and be moved. Such writing avoids fulsome, manipulative flattery. It sends a nonverbal message of respect and interest. A site that's slow to load and hard to navigate is an ego site. A quick-loading site with good navigation reflects a self-art site, considerate of readers. Webtext that's precious or bombastic may say a lot about the writer's big vocabulary, but it speaks much more loudly of the writer's big ego.

So finally, I've read something in this book that doesn't make me want to stab my eyes out. It actually proves a valid point--again a point I learned back in high school. We have to keep our readers in mind when writing any form of text, whether it be an article or column, or text for an html Corporate website.

Kilian's right in saying that our tone in text conveys a nonverbal message. Just from reading an article, I can tell if the reader is a pompous a**.

As for the quick/slow loading sites, I'm not sure if I agree with Kilian or not. I may get impatient, but I like websites that have tons of graphics. I guess that's just the part of me that loves graphic design and layout, but can you blame me? I'm more likely to research information on a fun-looking website than I am from one that's just basic hypertext.

In short, I get what Kilian's saying in this chapter, but I feel like I don't completely fit into his audience. He's supposed to be writing to people who are experienced with paper text. I know I'm only 18 and I'm not as experienced as people who have been writing for the New York Times for a few decades, but I'm not an idiot. I know what works and what doesn't to get a reader's attention. Maybe I'm just getting too defensive.