I will understand if the reader doesn’t believe me when I say that I originally started this site to be serious. But you must trust your correspondent when he explains that sometimes an author feels he just hasn’t got any choice. And so I hope you will indulge me while I talk a little bit about The Escapist and its very odd pull-quotes.
The whole point of pull-quotes is to draw a hypothetical reader – imagine him impatiently flipping through the pages of a magazine while waiting for the dentist or for his plane to reach cruising altitude – into actually reading an article by highlighting a key point, an interesting fact or simply an intriguing turn of phrase. The point is not to stump the reader, nor is it to make him not interested in the article. Right?
That’s not even a sentence! And, why is the word “make” so important?
Thankfully, the article itself features correct grammar.
For some reason, this pull-quote has just as many words in the big bold highlight font as it does in the regular typeface. It’s rather amusing to try to read it aloud with emphasis. I might also note that it seems to erroneously conflate what the original article actually treats as two separate but connected ideas, but it is hard to tell for sure.
Is it unreasonable to expect that if the very first word that the reader sees on the page is “Confused?” in very large letters, that this may in itself be rather confusing? Does it strike one to question if the article is really best served by the pull-quote’s implicit promise to confuse the potential reader?
I promise to try to write something more positive, soon.
Comments (2)
I've noticed the same thing! Sometimes these pull quotes even seem to suggest the exact opposite of what the article is about. You initially go "whoa" I don't agree with that, then you read the article and what they're actually saying is something you agree with. I've been had again you realise!
Chris K.
Posted by Chris K. | March 5, 2008 6:37 AM
Posted on March 5, 2008 06:37
Your right. I don't really get their article typography at all, for what it's worth; one of the things, that's deterred me the most from the site, is their abhorrent font, which is a pain in the ass to read.
They could make their articles _much_ more accessible to people - heck, just make a few pictures of not just one on each article page - by pulling a minimum of effort, yet they stick to one of the most horrible layouts I've ever seen on a site. I don't know if it's to fit some image, but it simply-doesn't-work. Just look at Rock Paper Shotgun for a complete antithesis.
The critique also goes for their forum, although that's a whole other discussion.
Posted by Zuffox | April 27, 2008 5:09 AM
Posted on April 27, 2008 05:09