column: Goodness and Badness in Science Fiction and Fantasy Cover Art

[Shrain]

Cool idea, Sprigg. I look forward to your "take" on the new Tor site.

Edit: Did you create another thread for this yet?

[Spriggan]

nope.

And I'm not going to redesign the Tor site, but to offer suggestions to the problems I found, You can just download the files in my previous post (they're attached) if you want to read what I had to say.

[stacer]

How well did you do on the paper, if I may ask? (I've only read part of it so far, but it looks very informative so far.)

[Spriggan]

Will find out Monday,we were supposed to get them back today but the teacher held them back to expand upon the comments since the class has yet to write a paper along the lines he wants.  He gives requirements but then wants the papers to flow a certain way and he's never happy about that part--which I think he's being too picky on.  But I've had this teacher before and have yet to get lower then a B+ on any assignment so I'm really not that worried, then again he knows that every paper I turn in is a first draft and that annoys him some since he's the type that does 5 or 6 rewrites for anything.  I'm not I write it once, sometimes send it to EUOL or Fell for proofing and then I'm done unless there's a major flow problem, and am done with it.  If I didn't want to write something the way I did the first time I wouldn't have done it that way, it's usually just grammar that I need to change, which I didn't get to do for this paper (but this teacher doesn't grade on grammar so I don't really worry about it).

[stacer]

Well, I've finished it, and you make some good points especially about organization. Thanks for letting us see it. Gives me some ideas.

[Spriggan]

Finally got this paper back got a B+ ,for those that asked, because I forgot it include (even though I used it) a silly navigation checklist that's really not all that good--one of the items you have to check off is if the links are "blue" because if they're not it's a mark against the website (yes I've debated this with the teacher).  Anyway I have to do part 2 today (due Friday) and I'm not sure if I'm going to use the same site (don't need to but I can) and this paper needs to cover "Patterns of information" or Information Design as some would call it.

[stacer]

Congrats! A B+ is still pretty good, especially when you disagree with the teachers rubric.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Karen asked last night--why do the Wheel of Time books have such crappy cover art, when surely they can afford something better.

[Fellfrosch]

Because that's what the first book had, so that's what they all have, because that's what fans' are looking for. Farland's books have the same crappy style and art, and it was almost certainly an intentional move to try to look like a "Jordan-style Wheel of Time book." The resemblance alone, crappy though it may be, probably accounts for a third of that series' sales.

[Spriggan]

Part 2 is done and attached (we really should have a seperate thread, but oh well..)