MLA Style; Visuals are not that great

Tira asked about MLA style and capitalization. MLA style has never reflected the capitalization used in the actual piece. Some print media have long used headlines that capitalize only the first word, but all of the words are capitalized in MLA bib entries, regardless of how they appear in the actual print piece. I can't imagine that different approach would be adopted to accommodate Web sites.

Visuals can definitely enhance communication providing they are tied to the communication in some significant way. Visuals that are added just to be flashy and/or pretty are irritating and distracting.

One of the problems with the emphasis that visuals have assumed is that it further discourages people from learning how to communicate verbally, particularly in writing. Studies have indicated that, because of early and constant exposure, young people can now aborb and interpret visual stimuli faster than people had been able to in the past. That's a very good thing. Unfortunately, it has been accompanied by a decrease in the ability to interpret verbal signals -- particularly written signals -- as quickly or, more importantly, as accurately.

There is also the problem that visuals are becoming less reliable at the same time that they are becoming more significant. Photo manipulation and digital imaging have made it so that seeing is NOT believing. Of course, that was always true for professional work. I edited horticultural catalogs, and we sold a "blue" lilac. There were no pictures of it because it doesn't actually exist; it's actually a white lilac with a SLIGHTLY bluish tint. But for the catalog, the production department did something called "color correction," and we had a beautiful picture of a lilac that looked more or less bright tourquoise. It was false advertising, of course, but such things are not policed, and no one was going to file a lawsuit over a $3.95 lilac bush. This type of visual manipulation can be done to a greater extent, more quickly, and by virtually anyone now. Just think; a student who resents a poor grade could, if he or she were digitally savvy, download a porn photo, put your head on it, and post it to Google with your name. You think such things don't happen? I once had a Yahoo briefcase site that students could post to and had the password for. In the days before things like Blackboard and WebBoard, it was the best way to allow students to collaborate online. Someone got distressed with me and replaced the home page with a page of pics and links to kiddie porn sites. I could have been arrested for that. It only takes one incident of something like that happening to you to make you VERY leery of the Web. As for tracing the ISP, a student who is that computer savvy knows (and in my case DID know) enough to use a public computer like a library computer to post such materials.

We live in a society where people can publish anything about anyone and depict anyone doing anything they please. We need to be aware of that, although I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it. It's just one more way that self-efficacy is depleted by the spread of technology.