On the Trails

A few days ago, I wrote a post called the space shuttle endeavor and the two ways to write about that event. I want to refine the thoughts below:

Here are the steps I followed in order to write the new way:

1. I used Scribefire, a firefox add-on to write this blog post. (I did so, because Scribefire opens on the bottom of the Firefox web browser and enables me to navigate to other web pages on the top of my web browser) THIS IS NOT NECESSARY, ONLY HELPFUL.
2. I used tabs (this makes life so much easier)
   1. I had the NASA Space Shuttle Mission open in one tab and I had another tab opened that I used as a scratch tab (similar to scratch paper – where one would jot down notes – this is a catch-all window, so that I can stay on the space shuttle page and use the scratch tab web page to find other things.
3. I wrote the old way first
4. I decided on what I wanted to link to  – THESE WOULD BE THE MAIN IDEAS
5. I created the links to the images and to the new learning

While reading Tim Russert’s book, Big Russ and Me: Father and Son–Lessons of Life I had some clearer thoughts about this new writing.

In the first chapter, Tim wrote about how his Dad was a parachute rigger in World War II.  He was involved in serious plane crash and was saved by a young man from Chicago – I don’t have my book here, so I can’t recall his name.

In any event, I thought about how much “cooler” this book would have been if it was written with hyperlinks to places Tim thought were important, such as:

• the air base where his dad was stationed
• the place where the crash occurred
• a picture of the plane he was in
• a picture or movie of a parachute rigger
• a picture or movie of what a parachute rigger does

His story may have went like this, if it were written in the new style (the web style):

My dad was a parachute rigger in the Army-Air Corp, in England, during World War II.  It was his job to ensure that the parachutes were packed correctly and that they were fitted to the airmen before each mission…

With this new style of writing, people will have to:

• have search skills
• understand how to manipulate tabs
• link to the main ideas – not just to anything
• have more patience while writing