The exciting world of grammar...

This will probably sound ridiculous to everyone else in class, but I have decided on the subject of grammar for my final project. Exciting, right?

There is a perfectly good explanation for this seemingly idiotic decision. I figured that if I am being forced to build a webpage based on a topic of my choice, then I might as well choose something that I need to learn more about. I am an English major with an emphasis in writing studies, specifically technical writing. I'm not 100% sure about what I want to do with my degree just yet, but I do know that I need to learn more about grammar--badly. I write and speak well, but I want to learn more about all the little rules and what they are called. This will be a good skill to have if I am involved in any sort of editing or copy writing.

So, there you go. That's what I'm doing.

But this blog post isn't necessarily meant to be an introduction to my topic of choice, so here is the site that I chose: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/. I am already familiar with "Grammar Girl", but I didn't realize that her grammar tips are only one of many "Quick and Dirty Tips". The first thing I noticed about the page is that it has a menu bar with dozens of links to the other "Quick and Dirty Tips" pages. They have tips for everything from money and investing to pets. So the major links that the visitor will notice first (at the top of the page) are the links that take you to pages that belong to the same family of pages--the "Quick and Dirty Tips" pages. All of these pages have the same layout, parent logos, and ad placement. The only difference is that the content varies from page to page.

Links to pages outside of the "Quick and Dirty Tips" family are limited. In fact, nearly all of the links that take you somewhere outside of the family of pages are there to serve the "Quick and Dirty Tips" brand. This includes paid advertisements and links to popular online merchants (Amazon, Barnes and Noble), where you can buy books and other products that were written by "Quick and Dirty Tips" authors. These links are prominently displayed near the top of the page, making it nearly impossible for the visitor to miss them. In fact, I have already clicked on a few of them because the ads were so applicable to the target audience of the site--grammar nerds.

In addition to visiting some of the paid ad links, I have also browsed a few other "Quick and Dirty Tips" pages and found them to be quite useful. This can be counted as a success on the part of the web designer, as these links are prominently displayed and easy to navigate. The fact that each page is designed the same is also quite helpful, because I already know where to find what I need, regardless of the subject of the page (the money tips have the same layout as the feminine hygiene tips... not that I was looking at the feminine hygiene tips or anything).

Overall, I felt like the link structure of this page was good. The main menu links brought you to other pages within the family, and the ad links were direct and applicable. I feel like one can surf around the "Quick and Dirty Tips" pages for hours without ever really leaving the parent site, except to click on the ads that will result in a small payment to the parent site. Those bastards have it figured out!