When I signed up for this class, I never thought that I’d be making my own website and writing hypertexts. When I signed up for “Remixing Little Brother” I knew I’d be using computers, but I never thought that I’d be writing hypertexts and ultimately creating my own website. When I heard that we’d be making our own our own websites, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’d never done anything even near creating my own website, and that’s why I think that my first hypertext was definitely my worst one. I thought that the content of my first essay was much better than the second, but the layout was definitely inferior to my second and third.
            Thankfully, I used the first hypertext as sort of a learning experience and although my second hypertext was not as strong textually, I feel like the layout for it was better. I’m not a big fan of the super intricate and confusing websites, so I focused on just trying to make my website as simple as possible, while making sure that it still looked good. I also tried to do this for my third website, but also tried to make it look more polished.  I think that my third was by far the best, both textually and in terms of the lay out. However, I thought that writing the annotated bibliography and review of the literature made it a lot harder to focus on making sure that my hypertext was concise and well done, as well as working on the layout. However, I thought that having to write the linear version was extremely helpful in making sure that my hypertext could flow and that it kept to the topic.
            If I were to continue to work on my website, I’d probably try to work on making each webpage look more professional and polished. The hypertexts themselves do not end up too badly, as long as I have the right take on each topic, but I feel as though the hardest part for me is making the website itself. I find it a bit overwhelming and hopefully next quarter I’ll be able to make all of my websites look a little more professional. Design was really difficult for me; I wanted to make each hypertext look good, but I also wanted to sort of personalize it and make it personal. I think I just got overwhelmed and sometimes I was not as successful as I should have been. My third hypertext has twelve pages, with two internal links on average, plus a standard navigation bar with four basic links.
            Some things I’ve learned in this class is to keep my writing concise. We’re writing for a website, so we can’t stray off topic for a page and a half, we have to stay to the point in order to keep our readers engaged and interested. Before this class I unfortunately had a habit of putting filler sentences in my essays to take up space, but now each webpage has to stay exclusively to the topic that it’s designed for, and thus there’s no room for filler sentences.
            My new goals for the next quarter are to further improve my writing skills and learn how to better use Dreamweaver. Creating the website was the hardest aspect of this class for me, and I think that’s what was what made this class difficult for me. I spent so many hours working on Dreamweaver, trying to revise my hypertext and my web pages. I feel like I also may have hurt myself by picking topics that I was too personally involved in, like my second hypertext. That’s another goal that I’d like to set for next quarter—pick hypertext topics that will be easier to write about, because I feel like if I pick a broader topic that will give me more to write about that I’ll be able to produce a much more well written hypertext and then I’ll be able to work on the layout more. This class has helped my essay writing so much, and has also helped me work on a new hobby that I’ll hopefully be able to continue after finishing this class.