I’m diving into creating my project website and so far it’s going very well. To my surprise, I am struggling with a few minor stylistic things that have come up as a result of working in a digital medium. In a traditional essay, if I were to quote an interview (or author), I might say, “As jazz director, Professor Tim AuBuchon, explains…” once then say, “As AuBuchon notes,” every time after. However, I’m wondering if I should do this on every page I make since readers will surly be bouncing around and not reading this in a linear style. Normally, I would say this is repetitive and poor writing (I already said he was the jazz director, no need to say it again and again), but it seems kind of necessary given the medium we’re working with. Any thoughts?
Cathy Kroll
Great question that shows your genre awareness! I would agree with you that, upon first mentioning the individual’s name, you include his or her title, and then you can simply refer to the person by name. You can also vary this style by using a dialogue tag such as “‘. . . ,’ AuBuchon pointed out” or “‘ . . . ., ‘ according to Aubuchon.” For even more variation, you could try including his or her name in parentheses at the end of a quotation or paragraph, and see how you like that effect.