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I just finished assembling my essay shell, putting together color scheme, graphical icons, and layout. I don't think I've spent this much time on the design of an essay since third grade. My parents recently dug up a prime example of my early efforts at scholarship, a hagiography entitled, "Blessed Mary: Mother of Jesus." What I recall most about writing that report is choosing my graphic, a holy card showing Mary rising soulfully to heaven, and spending hours tracing the letters for the title and filling them with color. I'm sure that this diligence, which singled me out as an early overachiever, snagged me an "A." Sometime after third grade, however, the scholarly establishment began first to de-emphasize and finally discourage this sort of attention to presentation.
So what's happening in this Web Essay? Why do I feel that these design issues are of importance? Do colors, graphics, and layout contribute to the substance of what I am saying? Or does this type of writing challenge the form/substance dichotomy in some way? Or is something else going on?