WCW Syllabus
Tue 14 Jan
- Intros
- WCWStatement
Required texts
- Lynch and Horton. Web Style Guide, 3rd ed. In print from Amazon or BSU Bookstore, or online http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/ Or go0ogle for a PDF of the 3rd edition.
- Jonathan and Lisa Price. Hot Text: Web Writing that Works. New Riders, 2002. Amazon.
- You will need Price at the beginning of week 3
- Optional but useful: a markdown or plain text editor for your computer. Do not use MS Word for materials that will end up in TIO.
Thu 16 Jan
Web Design Principles exercises- Read the statement. Come with qs
- Read and take notes on Lynch, chap 2. You'll be working with the concepts in this chapter in class.
- Start ReverseEngineeringAPersona
Tue 21 Jan
- Review your solutions to ReverseEngineeringAPersona
For Tues 28 Jan
Read Lynch chap 3
Thu 23 Jan
- No class.
Tue 28 Jan
- Class cancelled. Weblogs and Wikis will meet at 4:00
Thu 30 Jan
- Lynch, chap 3: IA
- Exercise in reverse engineering the taxonomy and hierarchy of Mankato - mnsu.edu
- Continue over weekend
Tue 4 Feb
- Results of Thursday exercise
- Lynch, chap 4: Navigation
Thu 6 Feb
- Debrief. TBA.
- A look at TIO
- Register: Real Name as you want it to appear. Real email - this doesn't need to appear.
- notes on writing in plain text
- There's a presentation by White Whale on their proposed redesign of the BSU site at 3:00 - 4:00 today, Crying Wolf.
Over the weekend, for Tuesday
- Read Hot Text, part 1, chaps 1 - 3
- Prepare an autobiography of 250 - 500 words and an image. This autobiography will be linked to your bylined work on TIO. Refer to Price part 1 for a sense of how to approach this problem.
- Have a look at The Writers
Tue 11 Feb
Over the weekend, for Tuesday- Read Hot Text, part 1, chaps 1 - 3
- Prepare an autobiography of 250 - 500 words and an image. This autobiography will be linked to your bylined work on TIO. Refer to Price part 1 for a sense of how to approach this problem.
- Have a look at The Writers
- a look at Hot Text, chaps 1 - 4
- some texts
Thu 13 Feb
- workday: revising and publishing your autobiography
- generating article ideas
- posting article ideas
for Tues
- Submit 2 article ideas to TIO, as covered in class
- Bio ready to publish
Tue 18 Feb
- Bios: Go to edit. Metadata options. Brief desc, something like, Bio of XX, just to see how it appears on Google.
- Edit. Decide where to set the Read More ... break.
- Review article ideas. Select.
- What software are you writing with? Not MS Word, right?
- Affordances to write with: images, heads, subs, lists, callouts, links.
Thu 20 Feb
Latecomers- Bios: Go to edit. Metadata options. Brief desc, something like, Bio of XX, just to see how it appears on Google.
- Edit. Decide where to set the Read More ... break.
deadline
- Review article proposals. Select. Get approval on a proposal before end of class today!
- Chap 5: Shorten that text (and how to do so).
Tue 25 Feb
- Drafts of article to work with
- Where are we? What's next? Revisions for Thursday.
- Deadline for first article: Mar 4.
Thu 27 Feb
- Revisions to drafts: plans
- In revising towards a final draft,
- Read HotText. chap 6: Titles and headings
- Try reading and editing your draft in Hemmingway. The app highlights potential editing points and can give you a new take on your sentences (Is that one really too long?) and word and phrase choices (Are those adjectives focusing or diffusing attention? Is that repetition bring connection and coherence or is it an accident?)
- Locate or create an image to accompany the text.
Tue 4 Mar: cancelled
Thu 6 Mar
- Read HotText. chap 6: Titles and headings
- Try reading and editing your draft in Hemmingway. The app highlights potential editing points and can give you a new take on your sentences (Is that one really too long?) and word and phrase choices (Are those adjectives focusing or diffusing attention? Is that repetition bring connection and coherence or is it an accident?)
Last workday for this project
- Notes on heads: when, what, how to format them. Structural units, not display.
- Staus of drafts - Final edits
- Add a metadata description of your article. This is sentence or two that potential readers will see if they find the article through Google or Bing. It will present the same register as the article - register is a predictor - so reader can decide to click through. Think informative tweet: 14o characters.
- Micro-bio with contact link? Have a look at Brad Tramel's Indie Game. (Better to format in itals rather than bold.)
- When you declare your article ready to publish, change the category to Ready to Publish.
Publishing Deadline: Friday, 6:00 pm
Some articles will go out Saturday, others may be on hold until we're back from break.For Thurs: Post two article ideas. As you did in the first round. Use the ProposalTemplate. SPECIAL EMPHASIS on links and linking in this article.
- Categorize your proposal Publishing > Article Proposal
- Status: Published
- Access: Special
- Read Hot Text, chap 7. Bring your text, too.
- We'll also be looking at Lynch, chap 9: Editorial Style, on links.
Thu 20 Mar
- Review front page appearance.
- Check: Meta descriptions?
- Article ideas for the next round. I'll review for Tuesday.
- A look at links - and links exercise for Tuesday
Examples
- first 4 paragraphs of Transcendentalism
- BBC Link Guidelines
- NYT embraces links
- Embracing the digital book
- Hypertext essays
- Speak: A Hypertext Essay
- Reading the Archives: Types of Hypertext
- Hypertext Theory in Digital Form
For Tuesday, to discuss in class
Tue 1 April
- Draft due. Comments. Work day.
- Make links relevant by shaping your text. See PragmaticLinksAndEvocativeLinks.
- for "a structure where the relevance is determined by the cognitive effects of exploring a context made up of a wide range of weak implicatures." That is, "INCREASED PROCESSING EFFORT + MAXIMAL (LYRICAL) COGNITIVE EFFECTS."
- early language learning? Google it. look and read other accounts, draw those accounts into your narrative.
- BSed as a kid? Google it: socially, psychologically, narratively. Draw what you find into the essay.
- Other issues/topics in your draft? Google them. Draw your encounter with those others into your draft.
Unrequested Sermon
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
Thu 3 April
- Drafts for overview and comment. Links.
Tue 8 April
- final drafts due at start of class
- review finals considering links: PragmaticLinksAndEvocativeLinks
- metadata
- ready to publish
Thu 10 Apr
- considering arrangement (Pyramids are so 3rd century BC) and LayeredText
- for Tues: final article proposal
Tue 15 Apr
- meet for feedback and approval of last proposal
Thu 17 Apr
- Workday: no meeting
Tue 22 Apr
- draft due: drafts meeting
- When your draft is finished and all parts are published, you will have to update the internal links to other parts of the article - OR - be logged in.
Thu 24 Apr
- Workday: optional
Tue 29 Apr
- last day of class
- final versions LayeredText due: ready to publish.
- Address problems?
- Review some for feedback and awe.
- Course evaluation
WCWSyllabusSpring2013
WCWSyllabusSpring2012
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