Revision history for WCWStatement
No Differences
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>>{{image url="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2831/34038521796_8e0136139a.jpg" width="376px"}}>>
Deletions:
image from >>
Additions:
Web content writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, hobbled by commercial aims and returns, and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The industry watchword is Don'tMakeMeThink. The one-to-many stylistic conventions of writing of Clarity, Brevity, and Sincerity have been imported unthinkingly. As a result, the web has not moved much. Hypertext is not being used to address the potential it has.
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. But we'll also be looking at alternatives to those conventions The guiding principle of the course is MakeMeThinkAgain. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. But we'll also be looking at alternatives to those conventions The guiding principle of the course is MakeMeThinkAgain. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
Deletions:
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. But we'll also be looking at alternatives to those conventions The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
Additions:
I'm using D2L not as a grade book but as a way of giving you feedback on how you are doing, so please don't look for grades or points. Look under Assessments > Class Progress > Grades for comments on your work and advice for the next round. I will issue you a mid-term grade, and if you are in danger of getting a D or E, I'll let you know individually.
Deletions:
The course takes a problem-centered approach to studying web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with a short article or presentation for the class.
I'm using D2L not as a grade book but as a way of giving you feedback on how you are doing, so please don't look for grades or points. Look under Assessments > User Progress for comments on your work and advice for the next round. I will issue you a mid-term grade, and if you are in danger of getting a D or E, I'll let you know individually.
Additions:
=== TL;DR ===
For the first part of the course, we'll read and discuss information architecture and industry-favored principles of web content. For the second part of the course, we'll read and discuss What Else Could Be Done.
For the first part of the course, we'll read and discuss information architecture and industry-favored principles of web content. For the second part of the course, we'll read and discuss What Else Could Be Done.
Additions:
=== Alternative Formats ===
This syllabus is available in other formats. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
=== Academic Integrity ===
You are expected to practice the highest standards of ethics, honesty, and integrity in all your academic work. Any for of dishonesty, such as plagiarism, cheating, or mis-representation, may result in discipline. Discipline may include failing part or all of the course, as well as suspension from the university. For details on policies and procedures, refer to to the Student Code of Conduct section of the BSU Student Handbook and The Academic Integrity.
This syllabus is available in other formats. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
=== Academic Integrity ===
You are expected to practice the highest standards of ethics, honesty, and integrity in all your academic work. Any for of dishonesty, such as plagiarism, cheating, or mis-representation, may result in discipline. Discipline may include failing part or all of the course, as well as suspension from the university. For details on policies and procedures, refer to to the Student Code of Conduct section of the BSU Student Handbook and The Academic Integrity.
Deletions:
This syllabus is available in alternate formats. Talk to me, or contact the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
Deletions:
The department’s webpage (http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/departments/english/) has information about the department, current and future classes and other stuff for majors and non-majors.
For majors and interested students, we maintain a listserv for announcements about jobs, careers, publishing opportunities, news, and information. To subscribe to Verb_L, send an email with “Subscribe” in the subject line to
Verb_L-request@listserv.bemidjistate.edu.
A confirmation email will be sent to you. Simply follow those directions. Also look for us on Facebook: BSU English.
Additions:
The second part of the course focuses on what the current state of the web is //not// good at doing: the limits and preconceptions we have to the web that keeps it corralled. For this, we'll be using a collection of print and online sources that I'll distribute. These will be readings in theory, history, origins that we will use as springboards for discussion and writing.
Here's a review of the scholarly problem this course addresses:
Attendance is voluntary, but wise. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gain something. And take notes.
Here's a review of the scholarly problem this course addresses:
Attendance is voluntary, but wise. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gain something. And take notes.
Deletions:
Here's the scholarly problem this course addresses:
Attendance is voluntary, but wise. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gain something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
When you attend, put the phones on silent, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers.
And take notes.
Deletions:
Additions:
The course takes a problem-centered approach to studying web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with a short article or presentation for the class.
Deletions:
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with an article or presentation for the class.
Additions:
Writing directly in the wiki works fine - as long as you save often. But if you want to work offline, I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. //Do not use MS Word//. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess. **Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor**. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
This course looks at the current rhetorical and social conventions of web content writing and seeks to challenge them. The first part of the course gives you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of web design and writing as it is currently practiced. For this we'll be using Krug's //Don;t Make Me Think, Revisited// 3rd edition.
The second part of the course focuses on what the current state of the web is not good at doing. We'll be using a collection of print and online sources that I'll distribute. Readings in theory, history, origins.
Here's the scholarly problem this course addresses:
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commercial institutions and values, using staid and conservative print-based rules and conventions. Interactivity was pushed to the edges. Hypertextual potentials were set aside. Design that might have re-made how we read and write over-looked.
Web content writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, hobbled by commercial aims and returns, and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. The one-to-many stylistic conventions of Clarity, Brevity, and Sincerity have been imported unthinkingly. As a result, the web has not moved much. Hypertext is not being used to address the potential it has.
But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. But we'll also be looking at alternatives to those conventions The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
This course looks at the current rhetorical and social conventions of web content writing and seeks to challenge them. The first part of the course gives you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of web design and writing as it is currently practiced. For this we'll be using Krug's //Don;t Make Me Think, Revisited// 3rd edition.
The second part of the course focuses on what the current state of the web is not good at doing. We'll be using a collection of print and online sources that I'll distribute. Readings in theory, history, origins.
Here's the scholarly problem this course addresses:
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commercial institutions and values, using staid and conservative print-based rules and conventions. Interactivity was pushed to the edges. Hypertextual potentials were set aside. Design that might have re-made how we read and write over-looked.
Web content writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, hobbled by commercial aims and returns, and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. The one-to-many stylistic conventions of Clarity, Brevity, and Sincerity have been imported unthinkingly. As a result, the web has not moved much. Hypertext is not being used to address the potential it has.
But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. But we'll also be looking at alternatives to those conventions The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
Deletions:
**Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor**. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
This course looks at the current rhetorical and social conventions of web content writing and seeks to challenge them. The first part of the course gives you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of web design and writing as it is currently practiced.The second part of the course focuses on what the web is not good at doing.
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commerce and other institutions, using staid and conservative print-based rules and conventions. Interactivity was pushed to the edges. Hypertextual potentials were set aside.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
Additions:
>>{{image url="" width="376px"}}
image from >>
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commerce and other institutions, using staid and conservative print-based rules and conventions. Interactivity was pushed to the edges. Hypertextual potentials were set aside.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
image from >>
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commerce and other institutions, using staid and conservative print-based rules and conventions. Interactivity was pushed to the edges. Hypertextual potentials were set aside.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
Deletions:
image from [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm | progymnasmata.htm]]>>
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commerce and other institutions, using staid and conservative print-based rules and conventions. Interactivity was pushed to the edges. Hypertextual potentials were set aside.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think: Just help me consume. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
- to become familiar with classical rhetorical exercises as establishing rhetorical expectations and contexts for reading and editing
Here's a rough sketch of the workflow. The workflow may change as we refine it during the course.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive: close reading, and not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). Likely, you'll do these notes on the course wiki.
- As a class, we will engage in some discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
- You draft on your own medium.com page. That draft can remain private if you wish.
- But at some point, you share your draft with others in the class to invite comments.
- The deadline arrives. You publish. Publishing goes to the world. Publishing is a signal that you've submitted the word for evaluation.
- The class reviews approaches to the problem and discusses them.
- We do it again.
Here's a draft of what a challenge might look like:
=== Title: Make Me Think about Interfaces ===
Doug Englebart, the computer scientist who invented the mouse, used to illustrate how the tool shapes the work that can be done by attaching a brick to a pencil and asking people to write with the contraption. Another way of thinking about this is to imagine how you would handle writing and reading if we used crayons rather than pencils, pens, typewriters, and now computers. The idea is that the tools shape the work: there is no neutral, natural, intuitive space to work in. Each space has its affordances and its constraints.
For this challenge, investigate the affordances for reading and writing that the Medium interface makes available, and consider how these affordances shape and constrain writing and reading. For the affordances, consider such things as the drafting space, comments and how they are handled, how links work, limits on image placement, how image enlargement works for readers, page color, icons for reading and writing .… Just as importantly, consider what is missing.
Before drafting, start with notes. Go to your wiki page, start a new page for your notes. Then make an extensive list of affordances and other elements you see in the Medium interface - this should be 20-30 items, with some thoughts on each. Do some research. A pattern or two will start to develop.
Now, write an [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Vituperation.htm | invective]] or [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Encomium.htm | encomium]] to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image - your own or one repurposed. Incorporate links.
See Also: [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Branches%20of%20Oratory/Epideictic.htm epideictic oratory]].
=== Summary ===
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you. Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Each challenge has tight constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
In my own practice with this kind of work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met very well with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
==== Medium ====
We'll be using Medium.Com as a drafting and publishing space this semester. It's free, and it's an interesting environment to work in.
==== Twitter ====
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium.Com. Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
Additions:
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commerce and other institutions, using staid and conservative print-based rules and conventions. Interactivity was pushed to the edges. Hypertextual potentials were set aside.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think: Just help me consume. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with an article or presentation for the class.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think: Just help me consume. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with an article or presentation for the class.
Deletions:
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with an article on Medium.
This preliminary work leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to Medium.com in which you address the problem. As a further aspect of the challenge, I will define a set reading length and a contemporary or classical rhetorical genre. Contemporary genres are such things as a FAQ, a memo, a meme .... Classical rhetorical genres include the narrative, fable, essay of praise or blame. (There's a list over [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm here.]]
Additions:
Spring 2018
Steve Krug. //Don't Make Me Think, revisited//, 3rd ed. New Riders, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0321965516
We'll work with with a few chapters each week for the first few weeks. The focus in this book is less on writing and more on web design and usability - the interface, basically, and the new situation of reading text and writing text for that way of reading.
Recommended
Other texts and materials to be assigned from about week 5 on.
Writing directly in the wiki works fine - as long as you save often. But if you want to work offline, I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. //Do not use MS Word//. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess.
**Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor**. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
This course looks at the current rhetorical and social conventions of web content writing and seeks to challenge them. The first part of the course gives you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of web design and writing as it is currently practiced.The second part of the course focuses on what the web is not good at doing.
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commerce and other institutions, who imported print-based rules and conventions staid and conservative print.
Steve Krug. //Don't Make Me Think, revisited//, 3rd ed. New Riders, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0321965516
We'll work with with a few chapters each week for the first few weeks. The focus in this book is less on writing and more on web design and usability - the interface, basically, and the new situation of reading text and writing text for that way of reading.
Recommended
Other texts and materials to be assigned from about week 5 on.
Writing directly in the wiki works fine - as long as you save often. But if you want to work offline, I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. //Do not use MS Word//. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess.
**Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor**. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
This course looks at the current rhetorical and social conventions of web content writing and seeks to challenge them. The first part of the course gives you the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of web design and writing as it is currently practiced.The second part of the course focuses on what the web is not good at doing.
At its invention (1989), web writing was to be interactive and hypertextual. But very soon, it became centralized and limited in design. It became driven by commerce and other institutions, who imported print-based rules and conventions staid and conservative print.
Deletions:
Writing: Medium.com is designed as an online text editor, and works very well. But if you want to work offline, I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. //Do not use MS Word//. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess.
Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
This course gives you the opportunity to learn and practice some of the fundamentals of web content writing by writing and publishing web content.
++- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. ++
++- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account. ++
Additions:
Spring 2017
Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
++- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. ++
++- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account. ++
Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
++- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. ++
++- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account. ++
Deletions:
Steve Krug. //Don't Make Me Think, revisited//, 3rd ed. New Riders, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0321965516
we'll work with with a few chapters each week for the first few weeks. The focus in this book is less on writing and more on web design and usability - the interface, basically, and the new situation of reading text and writing text for that way of reading.
Recommended
Other texts and materials to be assigned.
**Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor**. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
Additions:
Spring 2018
Deletions:
Additions:
Steve Krug. //Don't Make Me Think, revisited//, 3rd ed. New Riders, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0321965516
we'll work with with a few chapters each week for the first few weeks. The focus in this book is less on writing and more on web design and usability - the interface, basically, and the new situation of reading text and writing text for that way of reading.
Recommended
Other texts and materials to be assigned.
**Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor**. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
we'll work with with a few chapters each week for the first few weeks. The focus in this book is less on writing and more on web design and usability - the interface, basically, and the new situation of reading text and writing text for that way of reading.
Recommended
Other texts and materials to be assigned.
**Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor**. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
Deletions:
++- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. ++
++- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account. ++
Deletions:
Reading and **notes**
- MakeMeThinkAboutLinks
Two in class
- [[http://flowingdata.com/2017/04/03/pianist-eye-tracking/ | Pianist Eye Tracking]]. Eye tracking specs at work.
- [[http://lithub.com/on-the-philosophical-implications-of-shelving-books | On the Philosophical Implications of Shelving Books]]. An other way of addressing organization.
==== for 13 April ====
- [[LinkingTheLandscapeGarden]]
- you might use [[http://twinery.org | Twine for the project for thus week. Open source and web versions.
- MakeMeThinkAboutLinks, part 2
==== for 20 April ====
- Draft of MakeMeThinkAboutLinksFreeStyle
- Final version due midnight, 3 May
==== Apr 27: Debriefing ====
Edit this page to sign up for a time
- 12:00 - 12:20: Hannah
- 12:20 - 12:40: Tony
- 12:40 - 1:00: Eric
- 1:00 - 1:20: Samantha
- 1:20 - 1:40: Christopher
Additions:
=== for 6 April: links and linking ===
Reading and **notes**
- MakeMeThinkAboutLinks
Two in class
- [[http://flowingdata.com/2017/04/03/pianist-eye-tracking/ | Pianist Eye Tracking]]. Eye tracking specs at work.
- [[http://lithub.com/on-the-philosophical-implications-of-shelving-books | On the Philosophical Implications of Shelving Books]]. An other way of addressing organization.
==== for 13 April ====
- [[LinkingTheLandscapeGarden]]
- you might use [[http://twinery.org | Twine for the project for thus week. Open source and web versions.
- MakeMeThinkAboutLinks, part 2
==== for 20 April ====
- Draft of MakeMeThinkAboutLinksFreeStyle
- Final version due midnight, 3 May
==== Apr 27: Debriefing ====
Edit this page to sign up for a time
- 12:00 - 12:20: Hannah
- 12:20 - 12:40: Tony
- 12:40 - 1:00: Eric
- 1:00 - 1:20: Samantha
- 1:20 - 1:40: Christopher
Reading and **notes**
- MakeMeThinkAboutLinks
Two in class
- [[http://flowingdata.com/2017/04/03/pianist-eye-tracking/ | Pianist Eye Tracking]]. Eye tracking specs at work.
- [[http://lithub.com/on-the-philosophical-implications-of-shelving-books | On the Philosophical Implications of Shelving Books]]. An other way of addressing organization.
==== for 13 April ====
- [[LinkingTheLandscapeGarden]]
- you might use [[http://twinery.org | Twine for the project for thus week. Open source and web versions.
- MakeMeThinkAboutLinks, part 2
==== for 20 April ====
- Draft of MakeMeThinkAboutLinksFreeStyle
- Final version due midnight, 3 May
==== Apr 27: Debriefing ====
Edit this page to sign up for a time
- 12:00 - 12:20: Hannah
- 12:20 - 12:40: Tony
- 12:40 - 1:00: Eric
- 1:00 - 1:20: Samantha
- 1:20 - 1:40: Christopher
Additions:
Whether you attend or not, assignments and deadlines are not negotiable. Assignments are done on time in order to be accepted as part of your grade. Late means a zero, and there's no make up: the course marches on. For an A, you must meet every deadline. Miss too many deadlines and you will be advised to drop the course. Slapdash work may result in negative points. [added 19 Jan 2017]
Deletions:
Additions:
[[https://medium.com/@mcmorgan/back-to-the-ipsum-f9a8d04878b | Back to the Ipsum]]
Deletions:
Additions:
- The deadline arrives. You publish. Publishing goes to the world. Publishing is a signal that you've submitted the word for evaluation.
++- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. ++
++- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. ++
Deletions:
- [Under review for spring 2017] You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection.
Additions:
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive: close reading, and not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). Likely, you'll do these notes on the course wiki.
- [Under review for spring 2017] You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection.
++- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account. ++
=== Title: Make Me Think about Interfaces ===
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you. Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Attendance is voluntary, but wise. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gain something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
- [Under review for spring 2017] You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection.
++- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account. ++
=== Title: Make Me Think about Interfaces ===
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you. Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Attendance is voluntary, but wise. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gain something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
Deletions:
- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. (This editorial barrier is a trial run. I would rather open it, but I want to see how the system works.)
- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account.
== Title: Make Me Think about Interfaces ==
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you. Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Attendance is voluntary, but wise. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
Deletions:
Additions:
==== In draft until 11 Jan 2016 ====
Deletions:
Additions:
Spring 2017
==== In draft until 9 Jan 2016 ====
==== In draft until 9 Jan 2016 ====
Deletions:
Additions:
Before drafting, start with notes. Go to your wiki page, start a new page for your notes. Then make an extensive list of affordances and other elements you see in the Medium interface - this should be 20-30 items, with some thoughts on each. Do some research. A pattern or two will start to develop.
Deletions:
Additions:
Attendance is voluntary, but wise. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
Grad students in ENGL 5169 are expected to demonstrate more mastery of the concepts we're working with, be more forward in offering your input grounded in those concepts, and take on leadership in groups. We'll discuss further grad requirements for projects and exercises as we approach them. My advice: Get out in front.
Grad students in ENGL 5169 are expected to demonstrate more mastery of the concepts we're working with, be more forward in offering your input grounded in those concepts, and take on leadership in groups. We'll discuss further grad requirements for projects and exercises as we approach them. My advice: Get out in front.
Deletions:
Grad students in ENGL 5179 are expected to demonstrate more mastery of the concepts we're working with, be more forward in offering your input grounded in those concepts, and take on leadership in groups. We'll discuss further grad requirements for projects and exercises as we approach them. My advice: Get out in front.
Additions:
>>{{image url="http://f.tqn.com/y/grammar/1/W/f/t/-/-/Getty_progymnasmata-117195604.jpg" width="376px"}}
image from [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm | progymnasmata.htm]]>>
======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
image from [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm | progymnasmata.htm]]>>
======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Deletions:
image from [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm | progymnasmata.htm]] ======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Additions:
{{image url="http://f.tqn.com/y/grammar/1/W/f/t/-/-/Getty_progymnasmata-117195604.jpg" width="376px"}}
image from [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm | progymnasmata.htm]] ======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
image from [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm | progymnasmata.htm]] ======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Deletions:
Additions:
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. online at http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing. You can buy it in print on Amazon or elsewhere.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial aims and returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
Deletions:
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But Web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
Additions:
Spring 2016
====Required Text====
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. online at http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing. You can buy it in print on Amazon or elsewhere.
Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
This course gives you the opportunity
- to explore the conventions of web content writing, and to systematically consider and critique those conventions
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with an article on Medium.
This preliminary work leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to Medium.com in which you address the problem. As a further aspect of the challenge, I will define a set reading length and a contemporary or classical rhetorical genre. Contemporary genres are such things as a FAQ, a memo, a meme .... Classical rhetorical genres include the narrative, fable, essay of praise or blame. (There's a list over [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm here.]]
- As a class, we will engage in some discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you. Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
The exercises, my notes and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki. You'll also be using the wiki for your notes and trials for each exercise.
We'll be using Medium.Com as a drafting and publishing space this semester. It's free, and it's an interesting environment to work in.
Attendance is voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
And take notes.
Grad students in ENGL 5179 are expected to demonstrate more mastery of the concepts we're working with, be more forward in offering your input grounded in those concepts, and take on leadership in groups. We'll discuss further grad requirements for projects and exercises as we approach them. My advice: Get out in front.
====Required Text====
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. online at http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing. You can buy it in print on Amazon or elsewhere.
Rule 1 of Writing for the Web is to use a text editor rather than a word processor. Google "text editor"+ your computing platform of choice.
This course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
This course gives you the opportunity
- to explore the conventions of web content writing, and to systematically consider and critique those conventions
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every two weeks or so, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria I set. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, .... That's in preparation to addressing the problem with an article on Medium.
This preliminary work leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to Medium.com in which you address the problem. As a further aspect of the challenge, I will define a set reading length and a contemporary or classical rhetorical genre. Contemporary genres are such things as a FAQ, a memo, a meme .... Classical rhetorical genres include the narrative, fable, essay of praise or blame. (There's a list over [[http://grammar.about.com/od/qaaboutrhetoric/f/fqprogymnasmata.htm here.]]
- As a class, we will engage in some discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you. Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
The exercises, my notes and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki. You'll also be using the wiki for your notes and trials for each exercise.
We'll be using Medium.Com as a drafting and publishing space this semester. It's free, and it's an interesting environment to work in.
Attendance is voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
And take notes.
Grad students in ENGL 5179 are expected to demonstrate more mastery of the concepts we're working with, be more forward in offering your input grounded in those concepts, and take on leadership in groups. We'll discuss further grad requirements for projects and exercises as we approach them. My advice: Get out in front.
Deletions:
====Texts====
== Required==
Jonathan and Lisa Price. //Hot Text: Web Writing that Works//. New Riders, 2002. [[http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Text-Writing-that-Works/dp/0735711518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325867373&sr=8-1 Amazon]].
== Reference ==
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. In print from Amazon, or online http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
So this course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
- to explore the conventions of web content writing and systematically consider and critique those conventions
==== Learning Opportunities ====
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, ... This preliminary work then leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to Medium.com. As a final part of the challenge, the article you will be asked to write will be of a set reading length and most often I'll assign a genre or the use of a classical rhetorical exercise form.
- As a class, we will engage in some preliminary discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
The exercises, my notes, and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki.
We'll be using Medium.Com as a drafting and publishing space this semester. It's free, and it's an interesting environment to work in.
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
As grad students, you are expected to demonstrate more mastery of the concepts we're working with, be more forward in offering your input grounded in those concepts, and take on leadership in groups. We'll discuss further grad requirements for projects and exercises as we approach them. My advice: Get out in front.
Deletions:
""<script async src="https://static.medium.com/embed.js"></script><a class="m-story" data-collapsed="true" href="https://medium.com/@ThisIsOnline/ce1791e04a7d">From whence?</a>""
Deletions:
Additions:
Course url: http://erhetoric.org/WebWritingAndDesign/
Deletions:
Additions:
So this course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
In this way, the course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones.
So, it's is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive: close reading, and not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). Likely, these notes will reside as unpublished on your Medium.com account.
Before drafting, start with notes: Make an extensive list of affordances and other elements you see in the Medium interface - this should be 20-30 items, with some thoughts on each. Do some research. A pattern or two will start to develop.
Now, write an [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Vituperation.htm | invective]] or [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Encomium.htm | encomium]] to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image - your own or one repurposed. Incorporate links.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Each challenge has tight constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
In my own practice with this kind of work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met very well with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium.Com. Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
When you attend, put the phones on silent, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers.
Whether you attend or not, assignments and deadlines are not negotiable. Assignments are done on time in order to be accepted as part of your grade. Late means a zero, and there's no make up: the course marches on. For an A, you must meet every deadline. Miss too many deadlines and you will be advised to drop the course.
In this way, the course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones.
So, it's is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive: close reading, and not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). Likely, these notes will reside as unpublished on your Medium.com account.
Before drafting, start with notes: Make an extensive list of affordances and other elements you see in the Medium interface - this should be 20-30 items, with some thoughts on each. Do some research. A pattern or two will start to develop.
Now, write an [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Vituperation.htm | invective]] or [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Encomium.htm | encomium]] to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image - your own or one repurposed. Incorporate links.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your finished work: a classical form such as invective, fable, or maxim, or a contemporary form such as travelogue, memo, or refrigerator note; as well as a length, and will typically require that you some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Each challenge has tight constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
In my own practice with this kind of work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met very well with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium.Com. Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending face to face.
When you attend, put the phones on silent, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers.
Whether you attend or not, assignments and deadlines are not negotiable. Assignments are done on time in order to be accepted as part of your grade. Late means a zero, and there's no make up: the course marches on. For an A, you must meet every deadline. Miss too many deadlines and you will be advised to drop the course.
Deletions:
In this way, the course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones. What this statement means is what I hope you will come to gain through the course.
This is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive — not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). Likely, these notes will reside as unpublished on your Medium.com account.
Before drafting, start with notes: Make an extensive list of affordances and other elements you see on Medium — 20–30 items, with some thoughts on each. Do some research. A pattern or two will start to develop.
Now, write an [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Vituperation.htm | invective]] or [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Encomium.htm | encomium]] to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image — your own or one repurposed. Incorporate links.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work: a form such as invective, or fable, or maxim, as well as a length, and typically some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Each challenge has some tight constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
In my own practice with this kind of work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It simply requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium.Com Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending.
When you attend, put the phones away, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers.
Whether you attend or not, assignments and deadlines are not negotiable. They are done on time in order to be accepted as part of your grade. Late means a zero, and there's no make up: the course marches on. We will likely have online discussions by way of commenting on wiki pages or pages in Medium. For an A, you must meet every deadline. Miss too many deadlines and you will be advised to drop the course.
Additions:
This course gives you the opportunity to learn and practice some of the fundamentals of web content writing by writing and publishing web content.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But Web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But Web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing of one-to-many. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests as a many-to-many network. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
Deletions:
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But Web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
Deletions:
Additions:
Boot Camp: Getting set up - under revision until Thursday
Deletions:
Additions:
- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as published but unlisted on your Medium.com account.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work: a form such as invective, or fable, or maxim, as well as a length, and typically some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Each challenge has some tight constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
The exercises, my notes, and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki.
I'm using D2L not as a grade book but as a way of giving you feedback on how you are doing, so please don't look for grades or points. Look under Assessments > User Progress for comments on your work and advice for the next round. I will issue you a mid-term grade, and if you are in danger of getting a D or E, I'll let you know individually.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work: a form such as invective, or fable, or maxim, as well as a length, and typically some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, or lists.
Each challenge has some tight constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
The exercises, my notes, and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki.
I'm using D2L not as a grade book but as a way of giving you feedback on how you are doing, so please don't look for grades or points. Look under Assessments > User Progress for comments on your work and advice for the next round. I will issue you a mid-term grade, and if you are in danger of getting a D or E, I'll let you know individually.
Deletions:
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work: a form such as invective, or fable, or maxim, as well as a length, and typically some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, lists ...
Each challenge has constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
All the exercises, my notes, and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki.
If you have made arrangements with me prior to the course, we will try Skyping.
Please don't ask about grades just before during class. Make a special time for this.
I'm using D2L not as a grade book but as a way of giving you feedback on how you are doing, so please don't look for grades or points. Look under User Feedback (?) for comments on your work and advice for the next round. I will issue you a mid-term grade, and if you are in danger of getting a D or E, I'll let you know individually.
Additions:
== Title: Make Me Think about Interfaces ==
Deletions:
Additions:
[[https://medium.com/@ThisIsOnline/7c52ee01066f | Hello WCW]]
No Differences
Additions:
Now, write an [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Vituperation.htm | invective]] or [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Pedagogy/Progymnasmata/Encomium.htm | encomium]] to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image — your own or one repurposed. Incorporate links.
See Also: [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Branches%20of%20Oratory/Epideictic.htm epideictic oratory]].
See Also: [[http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Branches%20of%20Oratory/Epideictic.htm epideictic oratory]].
Deletions:
See Also: epideictic oratory
Additions:
Writing: Medium.com is designed as an online text editor, and works very well. But if you want to work offline, I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. //Do not use MS Word//. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess.
Deletions:
Additions:
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, centered on commercial returns - and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But Web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of mass comm interests. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers (professionals, amateurs, others) can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches to their work, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
So the course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, ... This preliminary work then leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to Medium.com. As a final part of the challenge, the article you will be asked to write will be of a set reading length and most often I'll assign a genre or the use of a classical rhetorical exercise form.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive — not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). Likely, these notes will reside as unpublished on your Medium.com account.
- As a class, we will engage in some preliminary discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
- The deadline arrives. You publish. Publishing goes to the world.
- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as unpublished on your Medium.com account.
Doug Englebart, the computer scientist who invented the mouse, used to illustrate how the tool shapes the work that can be done by attaching a brick to a pencil and asking people to write with the contraption. Another way of thinking about this is to imagine how you would handle writing and reading if we used crayons rather than pencils, pens, typewriters, and now computers. The idea is that the tools shape the work: there is no neutral, natural, intuitive space to work in. Each space has its affordances and its constraints.
For this challenge, investigate the affordances for reading and writing that the Medium interface makes available, and consider how these affordances shape and constrain writing and reading. For the affordances, consider such things as the drafting space, comments and how they are handled, how links work, limits on image placement, how image enlargement works for readers, page color, icons for reading and writing .… Just as importantly, consider what is missing.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work: a form such as invective, or fable, or maxim, as well as a length, and typically some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, lists ...
Each challenge has constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
In my own practice with this kind of work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It simply requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
==== This Wiki ====
All the exercises, my notes, and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki.
We'll be using Medium.Com as a drafting and publishing space this semester. It's free, and it's an interesting environment to work in.
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium.Com Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
If you have made arrangements with me prior to the course, we will try Skyping.
So the course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. The guiding principle of the course is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail - and how else they can be addressed.
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, ... This preliminary work then leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to Medium.com. As a final part of the challenge, the article you will be asked to write will be of a set reading length and most often I'll assign a genre or the use of a classical rhetorical exercise form.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive — not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). Likely, these notes will reside as unpublished on your Medium.com account.
- As a class, we will engage in some preliminary discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
- The deadline arrives. You publish. Publishing goes to the world.
- You draft and circulate 500 words of reflection on your rhetorical choices in handling the challenge. This reflection will likely reside as unpublished on your Medium.com account.
Doug Englebart, the computer scientist who invented the mouse, used to illustrate how the tool shapes the work that can be done by attaching a brick to a pencil and asking people to write with the contraption. Another way of thinking about this is to imagine how you would handle writing and reading if we used crayons rather than pencils, pens, typewriters, and now computers. The idea is that the tools shape the work: there is no neutral, natural, intuitive space to work in. Each space has its affordances and its constraints.
For this challenge, investigate the affordances for reading and writing that the Medium interface makes available, and consider how these affordances shape and constrain writing and reading. For the affordances, consider such things as the drafting space, comments and how they are handled, how links work, limits on image placement, how image enlargement works for readers, page color, icons for reading and writing .… Just as importantly, consider what is missing.
Each challenge will draw on something that might be new to you, Each challenge will demand some reading and some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. Each challenge will introduce a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work: a form such as invective, or fable, or maxim, as well as a length, and typically some use of web writing affordances such as links, headings, images, lists ...
Each challenge has constraints but each challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
In my own practice with this kind of work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It simply requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
==== This Wiki ====
All the exercises, my notes, and whatever else we need to look at will show up on this wiki.
We'll be using Medium.Com as a drafting and publishing space this semester. It's free, and it's an interesting environment to work in.
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium.Com Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
If you have made arrangements with me prior to the course, we will try Skyping.
Deletions:
So the course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail.
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, ... This preliminary work then leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to medium. As a final part of the challenge, the article you will be asked to write will be of a set reading length and most often I'll assign a genre or the use of a classical rhetorical exercise form.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive — not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). [I’m not sure yet where these notes will reside. Perhaps as a private file on medium, or on the wiki, or perhaps they stay with the writer. Do I really need to see them?]
- We probably will engage in some preliminary discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
- Deadline arrives. You publish. Publishing goes to the world.
- You draft and circulate (Private? Public? on Medium or elsewhere?) 500 words of reflection on her rhetorical choices.
Investigate the affordances for reading and writing that the Medium interface makes available, and consider how these affordances shape writing and reading. For affordances, consider such things as the drafting space, comments and how they are handled, how links work, limits on image placement, how image enlargement works for readers, page color, icons for reading and writing .… Just as importantly, consider what is missing.
You can see that each challenge draws on something that might be new to you and will require some reading and writing. That each challenge demands some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. That each challenge introduces a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work. You should also note that the challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
To my mind, and in my own practice with this work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It simply requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium. Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
If you have made arrangements with me prior to the course, we will try skyping.
Deletions:
Exercises and assignments are due on time, please. Late projects will loose points for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, you don't get the points.
No Differences
Additions:
So the course takes as its subject its own practice of web content writing. You will be reading and writing about writing on the web, and in doing so looking at the principles and practices of writing on the web. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to look at and consider the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what those positions entail.
Deletions:
Additions:
This course give you the opportunity to learn and practice some of the fundamentals of web content writing by writing and publishing web content.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered, and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But Web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of commercial interests. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
... asks you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experiential. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
This is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered, and shaped as mass communication to mass audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But Web content writing does not need to follow mass communication models of writing. The web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of commercial interests. It can be a one-to-one medium, where writers can address readers individually, and where writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
... asks you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experiential. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
This is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
Deletions:
Web content writing does not need to follow mainstream models of writing for mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of commercial interests - a one-to-one medium, where writers can address readers individually - writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course asks you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experiential. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
But be assured: This is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
Additions:
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think. But what if we did think? That phrase, calculated to get into your head with little resistance, calculated not make you think, replaces considered writing with a clever cliche.
Web content writing does not need to follow mainstream models of writing for mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of commercial interests - a one-to-one medium, where writers can address readers individually - writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
- to explore the conventions of web content writing and systematically consider and critique those conventions
Web content writing does not need to follow mainstream models of writing for mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside of commercial interests - a one-to-one medium, where writers can address readers individually - writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
- to explore the conventions of web content writing and systematically consider and critique those conventions
Deletions:
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
- to explore the conventions of web content writing and systematically challenge those conventions
Additions:
This course asks you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experiential. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
Deletions:
Additions:
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and while that sounds clever, you have to wonder what's to gain. Meeting that commandment requires as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader.
Deletions:
Additions:
This course asks you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experiential. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending.
When you attend, put the phones away, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers.
E = many or most of the deadlines missed.
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. If you're here and active, you'll definitely gan something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about an assignment. If you miss the face to face class, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending.
When you attend, put the phones away, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers.
E = many or most of the deadlines missed.
Deletions:
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about a challenge. If you miss, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending.
When you attend, put the phones away, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers. Otherwise, don't bother coming.
E = many or most of the deadlines missed. You should have dropped the course when advised.
Additions:
BootCamp eg Getting set up
Additions:
mmorgan@bemidjistate.edu • twitter: @mcmorgan @thisisonline
Deletions:
This Is Online: http://thisisonline.org
Additions:
====Attendance====
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about a challenge. If you miss, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending.
When you attend, put the phones away, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers. Otherwise, don't bother coming.
If you have made arrangements with me prior to the course, we will try skyping.
==== Assignments and Deadlines ====
Whether you attend or not, assignments and deadlines are not negotiable. They are done on time in order to be accepted as part of your grade. Late means a zero, and there's no make up: the course marches on. We will likely have online discussions by way of commenting on wiki pages or pages in Medium. For an A, you must meet every deadline. Miss too many deadlines and you will be advised to drop the course.
Please don't ask about grades just before during class. Make a special time for this.
I'm using D2L not as a grade book but as a way of giving you feedback on how you are doing, so please don't look for grades or points. Look under User Feedback (?) for comments on your work and advice for the next round. I will issue you a mid-term grade, and if you are in danger of getting a D or E, I'll let you know individually.
A = all deadlines met, superlative work by the end of the semester
B = most or all deadlines met, excellent work by the end of the semester
C = most or all deadlines met, competent but standard, pedestrian work
D = many deadlines missed, work below standard
E = many or most of the deadlines missed. You should have dropped the course when advised.
Attendance is wholly voluntary. If you're here, you'll probably gain something. You'll be able to ask questions and get answers right then and there. You'll be able to talk about a challenge. If you miss, you miss whatever we did in class that session. Much of what we're doing will be facilitated online, so it's possible to take part in the class without attending.
When you attend, put the phones away, stay part of the whole class discussion when we're having it and when we're on the computers. Otherwise, don't bother coming.
If you have made arrangements with me prior to the course, we will try skyping.
==== Assignments and Deadlines ====
Whether you attend or not, assignments and deadlines are not negotiable. They are done on time in order to be accepted as part of your grade. Late means a zero, and there's no make up: the course marches on. We will likely have online discussions by way of commenting on wiki pages or pages in Medium. For an A, you must meet every deadline. Miss too many deadlines and you will be advised to drop the course.
Please don't ask about grades just before during class. Make a special time for this.
I'm using D2L not as a grade book but as a way of giving you feedback on how you are doing, so please don't look for grades or points. Look under User Feedback (?) for comments on your work and advice for the next round. I will issue you a mid-term grade, and if you are in danger of getting a D or E, I'll let you know individually.
A = all deadlines met, superlative work by the end of the semester
B = most or all deadlines met, excellent work by the end of the semester
C = most or all deadlines met, competent but standard, pedestrian work
D = many deadlines missed, work below standard
E = many or most of the deadlines missed. You should have dropped the course when advised.
Deletions:
We'lll meet face to face once week. I'll meet with you individually so you can bring me up to date on your work. You'll have time to meet with co-writers to work, and the like. Use the rest of the time here and elsewhere to do your work. When we meet, bring //Hot Text//.
All the activities for the course - the projects, the exercises, the discussions - are designed to give you opportunities not only to learn the practice, the how-to, but to develop and refine your understanding of the rhetorical strategies and principles behind the practice.
==== Some Web Design Fundamentals ====
Writers are occasionally involved in decisions involving information architecture of websites, including hierarchies, taxonomies, category terms, aspect terms, page design, and other visual and conceptual choices of design. We're going to take a few weeks to look at some of these choices and how to make them wisely. We'll use Lynch and Horton's //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed (print or online at [[http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/ | http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/]]) as a guide, and we'll work with some exercises in-class and out to get your feet wet.
====Experimentation====
While what we do in class builds from fundamentals, I encourage you to experiment. Because we're working in a classroom environment, we can try things out, consider and discuss and text how they work - or not - and change them as necessary.
====Joomla====
Joomla is a well-known content management system - a system that runs on a web server that allows writers and editors to post, edit, publish, and manage written content. WordPress is a CMS. Joomla is arcane, finicky, and a nuisance, but it fits our purpose. If you write professionally for the web, you are likely to encounter a CMS, so having some experience with one is a Good Thing.
You will be authors on Joomla, which lets you post and edit articles. As the course progresses, you will all be involved in editorial decisions, which involve tweaking and creating new categories on Joomla, change designs, and the like. I'll introduce you to what you need to know to get started as we go. If you take an interest in Joomla, in, perhaps running your own Joomla-based publication, you can start your apprenticeship during the course. Start reading the documentation on http://joomla.com.
====Images and Other Web Technologies====
If necessary, we will cover how to prepare original content images - scans and digital photos - for the web, using Photoshop CS3. We have a scanner and a digital camera available in the classroom, and many of you already own digital cameras.
====The Wiki and Joomla ====
We'll use a wiki to support the practices and procedures in this course.
- I'll use it to post assignments, announcements, instruction materials, my notes, and whatever else we need.
- You may use it to plan, draft stories, keep notes, share text, track what you're doing, submit plans, and record individual work.
- Individually, you may use it for class notes and assignments.
Story assignments, proposals, and drafts are all managed on Joomla. You'll see them once you are registered and logged in.
====Attendance====
We will touch base as a class at least once each week, and attendance at these meetings will count towards your final grade. At other times, I may schedule individual meetings with you during class time.
Plan on being in class when it is scheduled, and on time, please. Missing 4 scheduled classes or individual meetings will cut into your final grade. Miss 6 classes or meetings - that's 3 weeks of class - and I'll ask you to drop.
Think of this course as much like an internship as a course. I will evaluate you on your initiative, problem-solving, timeliness, as well as using - well - the affordances of good web content writing.
All work must be completed to receive a final grade for the course. But here's the way grading will work out - subject to change.
You get a byline by writing or co-writing a project, or by being an assigned or volunteer tech assistant/first editor for a project, that reaches publication. Each byline is worth 100 points or so.
Projects will ask for between 1000 - 5000 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
Words on the web: I do the counting after I edit. That is, concision counts. While long isn't necessarily better, development is - and on the web, you can develop by linking, listing, and other means. When you first submit a draft, I may edit it with the aim of getting more words out of you. I can get a 500 word draft down to 250 words pretty easily. Which means you may have to submit 1000 words to even meet the 500 word count.
As a rough guide, if you're doing fine with the exercises and possible quizzes, you make the deadlines, you can figure on the following:
2 bylines = C
4 bylines = B
6 bylines = A
Additions:
- to become a better reader of web interfaces and writing published in those interfaces
Additions:
== Title: Make Me Think About Writing Interfaces ==
Deletions:
Additions:
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web text to address specific rhetorical contexts
- you can write to assigned length and to assigned form
- you can write to assigned length and to assigned form
Deletions:
- you can write to assigned length and to assigned
Additions:
You can see that each challenge draws on something that might be new to you and will require some reading and writing. That each challenge demands some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. That each challenge introduces a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work. You should also note that the challenge leaves a lot for you to decide and work with. You might be asked to "use links" as part of the challenge, but it is up to you to decide how to use them to meet the task.
To my mind, and in my own practice with this work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It simply requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
To my mind, and in my own practice with this work, each challenge requires some extensive background work in writing - much of which won't make it into the published work. I find that none of these challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It simply requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
Deletions:
Additions:
Now, write an invective or encomium to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image — your own or one repurposed. Incorporate links.
Deletions:
Additions:
>>{{image url=""}}>>
Deletions:
If you're going into web writing or web design, here are two texts you'll want to have.
Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
//Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]>>
Additions:
This course asks you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
- to become familiar with classical rhetorical exercises as establishing rhetorical expectations and contexts for reading and editing
- to draft and publish to an assigned length and genre an article designed to make a reader think about the issue at hand
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web text in specific rhetorical contexts
- you can write to assigned length and to assigned
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, ... This preliminary work then leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to medium. As a final part of the challenge, the article you will be asked to write will be of a set reading length and most often I'll assign a genre or the use of a classical rhetorical exercise form.
Here's a rough sketch of the workflow. The workflow may change as we refine it during the course.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive — not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). [I’m not sure yet where these notes will reside. Perhaps as a private file on medium, or on the wiki, or perhaps they stay with the writer. Do I really need to see them?]
- We probably will engage in some preliminary discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
- You draft on your own medium.com page. That draft can remain private if you wish.
- But at some point, you share your draft with others in the class to invite comments.
- Deadline arrives. You publish. Publishing goes to the world.
- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. (This editorial barrier is a trial run. I would rather open it, but I want to see how the system works.)
- You draft and circulate (Private? Public? on Medium or elsewhere?) 500 words of reflection on her rhetorical choices.
- The class reviews approaches to the problem and discusses them.
- We do it again.
Here's a draft of what a challenge might look like:
Title: Make Me Think About Writing Interfaces
Investigate the affordances for reading and writing that the Medium interface makes available, and consider how these affordances shape writing and reading. For affordances, consider such things as the drafting space, comments and how they are handled, how links work, limits on image placement, how image enlargement works for readers, page color, icons for reading and writing .… Just as importantly, consider what is missing.
Before drafting, start with notes: Make an extensive list of affordances and other elements you see on Medium — 20–30 items, with some thoughts on each. Do some research. A pattern or two will start to develop.
Now, for the project, write an invective or encomium to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image — your own or repurposed. Incorporate links.
See Also: epideictic oratory
=== Summary ===
You can see that each challenge draws on something that might be new to you and will require some reading and writing. That each challenge demands some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. That each challenge introduces a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work. To my mind, and in my own practice with this work, none of the challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It usually requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
- to become familiar with classical rhetorical exercises as establishing rhetorical expectations and contexts for reading and editing
- to draft and publish to an assigned length and genre an article designed to make a reader think about the issue at hand
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web text in specific rhetorical contexts
- you can write to assigned length and to assigned
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the challenge while following the criteria. In doing so, you will be reading / researching the matter at hand, taking notes, making lists, experimenting with alternatives, discussing the matters at hand, ... This preliminary work then leads to an article drafted, edited, and published to medium. As a final part of the challenge, the article you will be asked to write will be of a set reading length and most often I'll assign a genre or the use of a classical rhetorical exercise form.
Here's a rough sketch of the workflow. The workflow may change as we refine it during the course.
- The challenge will ask for some preliminary reading and writing. Both are extensive — not rough notes but substantive informal written work that will probably not appear in the exposition (but maybe they will). [I’m not sure yet where these notes will reside. Perhaps as a private file on medium, or on the wiki, or perhaps they stay with the writer. Do I really need to see them?]
- We probably will engage in some preliminary discussion on what you are finding out in your notes.
- You draft on your own medium.com page. That draft can remain private if you wish.
- But at some point, you share your draft with others in the class to invite comments.
- Deadline arrives. You publish. Publishing goes to the world.
- You request placement in the TIO Labs Collection. When the work is accepted for the class, it appears in the collection. (This editorial barrier is a trial run. I would rather open it, but I want to see how the system works.)
- You draft and circulate (Private? Public? on Medium or elsewhere?) 500 words of reflection on her rhetorical choices.
- The class reviews approaches to the problem and discusses them.
- We do it again.
Here's a draft of what a challenge might look like:
Title: Make Me Think About Writing Interfaces
Investigate the affordances for reading and writing that the Medium interface makes available, and consider how these affordances shape writing and reading. For affordances, consider such things as the drafting space, comments and how they are handled, how links work, limits on image placement, how image enlargement works for readers, page color, icons for reading and writing .… Just as importantly, consider what is missing.
Before drafting, start with notes: Make an extensive list of affordances and other elements you see on Medium — 20–30 items, with some thoughts on each. Do some research. A pattern or two will start to develop.
Now, for the project, write an invective or encomium to the interface. 3 to 5 min reading. Use one image — your own or repurposed. Incorporate links.
See Also: epideictic oratory
=== Summary ===
You can see that each challenge draws on something that might be new to you and will require some reading and writing. That each challenge demands some preliminary writing in the form of notes, lists, sketches - generally extensive notes - and perhaps some discussion. That each challenge introduces a different set of rhetorical criteria to address in your published work. To my mind, and in my own practice with this work, none of the challenges can be met with off-the-cuff, un-worked exposition. It usually requires more work to challenge convention than to follow it. I'm asking that you take up the challenges in the spirit intended: that as a challenge, each gives you the opportunity to make people think.
Deletions:
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web text
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the problem while following the criteria.
Here's the situation. Here's the challenge. Form is specified, as are other criteria, such as links.
Publish a 500-760 word narrative on Medium in which you do x. Reading time of 2 min. Article to wiki explaining your reasoning.
Additions:
==== Aims of the Course ====
- to explore other possibilities for web content writing
- to do this through research and written notes and discussion, which leads to published exposition and comment on that exposition.
The course will not make you an expert in web content writing - no course will. It will give you a chance to practice writing web content so that
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the problem while following the criteria.
- to explore other possibilities for web content writing
- to do this through research and written notes and discussion, which leads to published exposition and comment on that exposition.
The course will not make you an expert in web content writing - no course will. It will give you a chance to practice writing web content so that
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or two, I will set a challenge based on one or two aspects of writing and reading web content. Your task is to find ways to address the problem while following the criteria.
Deletions:
- to
- to do this through research, written notes, exploration, and exposition.
The course will not make you an expert in web content writing - no course will. It does give you a chance to practice writing web content so that
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or so, I will set a challenge based on whatever we're looking at that time. Your task is to find ways to address the problem within the criteria.
Additions:
Writing: Medium is designed as an online text editor, and works very well. But if you want to work offline, I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. //Do not use MS Word//. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess.
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned. It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment require as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course will ask you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
In this way, the course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones. What this statement means is what I hope you will come to gain through the course.
But be assured: This is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
====Aims====
- to explore the conventions of web content writing and systematically challenge those conventions
- to
- to do this through research, written notes, exploration, and exposition.
==== Learning Opportunities ====
Web Content Writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned. It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment require as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course will ask you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively and systematically exploring what that push back entails.
In this way, the course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones. What this statement means is what I hope you will come to gain through the course.
But be assured: This is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
====Aims====
- to explore the conventions of web content writing and systematically challenge those conventions
- to
- to do this through research, written notes, exploration, and exposition.
==== Learning Opportunities ====
Deletions:
Web content writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned. It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment requires as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course will ask you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively exploring what that push back entails.
It is in this way that the course also gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones. What this statement means is what I hope you will come to gain through the course.
But be assured: this is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
====Goals====
Additions:
==== English Dept Communications ====
The department’s webpage (http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/departments/english/) has information about the department, current and future classes and other stuff for majors and non-majors.
For majors and interested students, we maintain a listserv for announcements about jobs, careers, publishing opportunities, news, and information. To subscribe to Verb_L, send an email with “Subscribe” in the subject line to
Verb_L-request@listserv.bemidjistate.edu.
A confirmation email will be sent to you. Simply follow those directions. Also look for us on Facebook: BSU English.
The department’s webpage (http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/departments/english/) has information about the department, current and future classes and other stuff for majors and non-majors.
For majors and interested students, we maintain a listserv for announcements about jobs, careers, publishing opportunities, news, and information. To subscribe to Verb_L, send an email with “Subscribe” in the subject line to
Verb_L-request@listserv.bemidjistate.edu.
A confirmation email will be sent to you. Simply follow those directions. Also look for us on Facebook: BSU English.
Additions:
You will need a Twitter account to use Medium. Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
Deletions:
Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
Additions:
""<script async src="https://static.medium.com/embed.js"></script><a class="m-story" data-collapsed="true" href="https://medium.com/@ThisIsOnline/ce1791e04a7d">From whence?</a>""
No Differences
Additions:
""<script async src="https://static.medium.com/embed.js"></script><a class="m-collection" href="https://medium.com/tio-lab-space">TIO Labs</a>""
Additions:
== Required==
== Reference ==
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. In print from Amazon, or online http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
Web content writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned. It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment requires as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course will ask you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively exploring what that push back entails.
It is in this way that the course also gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones. What this statement means is what I hope you will come to gain through the course.
But be assured: this is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
The course will not make you an expert in web content writing - no course will. It does give you a chance to practice writing web content so that
++ - you can recast and repurpose texts into multi-page hypertexts++
==== Medium ====
==== Twitter ====
Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
This syllabus is available in alternate formats. Talk to me, or contact the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
== Reference ==
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. In print from Amazon, or online http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
Web content writing as it is typically taught has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned. It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment requires as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass communication. Because the web is a publishing platform that can stand outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course will ask you to challenge the formulaic mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guiding principle is Make Me Think. It will ask you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively exploring what that push back entails.
It is in this way that the course also gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing web content based on //rhetorical// principles rather than normative ones. What this statement means is what I hope you will come to gain through the course.
But be assured: this is a course in practice. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
The course will not make you an expert in web content writing - no course will. It does give you a chance to practice writing web content so that
++ - you can recast and repurpose texts into multi-page hypertexts++
==== Medium ====
==== Twitter ====
Get an account if you don't have one already. Or get a second one if you want to keep your work with this course separate from your personal account.
This syllabus is available in alternate formats. Talk to me, or contact the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
Deletions:
Referred to and reference
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. In print from Amazon or BSU Bookstore, or online http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
On the publishing side, we'll be using Joomla 2.5x, set up at http://thisisonline.org. You will be publishing, editing, and managing web content on This Is Online.
This course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing content for web sites based on rhetorical principles. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
The course focuses on rhetorical situations and circumstances particular to writing for the web (such as differences from print in reading and audience relations) and the rhetorical affordances for addressing those circumstances (web page layout, textual elements such as headings and lists, links, and incorporating images and text). Writing for the web has broadened over the past 20 years, we approach it as rhetorically open and diverse. This course is about the rhetorical situations, affordances, possibilities, and experiments as they might unfold on the web.
This is to say that writing web content has become significantly different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
The course won't necessarily make you an expert in web content writing but it does give you a chance to practice writing web content so that
- you can recast and repurpose texts into multi-page hypertexts
- you gain some experience in using a CMS - Joomla, in our case - for publishing, editing, and managing content.
==== The Idea behind This ====
Web content writing has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned: It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment requires as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass comm. Because the web is a publishing platform that stands outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course asks you to challenge the mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guideline is Make Me Think. It asks you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively exploring what that push back entails.
====
====Projects====
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll assign you writing projects or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on [[http://thisisonline.org This Is Online]]. When published, you gain points. As the course progresses, I hope that you will take on roles as editors more and more: managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
Project assignments will be tailored - that is, assigned to you by interest, availability, and tenacity. Some projects can be accomplished quickly. Others will demand things like getting on Twitter for a few weeks, or traveling somewhere ...
You will have at least one project to work on from the third or fourth week of class on. As soon as you finish one project, you'll get a short breather, then have another assigned.
====Exercises, discussion, and quizzes maybe====
To introduce new concepts, to broaden the range of opportunities, and to let you experiment a little, I may be giving you some exercises in writing drawn from principles and practices in //Hot Text//. The exercises can open up our discussion on strategies and complications in addressing rhetorical situations on the web.
Typically, a course might use quizzes and tests to determine your mastery of practices and concepts. Instead, as is appropriate in a workshop, I will ask you to demonstrate a growing mastery of the concepts behind the practice by talking about your work, and the work of others.
I may, for instance, ask you to draw on //Hot Text// to discuss why you made the choices you did in placing and labeling links on a page. Or I may ask you to discuss how else you might shorten the text of a page and deal with the necessary supplemental material and links.
Expect to be asked in class, on the fly, about writing choices you have made. When you are asked, don't panic. It doesn't mean you have made poor choices. Take your time, think, consider, and do your best to explain your line of thinking. Ground your choices in the principles we're working with. Ask others to help you out. Let others help you out. Look for alternatives. Look for alternatives. Look again for alternatives.
I may give one or two short quizzes during the course. If I do, I'll mention it in advance. But more often, I will expect you to be able to use the terms and concepts introduced as part of this class to consider and discuss whatever it is we're working on at the time.
This syllabus is available in alternate formats. Talk to me, or contact Kathi Hagen in the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
Additions:
Spring 2015
====Texts====
Required
Referred to and reference
==== The Idea behind This ====
Web content writing has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned: It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment requires as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass comm. Because the web is a publishing platform that stands outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course asks you to challenge the mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guideline is Make Me Think. It asks you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively exploring what that push back entails.
====Focus on Rhetorical Problems====
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or so, I will set a challenge based on whatever we're looking at that time. Your task is to find ways to address the problem within the criteria.
Here's the situation. Here's the challenge. Form is specified, as are other criteria, such as links.
Publish a 500-760 word narrative on Medium in which you do x. Reading time of 2 min. Article to wiki explaining your reasoning.
====
We'lll meet face to face once week. I'll meet with you individually so you can bring me up to date on your work. You'll have time to meet with co-writers to work, and the like. Use the rest of the time here and elsewhere to do your work. When we meet, bring //Hot Text//.
====Texts====
Required
Referred to and reference
==== The Idea behind This ====
Web content writing has become industrial - formulaic, ROI-centered - as mass communication concepts are loathe to challenge audiences. Writing for the Commercial Web is readily learned: It's not challenging - for either the reader or the writer. The watchword is Don't Make Me Think - and meeting that commandment requires as little thought of the writer as it demands of the reader. If you are looking for more of the same, you should look for another course.
But web content writing need not follow mainstream models of mass comm. Because the web is a publishing platform that stands outside commercial interests, a one-to-one medium, writers can take alternative approaches, think of audiences in alternative ways, employ the affordances of web writing in ways that challenge both themselves and readers.
This course asks you to challenge the mainstream and to critique the experimental. Its guideline is Make Me Think. It asks you to push back against the normative and prescriptive positions of web writing by actively exploring what that push back entails.
====Focus on Rhetorical Problems====
The course takes a problem-centered approach to learning web writing. Every week or so, I will set a challenge based on whatever we're looking at that time. Your task is to find ways to address the problem within the criteria.
Here's the situation. Here's the challenge. Form is specified, as are other criteria, such as links.
Publish a 500-760 word narrative on Medium in which you do x. Reading time of 2 min. Article to wiki explaining your reasoning.
====
We'lll meet face to face once week. I'll meet with you individually so you can bring me up to date on your work. You'll have time to meet with co-writers to work, and the like. Use the rest of the time here and elsewhere to do your work. When we meet, bring //Hot Text//.
Deletions:
====Required Texts====
====Focus on Content====
The course takes a content- and user-centered approach to web writing. That is, we start with content and the reader's position and make rhetorical choices to suit that situation.
And this is a studio course: dominantly hands-on, with some editing exercises, discussions, and oral critiques.
Once the class gets set up, one class day a week will be a formal class meeting. The other class day each week will be a workday. I'll meet with you individually so you can bring me up to date on your work. You'll have time to meet with co-writers to work, and the like. Use the rest of the time here and elsewhere to do your work. When we meet, bring //Hot Text//.
Additions:
>>{{image url=""}}== Recommended texts==
If you're going into web writing or web design, here are two texts you'll want to have.
//Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]>>
======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
If you're going into web writing or web design, here are two texts you'll want to have.
//Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]>>
======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Deletions:
If you're going into web writing or web design, here are three texts you'll want to have.
//Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]>>======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Additions:
>>{{image url="="}}== Recommended texts==
Deletions:
== Recommended texts==
Additions:
Writing: I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. //Do not use MS Word//. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess.
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll assign you writing projects or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on [[http://thisisonline.org This Is Online]]. When published, you gain points. As the course progresses, I hope that you will take on roles as editors more and more: managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
You will have at least one project to work on from the third or fourth week of class on. As soon as you finish one project, you'll get a short breather, then have another assigned.
==== Some Web Design Fundamentals ====
Writers are occasionally involved in decisions involving information architecture of websites, including hierarchies, taxonomies, category terms, aspect terms, page design, and other visual and conceptual choices of design. We're going to take a few weeks to look at some of these choices and how to make them wisely. We'll use Lynch and Horton's //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed (print or online at [[http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/ | http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/]]) as a guide, and we'll work with some exercises in-class and out to get your feet wet.
You will be authors on Joomla, which lets you post and edit articles. As the course progresses, you will all be involved in editorial decisions, which involve tweaking and creating new categories on Joomla, change designs, and the like. I'll introduce you to what you need to know to get started as we go. If you take an interest in Joomla, in, perhaps running your own Joomla-based publication, you can start your apprenticeship during the course. Start reading the documentation on http://joomla.com.
- You may use it to plan, draft stories, keep notes, share text, track what you're doing, submit plans, and record individual work.
Words on the web: I do the counting after I edit. That is, concision counts. While long isn't necessarily better, development is - and on the web, you can develop by linking, listing, and other means. When you first submit a draft, I may edit it with the aim of getting more words out of you. I can get a 500 word draft down to 250 words pretty easily. Which means you may have to submit 1000 words to even meet the 500 word count.
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll assign you writing projects or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on [[http://thisisonline.org This Is Online]]. When published, you gain points. As the course progresses, I hope that you will take on roles as editors more and more: managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
You will have at least one project to work on from the third or fourth week of class on. As soon as you finish one project, you'll get a short breather, then have another assigned.
==== Some Web Design Fundamentals ====
Writers are occasionally involved in decisions involving information architecture of websites, including hierarchies, taxonomies, category terms, aspect terms, page design, and other visual and conceptual choices of design. We're going to take a few weeks to look at some of these choices and how to make them wisely. We'll use Lynch and Horton's //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed (print or online at [[http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/ | http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/]]) as a guide, and we'll work with some exercises in-class and out to get your feet wet.
You will be authors on Joomla, which lets you post and edit articles. As the course progresses, you will all be involved in editorial decisions, which involve tweaking and creating new categories on Joomla, change designs, and the like. I'll introduce you to what you need to know to get started as we go. If you take an interest in Joomla, in, perhaps running your own Joomla-based publication, you can start your apprenticeship during the course. Start reading the documentation on http://joomla.com.
- You may use it to plan, draft stories, keep notes, share text, track what you're doing, submit plans, and record individual work.
Words on the web: I do the counting after I edit. That is, concision counts. While long isn't necessarily better, development is - and on the web, you can develop by linking, listing, and other means. When you first submit a draft, I may edit it with the aim of getting more words out of you. I can get a 500 word draft down to 250 words pretty easily. Which means you may have to submit 1000 words to even meet the 500 word count.
Deletions:
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll assign you writing projects - or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on [[http://thisisonline.org This Is Online]]. When published, you gain the points. As the course progresses, I hope that you will take on roles as editors more and more: managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
You will have at least one project to work on from the third week of class on. I may assign or request that you work on two at a time. As soon as you finish one project, you'll get a short breather, then have another assigned.
Initially, you will be authors on Joomla, which lets you post and edit articles. As the course progresses, you may be assigned or take on the role of Editor, which lets you create new categories on Joomla, change designs, and the like. I'll introduce you to what you need to know to get started as we go. If you take an interest in Joomla, in, perhaps running your own Joomla-based publication, you can start your apprenticeship during the course. Start reading the documentation on http://joomla.com.
- You'll use it to plan, draft stories, keep notes, share text, track what you're doing, submit plans, and record individual work.
Words on the web: I do the counting after I edit. That is, concision counts. While long isn't necessarily better, development is - and on the web, you can develop by linking, listing, and other means. When you first submit a draft, I will edit it with the aim of getting more words out of you. I can get a 500 word draft down to 250 words pretty easily. Which means you may have to submit 1000 words to even meet the 500 word count.
Additions:
====Required Texts====
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. In print from Amazon or BSU Bookstore, or online http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
Jonathan and Lisa Price. //Hot Text: Web Writing that Works//. New Riders, 2002. [[http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Text-Writing-that-Works/dp/0735711518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325867373&sr=8-1 Amazon]].
On the publishing side, we'll be using Joomla 2.5x, set up at http://thisisonline.org. You will be publishing, editing, and managing web content on This Is Online.
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. In print from Amazon or BSU Bookstore, or online http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
Jonathan and Lisa Price. //Hot Text: Web Writing that Works//. New Riders, 2002. [[http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Text-Writing-that-Works/dp/0735711518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325867373&sr=8-1 Amazon]].
On the publishing side, we'll be using Joomla 2.5x, set up at http://thisisonline.org. You will be publishing, editing, and managing web content on This Is Online.
Deletions:
====Text====
**Required** Jonathan and Lisa Price. //Hot Text: Web Writing that Works//. New Riders, 2002. [[http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Text-Writing-that-Works/dp/0735711518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325867373&sr=8-1 Amazon]].
On the publishing side, we'll be using Joomla 1.5x, set up at http://thisisonline.org. You will be publishing, editing, and managing web content on This Is Online.
Additions:
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll assign you writing projects - or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on [[http://thisisonline.org This Is Online]]. When published, you gain the points. As the course progresses, I hope that you will take on roles as editors more and more: managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
Deletions:
Additions:
Writing: I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting. Do not use MS Word. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess.
This is to say that writing web content has become significantly different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll ++offer++ assign you writing projects - or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on This Is Online. When published, you gain the points. As the course progresses, I hope that you will take on roles as editors more and more: managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
You will have at least one project to work on from the third week of class on. I may assign or request that you work on two at a time. As soon as you finish one project, you'll get a short breather, then have another assigned.
This is to say that writing web content has become significantly different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll ++offer++ assign you writing projects - or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on This Is Online. When published, you gain the points. As the course progresses, I hope that you will take on roles as editors more and more: managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
You will have at least one project to work on from the third week of class on. I may assign or request that you work on two at a time. As soon as you finish one project, you'll get a short breather, then have another assigned.
Deletions:
This is to say that writing web content is significantly - not trivially - different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll ++offer++ assign you writing projects - or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on This Is Online. When published, you gain the points. As the course progresses, you will take on roles as editors more and more, managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
You will have at least one project to work on from the third week of class on. I may assign or request that you work on two at a time - one short and one long. As soon as you finish one, you'll get a short breather, then another assigned.
Additions:
You get a byline by writing or co-writing a project, or by being an assigned or volunteer tech assistant/first editor for a project, that reaches publication. Each byline is worth 100 points or so.
As a rough guide, if you're doing fine with the exercises and possible quizzes, you make the deadlines, you can figure on the following:
As a rough guide, if you're doing fine with the exercises and possible quizzes, you make the deadlines, you can figure on the following:
Deletions:
As a rough guide, if you're doing fine with the exercises and possible quizzes, and if you make every deadline, you can figure on the following:
Additions:
You get a byline by writing or co-writing a project, or by being an assigned or volunteer tech assistant/first editor for a project. Each byline is worth 100 points or so.
As a rough guide, if you're doing fine with the exercises and possible quizzes, and if you make every deadline, you can figure on the following:
2 bylines = C
4 bylines = B
6 bylines = A
As a rough guide, if you're doing fine with the exercises and possible quizzes, and if you make every deadline, you can figure on the following:
2 bylines = C
4 bylines = B
6 bylines = A
Deletions:
4 bylines = 400
6 bylines = 600
You get a byline by writing or co-writing a project, or by being an assigned or volunteer tech assistant/first editor for a project.
Cutoffs
90% = A
80% = B
70% = C
60% = D
below 60% = F
Additions:
====Text====
Deletions:
Additions:
Writing: I recommend a markdown editor (google markdown editor +[your operating system]), but any text editor will do. You can also use the wiki for drafting, Do not use MS Word. Please. It adds code to the text files that make formatting on the web a mess. It creates rather than solves problems.
2 bylines = 200 points
4 bylines = 400
6 bylines = 600
Projects will ask for between 1000 - 5000 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
2 bylines = 200 points
4 bylines = 400
6 bylines = 600
Projects will ask for between 1000 - 5000 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
Deletions:
[under revision for spring 2012: 3 - 4 bylines]
[list under revision]
Number of bylines published. 100 points per byline.
Projects will ask for between 1000 - 1500 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
The number of bylines puts you in the range of those points.
[under revision]
Additions:
[list under revision]
Additions:
[under revision for spring 2012: 3 - 4 bylines]
Projects will ask for between 1000 - 1500 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
The number of bylines puts you in the range of those points.
[under revision]
Projects will ask for between 1000 - 1500 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
The number of bylines puts you in the range of those points.
[under revision]
Deletions:
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 - 1500 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
The number of bylines puts you in the range of those points. So,12 projects can get you up to 1200 but as low as 800.
- exercises - 50 - 100 points each
- bylines - up to 1200+
- general civility, engagement, helpfulness to others - up to 200+
Additions:
[under revision. probably 3 - 4 during the semester]
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 - 1500 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 - 1500 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
Deletions:
4 = 400 (C)
8 = 800 (B)
12 = 1200 (A)
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
Totals could be as high as 2000+ points.
Additions:
>>{{image url="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3568463428_8d0c739875.jpg"}}
== Recommended texts==
If you're going into web writing or web design, here are three texts you'll want to have.
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
//Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]>>======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
== Recommended texts==
If you're going into web writing or web design, here are three texts you'll want to have.
Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
//Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]>>======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Deletions:
**Recommended online** Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
**Recommended** Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
**Recommended** //Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]
Additions:
Project assignments will be tailored - that is, assigned to you by interest, availability, and tenacity. Some projects can be accomplished quickly. Others will demand things like getting on Twitter for a few weeks, or traveling somewhere ...
To introduce new concepts, to broaden the range of opportunities, and to let you experiment a little, I may be giving you some exercises in writing drawn from principles and practices in //Hot Text//. The exercises can open up our discussion on strategies and complications in addressing rhetorical situations on the web.
I may, for instance, ask you to draw on //Hot Text// to discuss why you made the choices you did in placing and labeling links on a page. Or I may ask you to discuss how else you might shorten the text of a page and deal with the necessary supplemental material and links.
Exercises and assignments are due on time, please. Late projects will loose points for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, you don't get the points.
Think of this course as much like an internship as a course. I will evaluate you on your initiative, problem-solving, timeliness, as well as using - well - the affordances of good web content writing.
All work must be completed to receive a final grade for the course. But here's the way grading will work out - subject to change.
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
- general civility, engagement, helpfulness to others - up to 200+
90% = A
80% = B
70% = C
60% = D
below 60% = F
CategoryCourseAdmin
To introduce new concepts, to broaden the range of opportunities, and to let you experiment a little, I may be giving you some exercises in writing drawn from principles and practices in //Hot Text//. The exercises can open up our discussion on strategies and complications in addressing rhetorical situations on the web.
I may, for instance, ask you to draw on //Hot Text// to discuss why you made the choices you did in placing and labeling links on a page. Or I may ask you to discuss how else you might shorten the text of a page and deal with the necessary supplemental material and links.
Exercises and assignments are due on time, please. Late projects will loose points for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, you don't get the points.
Think of this course as much like an internship as a course. I will evaluate you on your initiative, problem-solving, timeliness, as well as using - well - the affordances of good web content writing.
All work must be completed to receive a final grade for the course. But here's the way grading will work out - subject to change.
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 published words, but that is negotiable. If you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
- general civility, engagement, helpfulness to others - up to 200+
90% = A
80% = B
70% = C
60% = D
below 60% = F
CategoryCourseAdmin
Deletions:
To introduce new concepts, to broaden the range of opportunities, and to let you experiment a little, I'll be giving you some exercises in writing drawn from principles and practices in //Hot Text//. The exercises can open up our discussion on strategies and complications in addressing rhetorical situations on the web.
I may, for instance, ask you to draw on //Hot Text// to discuss why you made the choices you did in placing and labeling links on a page. Or I may ask you to discuss how else you might shorten the main text of a page and deal with the necessary supplemental material.
Exercises and assignments are due on time, please. Late projects will loose points for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, I'll subtract the points from your final total.
All work must be completed to receive a final grade for the course. But here's the way grading will work out - subject to change. I may adjust the number of points on some of the projects.
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 published words, or negotiable. That is, if you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
- general civility, engagement, helpfulness to others - up to 200
90% = A
80% = B
70% = C
60% = D
below 60% = F
CategoryCourseAdmin`
Additions:
Project assignments will be tailored; that is, assigned to you by interest and tenacity. Some projects can be accomplished quickly. Others will demand things like getting on Twitter for a few weeks, or traveling somewhere ...
Additions:
You will have at least one project to work on from the third week of class on. I may assign or request that you work on two at a time - one short and one long. As soon as you finish one, you'll get a short breather, then another assigned.
2 = 200 (my estimate is D)
8 = 800 (B)
12 = 1200 (A)
CategoryCourseAdmin`
2 = 200 (my estimate is D)
8 = 800 (B)
12 = 1200 (A)
CategoryCourseAdmin`
Deletions:
8 = 800 (B)
12 = 1200 (A)
CategoryCourseAdmin
Additions:
Spring 2012
This Is Online: http://thisisonline.org
**Required** Jonathan and Lisa Price. //Hot Text: Web Writing that Works//. New Riders, 2002. [[http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Text-Writing-that-Works/dp/0735711518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325867373&sr=8-1 Amazon]].
**Recommended online** Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
**Recommended** Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
Writing: We'll be using a markdown editor, but any text editor will do. Or you can use the wiki for drafting. Avoid writing for the web with MS Word. It creates rather than solves problems.
On the publishing side, we'll be using Joomla 1.5x, set up at http://thisisonline.org. You will be publishing, editing, and managing web content on This Is Online.
This course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing content for web sites based on rhetorical principles. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
The course focuses on rhetorical situations and circumstances particular to writing for the web (such as differences from print in reading and audience relations) and the rhetorical affordances for addressing those circumstances (web page layout, textual elements such as headings and lists, links, and incorporating images and text). Writing for the web has broadened over the past 20 years, we approach it as rhetorically open and diverse. This course is about the rhetorical situations, affordances, possibilities, and experiments as they might unfold on the web.
This is to say that writing web content is significantly - not trivially - different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
- you can develop your understanding of web content writing further on your own
- you can make sound rhetorical decisions in novel situations
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web text
- you can recast and repurpose texts into multi-page hypertexts
- you gain some experience in using a CMS - Joomla, in our case - for publishing, editing, and managing content.
The course takes a content- and user-centered approach to web writing. That is, we start with content and the reader's position and make rhetorical choices to suit that situation.
And this is a studio course: dominantly hands-on, with some editing exercises, discussions, and oral critiques.
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll ++offer++ assign you writing projects - or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on This Is Online. When published, you gain the points. As the course progresses, you will take on roles as editors more and more, managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
Once the class gets set up, one class day a week will be a formal class meeting. The other class day each week will be a workday. I'll meet with you individually so you can bring me up to date on your work. You'll have time to meet with co-writers to work, and the like. Use the rest of the time here and elsewhere to do your work. When we meet, bring //Hot Text//.
To introduce new concepts, to broaden the range of opportunities, and to let you experiment a little, I'll be giving you some exercises in writing drawn from principles and practices in //Hot Text//. The exercises can open up our discussion on strategies and complications in addressing rhetorical situations on the web.
I may, for instance, ask you to draw on //Hot Text// to discuss why you made the choices you did in placing and labeling links on a page. Or I may ask you to discuss how else you might shorten the main text of a page and deal with the necessary supplemental material.
Expect to be asked in class, on the fly, about writing choices you have made. When you are asked, don't panic. It doesn't mean you have made poor choices. Take your time, think, consider, and do your best to explain your line of thinking. Ground your choices in the principles we're working with. Ask others to help you out. Let others help you out. Look for alternatives. Look for alternatives. Look again for alternatives.
All the activities for the course - the projects, the exercises, the discussions - are designed to give you opportunities not only to learn the practice, the how-to, but to develop and refine your understanding of the rhetorical strategies and principles behind the practice.
While what we do in class builds from fundamentals, I encourage you to experiment. Because we're working in a classroom environment, we can try things out, consider and discuss and text how they work - or not - and change them as necessary.
====Joomla====
Joomla is a well-known content management system - a system that runs on a web server that allows writers and editors to post, edit, publish, and manage written content. WordPress is a CMS. Joomla is arcane, finicky, and a nuisance, but it fits our purpose. If you write professionally for the web, you are likely to encounter a CMS, so having some experience with one is a Good Thing.
Initially, you will be authors on Joomla, which lets you post and edit articles. As the course progresses, you may be assigned or take on the role of Editor, which lets you create new categories on Joomla, change designs, and the like. I'll introduce you to what you need to know to get started as we go. If you take an interest in Joomla, in, perhaps running your own Joomla-based publication, you can start your apprenticeship during the course. Start reading the documentation on http://joomla.com.
====The Wiki and Joomla ====
- You'll use it to plan, draft stories, keep notes, share text, track what you're doing, submit plans, and record individual work.
Story assignments, proposals, and drafts are all managed on Joomla. You'll see them once you are registered and logged in.
Exercises and assignments are due on time, please. Late projects will loose points for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, I'll subtract the points from your final total.
We will touch base as a class at least once each week, and attendance at these meetings will count towards your final grade. At other times, I may schedule individual meetings with you during class time.
Plan on being in class when it is scheduled, and on time, please. Missing 4 scheduled classes or individual meetings will cut into your final grade. Miss 6 classes or meetings - that's 3 weeks of class - and I'll ask you to drop.
Number of bylines published. 100 points per byline.
2 = 200 (D)
4 = 400 (C)
8 = 800 (B)
12 = 1200 (A)
You get a byline by writing or co-writing a project, or by being an assigned or volunteer tech assistant/first editor for a project.
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 published words, or negotiable. That is, if you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
Words on the web: I do the counting after I edit. That is, concision counts. While long isn't necessarily better, development is - and on the web, you can develop by linking, listing, and other means. When you first submit a draft, I will edit it with the aim of getting more words out of you. I can get a 500 word draft down to 250 words pretty easily. Which means you may have to submit 1000 words to even meet the 500 word count.
The number of bylines puts you in the range of those points. So,12 projects can get you up to 1200 but as low as 800.
- exercises - 50 - 100 points each
- bylines - up to 1200+
- general civility, engagement, helpfulness to others - up to 200
Totals could be as high as 2000+ points.
This Is Online: http://thisisonline.org
**Required** Jonathan and Lisa Price. //Hot Text: Web Writing that Works//. New Riders, 2002. [[http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Text-Writing-that-Works/dp/0735711518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325867373&sr=8-1 Amazon]].
**Recommended online** Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
**Recommended** Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
Writing: We'll be using a markdown editor, but any text editor will do. Or you can use the wiki for drafting. Avoid writing for the web with MS Word. It creates rather than solves problems.
On the publishing side, we'll be using Joomla 1.5x, set up at http://thisisonline.org. You will be publishing, editing, and managing web content on This Is Online.
This course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing content for web sites based on rhetorical principles. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for text editing, management, and content creation.
The course focuses on rhetorical situations and circumstances particular to writing for the web (such as differences from print in reading and audience relations) and the rhetorical affordances for addressing those circumstances (web page layout, textual elements such as headings and lists, links, and incorporating images and text). Writing for the web has broadened over the past 20 years, we approach it as rhetorically open and diverse. This course is about the rhetorical situations, affordances, possibilities, and experiments as they might unfold on the web.
This is to say that writing web content is significantly - not trivially - different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
- you can develop your understanding of web content writing further on your own
- you can make sound rhetorical decisions in novel situations
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web text
- you can recast and repurpose texts into multi-page hypertexts
- you gain some experience in using a CMS - Joomla, in our case - for publishing, editing, and managing content.
The course takes a content- and user-centered approach to web writing. That is, we start with content and the reader's position and make rhetorical choices to suit that situation.
And this is a studio course: dominantly hands-on, with some editing exercises, discussions, and oral critiques.
We'll run the class a little like the editing room of a magazine. I'll ++offer++ assign you writing projects - or you can propose them. You draft and submit an article, I edit, we review the draft, you revise, and your article is eventually published on This Is Online. When published, you gain the points. As the course progresses, you will take on roles as editors more and more, managing the backend of the CMS, developing new categories for This Is Online, developing more complex, multi-page projects, and editing each other's drafts. Along the way, you'll be addressing some exercises (perhaps for publication, perhaps not) drawn from Price, //Hot Text//.
Once the class gets set up, one class day a week will be a formal class meeting. The other class day each week will be a workday. I'll meet with you individually so you can bring me up to date on your work. You'll have time to meet with co-writers to work, and the like. Use the rest of the time here and elsewhere to do your work. When we meet, bring //Hot Text//.
To introduce new concepts, to broaden the range of opportunities, and to let you experiment a little, I'll be giving you some exercises in writing drawn from principles and practices in //Hot Text//. The exercises can open up our discussion on strategies and complications in addressing rhetorical situations on the web.
I may, for instance, ask you to draw on //Hot Text// to discuss why you made the choices you did in placing and labeling links on a page. Or I may ask you to discuss how else you might shorten the main text of a page and deal with the necessary supplemental material.
Expect to be asked in class, on the fly, about writing choices you have made. When you are asked, don't panic. It doesn't mean you have made poor choices. Take your time, think, consider, and do your best to explain your line of thinking. Ground your choices in the principles we're working with. Ask others to help you out. Let others help you out. Look for alternatives. Look for alternatives. Look again for alternatives.
All the activities for the course - the projects, the exercises, the discussions - are designed to give you opportunities not only to learn the practice, the how-to, but to develop and refine your understanding of the rhetorical strategies and principles behind the practice.
While what we do in class builds from fundamentals, I encourage you to experiment. Because we're working in a classroom environment, we can try things out, consider and discuss and text how they work - or not - and change them as necessary.
====Joomla====
Joomla is a well-known content management system - a system that runs on a web server that allows writers and editors to post, edit, publish, and manage written content. WordPress is a CMS. Joomla is arcane, finicky, and a nuisance, but it fits our purpose. If you write professionally for the web, you are likely to encounter a CMS, so having some experience with one is a Good Thing.
Initially, you will be authors on Joomla, which lets you post and edit articles. As the course progresses, you may be assigned or take on the role of Editor, which lets you create new categories on Joomla, change designs, and the like. I'll introduce you to what you need to know to get started as we go. If you take an interest in Joomla, in, perhaps running your own Joomla-based publication, you can start your apprenticeship during the course. Start reading the documentation on http://joomla.com.
====The Wiki and Joomla ====
- You'll use it to plan, draft stories, keep notes, share text, track what you're doing, submit plans, and record individual work.
Story assignments, proposals, and drafts are all managed on Joomla. You'll see them once you are registered and logged in.
Exercises and assignments are due on time, please. Late projects will loose points for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, I'll subtract the points from your final total.
We will touch base as a class at least once each week, and attendance at these meetings will count towards your final grade. At other times, I may schedule individual meetings with you during class time.
Plan on being in class when it is scheduled, and on time, please. Missing 4 scheduled classes or individual meetings will cut into your final grade. Miss 6 classes or meetings - that's 3 weeks of class - and I'll ask you to drop.
Number of bylines published. 100 points per byline.
2 = 200 (D)
4 = 400 (C)
8 = 800 (B)
12 = 1200 (A)
You get a byline by writing or co-writing a project, or by being an assigned or volunteer tech assistant/first editor for a project.
Projects will ask for between 500 - 1000 published words, or negotiable. That is, if you have a project of 2000 words, we will discuss how many points it's worth. It may turn out, on the other hand, that a 1000 word article shrinks to 250 concise words - and still gets the full points. Depends. It's about learning.
Words on the web: I do the counting after I edit. That is, concision counts. While long isn't necessarily better, development is - and on the web, you can develop by linking, listing, and other means. When you first submit a draft, I will edit it with the aim of getting more words out of you. I can get a 500 word draft down to 250 words pretty easily. Which means you may have to submit 1000 words to even meet the 500 word count.
The number of bylines puts you in the range of those points. So,12 projects can get you up to 1200 but as low as 800.
- exercises - 50 - 100 points each
- bylines - up to 1200+
- general civility, engagement, helpfulness to others - up to 200
Totals could be as high as 2000+ points.
Deletions:
Office Hours: M and W 12:00 - 1:00. T - R 1:15 - 2:00. Other hours by appointment.
**Required** Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
**Required, but online** Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
We will be using RapidWeaver on the Mac, available in HS 109. If you want your own copy, RapidWeaver is about $40.00 for students. Mac only, sorry. I've been trying to find a comparable application for Windows, but haven't yet. [[http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ Information about pricing here]].
This course gives you the opportunity to gain experience in writing and editing content for web sites based on rhetorical principles. It's a course designed to help you develop both hands-on skills in writing for the web and larger rhetorical strategies for web site content creation.
The course focuses on rhetorical situations and circumstances particular to writing for the web (such as differences from print in reading and audience relations) and the rhetorical affordances for addressing those circumstances (web design, web page layout, textual elements such as headings and lists, links).
This is to say that writing web content is significantly - not trivially - different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
- you can develop your understanding of web content writing further on your own.
- you can make sound rhetorical decisions in novel situations.
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web pages and sites that you have designed or those you oversee.
- you can edit texts for the web.
- you can recast and repurpose texts into multi-page hypertexts
The course takes a content- and user-centered approach to web writing. That is, we start with content and the reader's position and make rhetorical choices from there.
And this is a studio course: dominantly hands-on, centered on a web project, with some editing exercises, discussions, and oral critiques.
The first couple of weeks of the course, we'll figure out what project or projects to take on. As a class, or as two or three large groups. you will design and develop a new web site, or re-design and re-write an existing site. In the past this course has revised the English Department site, rewriting most of the material for the site. We're looking for a similar kind of project for this semester.
What's nice about working in a larger group is that you can play to different strengths and interests in the group. And professionally, web design and web writing is a group effort. This course gives you practice in that effort.
To introduce new concepts, to broaden the range of opportunities, and to let you experiment a little, I'll be giving you some exercises in writing and recasting web text, drawn from principles and practices in //Letting Go of the Words//. The exercises can open up our discussion on strategies and complications in addressing rhetorical situations on the web.
I may, for instance, ask you to draw on //Letting Go of the Words// to discuss why you made the choices you did in placing and labeling links on a page. Or I may ask you to discuss how else you might shorten the main text of a page and deal with the necessary supplemental material.
Expect to be asked in class, on the fly, about writing and design choices you (and your group, if you're working in groups) have made. When you are asked, don't panic. It doesn't mean you have made poor choices. Take your time, think, consider, and do your best to explain your line of thinking. Ground your choices in the principles we're working with. Ask others to help you out. Let others help you out. Look for alternatives. Look for alternatives. Look again for alternatives.
All the activities for the course - the projects, the exercises, the discussions - are designed to give you opportunities not only to learn the practice, the how-to, but to develop and refine your understanding of the rhetorical strategies and principles behind the practice.
While what we do in class builds from fundamentals, I encourage you to experiment. Because we're working in groups and in a classroom environment, we can try things out, consider and discuss and text how they work - or not - and change them as necessary.
====RapidWeaver====
Most of what happens in web design and content writing does not happen using Dreamweaver, or Photoshop, or Flash. And in the same way, much of what you'll be doing in this class will take place in the field, in groups, often using paper and Post It notes and notecards and whiteboards, as well as the wiki and email. But Wwe'll be putting the sites on the web using RapidWeaver, a small, inexpensive web design application.
Much of the process of web content writing (and web design; the two are intimately intertwined) proceeds by trail and testing, and trail and testing relies a lot on impromptu ideas to get things moving. RapidWeaver lets you create rapid prototypes of pages and sites to experiment with different ways of framing content. It lets you see how the use and meaning of written content changes as the pages and site design changes.
Although you are welcome to explore the following technologies on your own, we will not be covering them in class, nor do you need to know about them.
- Java
- Javascript
- Flash, Shockwave, or other animation software
- Database access
- CGI or forms processing
====The Web Design and Content Writing Wiki ====
- You'll use it for the project to plan, keep notes, share text, track what you're doing, submit plans, and record individual work.
The class moves quickly. And because this is a studio class, you'll be expected to have materials ready and with you to work on when you come to class. Since you will be able to work anywhere you have a computer, online or off, you should have little difficulty being prepared.
Exercises and other assignments are due on time, please. Late projects and assignments will loose a full grade for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, I'll subtract the points from your final total.
This is a workshop course. So after the first few weeks, many class sessions will be group work sessions. I want to keep course meetings flexible. Some days, we might meet for ten minutes, then scatter. Other days, we might not need to meet as a class, although the room will be open and I'll be available. We'll decide how to proceed as we go.** We will touch base at least once each week, and attendance at these meetings will count towards your final grade.**
Plan on being in class when it is scheduled, and on time, please. Missing 4 scheduled classes will cut into your final grade. Miss 6 classes - that's 3 weeks of class - and I'll ask you to drop.
You may be making group presentations during the course, mainly to get comments and feedback from others. You'll have plenty of time to prepare, and we'll discuss what to prepare in advance.
Your grades on the project - and your final grade - will reflect both your work on the writing and your understanding of the principles on which you base your choices. While the project will demonstrate that you can do something, in-class critiques, exercises, and discussions demonstrate your understanding of the content writing principles on which you grounded your choices.
Understanding principle is just as important as practice - even more so when you confront a novel situation.
- Exercises and quizzes - varies. Possibly 4 - 5 exercises of 50 - 100 points each
- Project - up to 400 points.
- Your individual report on the project - 100 points, including demonstration of understanding of page design and content writing principles in our discussions as the project proceeds.
- general civility, engagement, helpfulness to others - up to 200 points
Additions:
**Required** Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
Deletions:
Additions:
**Required** Jonathan and Lisa Price. //Hot Text: Web Writing that Works//. New Riders, 2002. [[http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Text-Writing-that-Works/dp/0735711518/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325867373&sr=8-1 Amazon]].
Deletions:
Additions:
>>{{image url="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3568463428_8d0c739875.jpg"}}>>======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Deletions:
Additions:
below 60% = F
Deletions:
Additions:
>>{{image src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3397/3568463428_8d0c739875.jpg"}}>>======ENGL 4169/5169: Web Content Writing======
Deletions:
Additions:
Spring 2011
Deletions:
Additions:
mmorgan@bemidjistate.edu • twitter: @mcmorgan
Deletions:
====Under revision until 5 Jan 2011 ====
Additions:
====Course Statement====
====Goals====
====Goals====
Deletions:
===Goals===
Additions:
====Texts====
====Software====
====Software====
Deletions:
==Software==
Additions:
**Required** Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $25.
Deletions:
Additions:
**Recommended** //Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]
Deletions:
Additions:
**Required** Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $29.67.
**Required, but online** Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
**Rec0mmended** //Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]
We will be using RapidWeaver on the Mac, available in HS 109. If you want your own copy, RapidWeaver is about $40.00 for students. Mac only, sorry. I've been trying to find a comparable application for Windows, but haven't yet. [[http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ Information about pricing here]].
**Required, but online** Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
**Rec0mmended** //Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]
We will be using RapidWeaver on the Mac, available in HS 109. If you want your own copy, RapidWeaver is about $40.00 for students. Mac only, sorry. I've been trying to find a comparable application for Windows, but haven't yet. [[http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ Information about pricing here]].
Deletions:
Required, but online. Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
Rec0mmended. //Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]
We will be using RapidWeaver on the Mac. It will be available in HS 109. If you want your own copy, RapidWeaver is about $40.00 for students. Mac only, sorry. I've been trying to find a comparable application for Windows, but haven't yet. [[http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ Information about pricing here]].
Additions:
Required, but online. Lynch and Horton. //Web Style Guide//, 3rd ed. http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/. This is the //Elements of Style// when it comes to web design and content writing.
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web pages and sites that you have designed or those you oversee.
The first couple of weeks of the course, we'll figure out what project or projects to take on. As a class, or as two or three large groups. you will design and develop a new web site, or re-design and re-write an existing site. In the past this course has revised the English Department site, rewriting most of the material for the site. We're looking for a similar kind of project for this semester.
Expect to be asked in class, on the fly, about writing and design choices you (and your group, if you're working in groups) have made. When you are asked, don't panic. It doesn't mean you have made poor choices. Take your time, think, consider, and do your best to explain your line of thinking. Ground your choices in the principles we're working with. Ask others to help you out. Let others help you out. Look for alternatives. Look for alternatives. Look again for alternatives.
All the activities for the course - the projects, the exercises, the discussions - are designed to give you opportunities not only to learn the practice, the how-to, but to develop and refine your understanding of the rhetorical strategies and principles behind the practice.
Most of what happens in web design and content writing does not happen using Dreamweaver, or Photoshop, or Flash. And in the same way, much of what you'll be doing in this class will take place in the field, in groups, often using paper and Post It notes and notecards and whiteboards, as well as the wiki and email. But Wwe'll be putting the sites on the web using RapidWeaver, a small, inexpensive web design application.
Much of the process of web content writing (and web design; the two are intimately intertwined) proceeds by trail and testing, and trail and testing relies a lot on impromptu ideas to get things moving. RapidWeaver lets you create rapid prototypes of pages and sites to experiment with different ways of framing content. It lets you see how the use and meaning of written content changes as the pages and site design changes.
- I'll use it to post assignments, announcements, instruction materials, my notes, and whatever else we need.
Exercises and other assignments are due on time, please. Late projects and assignments will loose a full grade for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, I'll subtract the points from your final total.
Plan on being in class when it is scheduled, and on time, please. Missing 4 scheduled classes will cut into your final grade. Miss 6 classes - that's 3 weeks of class - and I'll ask you to drop.
Your grades on the project - and your final grade - will reflect both your work on the writing and your understanding of the principles on which you base your choices. While the project will demonstrate that you can do something, in-class critiques, exercises, and discussions demonstrate your understanding of the content writing principles on which you grounded your choices.
Understanding principle is just as important as practice - even more so when you confront a novel situation.
- you can critique, troubleshoot, and revise and edit web pages and sites that you have designed or those you oversee.
The first couple of weeks of the course, we'll figure out what project or projects to take on. As a class, or as two or three large groups. you will design and develop a new web site, or re-design and re-write an existing site. In the past this course has revised the English Department site, rewriting most of the material for the site. We're looking for a similar kind of project for this semester.
Expect to be asked in class, on the fly, about writing and design choices you (and your group, if you're working in groups) have made. When you are asked, don't panic. It doesn't mean you have made poor choices. Take your time, think, consider, and do your best to explain your line of thinking. Ground your choices in the principles we're working with. Ask others to help you out. Let others help you out. Look for alternatives. Look for alternatives. Look again for alternatives.
All the activities for the course - the projects, the exercises, the discussions - are designed to give you opportunities not only to learn the practice, the how-to, but to develop and refine your understanding of the rhetorical strategies and principles behind the practice.
Most of what happens in web design and content writing does not happen using Dreamweaver, or Photoshop, or Flash. And in the same way, much of what you'll be doing in this class will take place in the field, in groups, often using paper and Post It notes and notecards and whiteboards, as well as the wiki and email. But Wwe'll be putting the sites on the web using RapidWeaver, a small, inexpensive web design application.
Much of the process of web content writing (and web design; the two are intimately intertwined) proceeds by trail and testing, and trail and testing relies a lot on impromptu ideas to get things moving. RapidWeaver lets you create rapid prototypes of pages and sites to experiment with different ways of framing content. It lets you see how the use and meaning of written content changes as the pages and site design changes.
- I'll use it to post assignments, announcements, instruction materials, my notes, and whatever else we need.
Exercises and other assignments are due on time, please. Late projects and assignments will loose a full grade for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, I'll subtract the points from your final total.
Plan on being in class when it is scheduled, and on time, please. Missing 4 scheduled classes will cut into your final grade. Miss 6 classes - that's 3 weeks of class - and I'll ask you to drop.
Your grades on the project - and your final grade - will reflect both your work on the writing and your understanding of the principles on which you base your choices. While the project will demonstrate that you can do something, in-class critiques, exercises, and discussions demonstrate your understanding of the content writing principles on which you grounded your choices.
Understanding principle is just as important as practice - even more so when you confront a novel situation.
Deletions:
The first couple of weeks of the course, we'll figure out what project or projects to take on. As a class, or as two or three large groups. you will design and develop a new web site, or re-design and re-write an existing site. In the past this course has revised the English Department site, rewriting most of the material for the site. We're looking for a similar kind of project for this semester.
Expect to be asked in class, on the fly, about writing and design choices you (and your group, if you're working in groups) have made. When you are asked, don't panic. It doesn't mean you have made poor choices. Take your time, think, consider, and do your best to explain your course of thinking. Ground your choices in the principles we're working with. Ask others to help you out. Let others help you out. Look for alternatives.
All the activities for the course - the project, the editing exercises, the discussions - are designed to give you opportunities not only to learn the practice, the how-to, but to develop and refine your understanding of the rhetorical strategies and principles behind the practice.
Most of what happens in web design does not happen using Dreamweaver, or Photoshop, or Flash. And in the same way, much of what you'll be doing in this class will take place in the field, in groups, often using paper and Post It notes and notecards and whiteboards, as well as the wiki and email.
We'll be putting the sites on the web using RapidWeaver, a small, inexpensive web design application.
Much of the process of design and redesign proceeds by trail and testing, and trail and testing relies a lot on the impromptu to get moving. This is where RapidWeaver fits in. It allows you to create rapid prototypes of sites and site designs, to experiment with a variety of structures, of ways of addressing purposes. RapidWeaver facilitates design experiments, and lets you draw on impromptu, spontaneous decisions as you do so.
- I'll use it to post assignments, announcements, instruction materials, my notes ...
Assignments are due on time, please. Late projects and assignments will loose a full grade for every day they are late. If you don't submit the materials at all, I'll subtract the points from your final total.
So plan on being in class when it is scheduled, and on time, please. Missing 4 scheduled classes will cut into your final grade. Miss 6 - that's 3 weeks of class - and I'll ask you to drop.
Your grades on the project - and your final grade - will reflect both your work on the writing and your understanding of the principles on which you base your choices. While the project will demonstrate that you can do something, in-class critiques, exercises, and in-class discussions demonstrate your understanding of the content writing principles on which you grounded your choices.
Understanding of principle is just as important as practice - even more so when you confront a novel situation.
- Completing the //Dreamweaver Essentials// workbook - 100 points
Additions:
Office Hours: M and W 12:00 - 1:00. T - R 1:15 - 2:00. Other hours by appointment.
mmorgan@bemidjistate.edu • @mcmorgan
Course url: http://erhetoric.org/WebWringAndDesign/
**Text**
Required. Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $29.67.
Rec0mmended. //Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]
==Software==
We will be using RapidWeaver on the Mac. It will be available in HS 109. If you want your own copy, RapidWeaver is about $40.00 for students. Mac only, sorry. I've been trying to find a comparable application for Windows, but haven't yet. [[http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ Information about pricing here]].
This is to say that writing web content is significantly - not trivially - different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
The first couple of weeks of the course, we'll figure out what project or projects to take on. As a class, or as two or three large groups. you will design and develop a new web site, or re-design and re-write an existing site. In the past this course has revised the English Department site, rewriting most of the material for the site. We're looking for a similar kind of project for this semester.
====RapidWeaver====
We'll be putting the sites on the web using RapidWeaver, a small, inexpensive web design application.
Much of the process of design and redesign proceeds by trail and testing, and trail and testing relies a lot on the impromptu to get moving. This is where RapidWeaver fits in. It allows you to create rapid prototypes of sites and site designs, to experiment with a variety of structures, of ways of addressing purposes. RapidWeaver facilitates design experiments, and lets you draw on impromptu, spontaneous decisions as you do so.
If I change anything on this syllabus, I'll let you know.
====Privacy and Sharing====
This wiki is [[http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?FishBowl fishbowl wiki]]. It can be read and searched by anyone, but it is editable only by those with a password. This means that your work in this class is visible to the world. At the end of the course you may remove or revise material you created on this wiki. I will remind you of this clean up at the end of the semester.
===Alternative Formats===
This syllabus is available in alternate formats. Talk to me, or contact Kathi Hagen in the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
mmorgan@bemidjistate.edu • @mcmorgan
Course url: http://erhetoric.org/WebWringAndDesign/
**Text**
Required. Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $29.67.
Rec0mmended. //Information Architecture//, 2nd edition. Christina Wodtke and Austin Govilla. New Riders, 2009. Use only the 2nd edition. The 1st edition is a very different book. [[http://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-Blueprints-Voices-Matter/dp/0321600800/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247499961&sr=8-1 $29.70 at Amazon]]
==Software==
We will be using RapidWeaver on the Mac. It will be available in HS 109. If you want your own copy, RapidWeaver is about $40.00 for students. Mac only, sorry. I've been trying to find a comparable application for Windows, but haven't yet. [[http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ Information about pricing here]].
This is to say that writing web content is significantly - not trivially - different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers, web sites, and the Internet at large make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
The first couple of weeks of the course, we'll figure out what project or projects to take on. As a class, or as two or three large groups. you will design and develop a new web site, or re-design and re-write an existing site. In the past this course has revised the English Department site, rewriting most of the material for the site. We're looking for a similar kind of project for this semester.
====RapidWeaver====
We'll be putting the sites on the web using RapidWeaver, a small, inexpensive web design application.
Much of the process of design and redesign proceeds by trail and testing, and trail and testing relies a lot on the impromptu to get moving. This is where RapidWeaver fits in. It allows you to create rapid prototypes of sites and site designs, to experiment with a variety of structures, of ways of addressing purposes. RapidWeaver facilitates design experiments, and lets you draw on impromptu, spontaneous decisions as you do so.
If I change anything on this syllabus, I'll let you know.
====Privacy and Sharing====
This wiki is [[http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?FishBowl fishbowl wiki]]. It can be read and searched by anyone, but it is editable only by those with a password. This means that your work in this class is visible to the world. At the end of the course you may remove or revise material you created on this wiki. I will remind you of this clean up at the end of the semester.
===Alternative Formats===
This syllabus is available in alternate formats. Talk to me, or contact Kathi Hagen in the Office for Students with Disabilities at 755-3883. Contact the Office for Students with Disabilities if you need accommodations in the class.
Deletions:
mmorgan at bemidjistate dot edu
Course url: http://biro.bemidjistate.edu/webdesignwiki/
**Texts**
Required
- Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $29.67.
That is, writing web content is significantly - not trivially - different than writing for print. The capabilities and demands of web readers and web sites make possible - and necessary - changes in writing from the level of the sentence up to the level of the document.
The first couple of weeks of the course, we'll figure out what project or projects to take on. As a class, or as two or three large groups. you will design and develop a new web site, or re-design and re-write an existing site. Last year, this course has revised the English Department site, rewriting most of the material for the site. We're looking for a similar kind of project for this semester.
====Learning Dreamweaver====
But we'll be putting the sites on the web using Dreamweaver.
We'll use a programmed text: //Essentials of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3//. Those who have already worked through this text in ENGL 4170: Web Design are set - although you may want to review chapters as we go and keep it around for reference.
Those who haven't worked through the text will need to. Each week, you'll be expected to work through three chapters. I'll ask you to print out and hand in evidence of your work for that week. I'll let you know each week what you'll need to hand in. Those who are already familiar with the text and Dreamweaver will start us off on the site project for the course; by the time it comes to creating your own site in the second half of the course, you'll be ready.
Using a programmed text means you can learn Dreamweaver on your own time at your own pace on your platform of choice. It means we don't have to use time in class learning tedious practices that are best learned slowly and individually. It means you can go over the modules as often as you like. It means that you can probably share a text.
The programmed text is pretty good. The modules build from chapter to chapter, taking you from basic moves of creating and linking pages through advanced page design, templates, drop down menus, rollovers, and cascading style sheets: all the technical matters you'll need to be familiar with to design and update a site. The programmed text will help you learn Dreamweaver better than I could.
You could rush your way through the Dreamweaver text. Please don't. If you know Dreamweaver well, it will be just that much easier to move through the text, and I'd bet you're going to learn a few things that will make you more productive with Dreamweaver. I don't expect you to master Dreamweaver - although you're welcome to if you like. But I will - and your group will - expect you to know the topics the programmed text covers well enough to contribute to your project.
A final word: Learning is about going past what you've done before, even setting aside something you're comfortable with, and trying something new, something you haven't seen before, and thinking about why and how it works - or doesn't. The course gives you that opportunity. Take it.
I may revise this syllabus during the semester if needed. I will inform you of any revisions and mark them in the syllabus.
Additions:
- Redish, Janice (Ginny). //Letting Go of the Words//. Morgan Kaufmann, 2007. $32.97 at [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Go-Words-Interactive-Technologies/dp/0123694868/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216903813&sr=8-1 Amazon]]. [[http://www.amazon.com/Letting-Words-Interactive-Technologies-ebook/dp/B0027G6X92/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1291057863&sr=1-1 Kindle]], $29.67.
Deletions:
If you haven't taken ENGL 4170/5170: Web Design
- Siegel, Kevin. //Essentials of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3//. IconLogic, 2007. $39.00 at [[http://www.iconlogic.com/dreammCS3.htm IconLogic]]. Or use ISBN: 1-932733-20-5 to locate a copy. We're using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, so earlier editions of Siegel won't apply.
Additions:
spring 2011
====Under revision until 5 Jan 2011 ====
====Under revision until 5 Jan 2011 ====
