Contents:
| Week 1: - Day 1
Mon Aug 30
- Day 2 Wed Sep 1 Week 2: - Wed Sep 8 Week 4: - Mon Sep 20 Week 5: - Mon Sep 27 - Wed Sep 29 Week 6: - Mon Oct 4 - Wed Oct 6 Week 7: - Mon Oct 11 - Wed Oct 13 Week 8: - Mon Oct 18 - Wed Oct 20 |
Week 9: - Mon Oct 25
- Wed Oct 27 Week 10: - Mon Nov 1 - Wed Nov 3 Week 12: - Mon Nov 15 - Wed Nov 17 Week 13: - Mon Nov 22 - Wed Nov 24 Week 14: - Mon Nov 29 - Wed Dec 1 Week 15: - Mon Dec 6 - Wed Dec 8 |
1) Review the on-line course materials. Tell me if you have any questions.
2) email your responses to the questionnaire.
3) Save a text file with the tile "index.htm," and then post
it to your web page
1)
Interpret the following phrase, which is listed in the "EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY-WIDE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY GOALS AND STRATEGIES: 1998-2001" (available at http://www.etsu.edu/ats/strategicplan98.html):
"1.1.7 Develop policies and procedures for implementing
and delivering Just-InTime library resources in addition to/rather than
Just-In-Case collection development."
2)
Interpret this phrase, which I heard at a conference on writing and technology at Cornel University this summer: "In place of a literate culture, we are seeing the emergence of a quasi-oral, picto-logo-graphic rebus."
Part I
Today, in-class, we'll use the "FTP" program to transfer a simple file from the personal computer you're working on in the lab to ETSU web server subdirectory where you'll build your web page.
One of the most important principles of writing has to do with PRECISION in language -- whether you're dealing with poetry or technical writing. So one goal, today, is to have you attend to the terms and vocabulary used in the above sentence. Consider: "FTP"; "file;" "server;" "subdirectory;" "web page." Do you know what these terms mean? By the end of the day, you should have a good handle on them. In general, during this course, don't let a term go by that you don't understand.
Indeed, we'll see throughout the semester how bad writing is usually the result of sloppy or imprecise use of terms, or -- and this is related -- it's the result of writers using specialized or technical terms that they take for granted, but that their audience cannot be expected to know.
Part II
After you've "ftp'd" a test file to your subdirectory, the next step is to use windows clipboard to copy a sample html file to text editor, and then modify it so that you can insert your own email function and a web page link.
Again, I'm using some vocabulary here that may be unfamiliar to you. So, in class, make sure you figure out these terms: html; "windows clipboard;" "text editor;" "email function;" "web page link."
To learn about html, you can go to any one of a variety of sources on the web. Here's one that looks pretty good: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
Week 2:
Part I: Revising Definitions
Today, in class, we will finally get into a discussion of some writing principles -- in this case, we'll discuss a basic principle from classical rhetoric, which is AUDIENCE.
You'll notice in the assignment sheet for your definitions, which are due today, that I specified very precisely that you were to write the definitions for "an introductory audience, including humanities students, many of whom have only a passing acquaintance with computers."
Today we'll look at some of the sample definitions that you have posted, and we'll make some judgements about how well those definitions are suited to the specified audience.
Then we'll practice revising some definitions, using Lannon's "Expansion Methods," which appear on p. 396-401. Take a look at the list of "expansion methods" in Lannon's table of contents (p. xii). This list is, in effect, a bunch of really good suggestions for specific methods of adapting definitions to particular audiences. We'll revise some definitions together, as a class. Then you'll do some revision exercises on your own.
Part II: Some More Web Techniques
After what will no doubt be an all-too-brief period of discussing language and writing -- unfettered by the distractions of the world of computers -- we will return to talking about web principles and html.
Specifically, today you will use Netscape Composer -- which you can
pull down by clicking on "Communicator" at the top of your Netscape screen
-- to compose an "index.htm" file for your web page. To prepare for
this activity, get the following "tools" out, on your computer:
- Notepad
- Netscape Composer
- Netscape Navigator
- FTP
First you'll use Netscape Composer to create a file called "index.htm," and you'll save it either on your disk, or on the pc hard-drive in the directory called "temp." You'll then retrieve the same file using Notepad, so that you can see the text that Composer inserted. The point here is that Composer, like any other html editor, simply writes html text for you. Yet, all along, you're still dealing simply with a text file.
Then you'll use FTP to transfer the index.htm file to your subdirectory.
Also, if there's time, you'll copy some kind of graphic from icon bazaar, so you can see how putting up graphics is just a matter of moving files around!
Here's what we'll do today:
1) Break into groups.
2) Do a writing workshop on draft 1, by generally following the writing
group procedure that I've posted, and using Lannon's Ch. 19 checklist.
3) Keep track of comments and responses to drafts, and be prepared
to email them to me, as well as
to the writing group members.
By the way, here are Mackenzie's instructions on how
to email a text file.
And here are Jason's instructions on how
to use email in the English computer lab.
Here is Deb on how
to attach a document to an email message.
Here is Beth on how
to email a text or wordprocessing file.
In class today, you'll write up an extended evaluation
of the "how to" that is due today.
Today's topics:
- Announcement: Please do not change settings on computers in
the lab.
(Students in at least one class are setting wallpapers and turning
off screen
savers.)
- Ethics and legalities in borrowing graphics.
- Guidelines for web pages: Chapter from Lannon's 8th ed. (handout).
- Working on web page projects (in groups and individually).
Announcements:
In class today, you will work in pairs to do Lannon's chapter 13 writing style exercises. I will assign an exercise number to your team, and your mission is as follows:
1. Agree on revisions for each of the sentences in the exercise.
2. Post your revisions on a team member's web page.
3. Be prepared to present your revisions to the rest of the class.
Notes: When you post your revisions, please be sure to label each revision with a letter corresponding to an original in Lannon's textbook. Also, be sure to give the document a clear, descriptive title -- including author's names, dates, description of purpose, and a link to an appropriate page.
Some important administrative matters:
Please make sure that your home page "announces" itself (like any good piece of professional writing should). That is, the page should include 1) a clear descriptive title, 2) your name, 3) a link back to the course page, and 4) an email link. Make everything quite clear, so that an unfamiliar reader who pulls your page up on a computer can see at a glance exactly where he or she is.
Also, group members, please give me the url's for your working drafts of web pages. (I'll talk to you in class.)
In class today:
We will discuss the updated assignment sheet, in response to which you'll write a draft that is due Monday. You'll have time to meet with group members or with me to discuss appropriate topics.
We'll also review some of the principles covered in Lannon's Part IV,
"Graphic and Design Elements" (Ch. 14-16), which you have read for today.
We'll discuss the ways that Lannon's recommendations apply to electronic
texts. Consider, for example, Lannon's "Revision Checklist for Page
Design," on p. 373. How do the principles invoked here apply to your
web page? We've already emphasized in class how headings are especially
important on the web. Now, what does Lannon mean when he writes that
you should have no "floating heads" . . . ?
1) Discuss the comments and grades on the "How To"
Today, at long last, I pass back the grades on comments on the "How To" Assignment.
I have set up a page that includes some of my general commentary on the "How To" assignment, and that includes links to the essays that received "A's."
I will pass the comments and grades back at the beginning of class. I encourage you to review the comments carefully, and to discuss them with classmates as well.
Before the end of the class period, I will ask you to send me an e-mail, in which you respond to my comments on the essay.
2) Do a Peer Review
I expect groups to work diligently on their own. Review the Writing Group Guidelines before starting. Consider the comments I've made on your "How To" assignments, and consider the recommendations Lannon includes in Chap. 19. Give every group members draft a thorough and intelligent critique.
- Today in class you'll continue work on the "Procedure or Process" assignment due next Monday.
- I'll begin the class with a presentation of the html technique of constructing internal links. I will then ask students to break into pairs, to choose a team member's suitable on-line document, and to design and implement a set of internal links. Selected pairs will then present their work. (I'll explain more about this activity in class.)
Our discussion of this seemingly minor technical matter -- internal links -- will also, I hope, lead us into a discussion of tables of contents, outlining, and, more generally, of the idea of structure in writing!
The time remaining will be used as an informal workshop.
Today we will do the following:
1) You'll use the same set of "Questions for Evaluation" that you used for assignment 1, in order to email me a cover letter for the Process/Procedure assignment that you're turning in today.
2) We will talk about the writing process. To get into this discussion,
I will ask you to freewrite, in class, for 4 or 5 minutes, on a sheet
of paper, in response this this prompt:
We'll pass these freewrites around, in order to discuss in general terms the notion of "writing process." This will lead us to our third goal for the day:
3) Brainstorm a list of topic ideas for assignment 3, "Letter
to Obtain Results." (The assignment sheet has been updated.
You may want to peruse the revised assignment sheet before brainstorming.
We'll discuss this in class.)
In class, we'll do a simple series of timed freewriting exercises. Do the following on the computer, using a word processor:
1) Brainstorm topics for the assignment 3, ("Letter to Obtain Results"). In brainstorming, the goal is to write as many topic ideas down as possible, WITHOUT RULING ANY OUT. In brainstorming, you must feel free to be as silly and goofy and ridiculous as possible. There will be plenty of time later to cross out all the bad ideas. But you absolutely must not rule anything out during the brainstorming session. Instead, the goal is to write down as many ideas as possible in 4 minutes.
2) Pick one of the topics you've written down. Simply freewrite for four minutes.
3) Take 3 minutes to write in response to each of the following:
a) Describe: What does the subject look like? What size,
color shape, texture? Name its parts.
b) Compare: What is your subject similar to? Different
from?
c) Associate: What does it make you think of? What connections
does it have to anything else in your experience?
d) Analyze: How is it made? Where did it come from? Where
is it going? How are its parts related?
We'll also talk about some other short writing activities you can do,
in class. By the end of the first section of this class period, I
will ask you to email me with your topic idea, and with preliminary freewriting.
However, you will NOT be required to send me all the writing that you've
generated today.
After that, I want to leave some time for discussion of the web
page projects.
Announcements: Please see the class "events" page, for updates.
B.
Today is, as you know, a writing-group day. You have posted a draft for your "letter to obtain results." Now do the following:
1.) Review the writing group procedure that Megan Edwards has posted. Also consider the guidelines for persuasion that Lannon discusses. (These are summarized in his table of contents for chap. 4, p. 40.)
2.) Get into groups. Decide how you'll approach your peers' work today: You may either work off the screen or print out copies.
3.) Get down to business.
Also, please keep track of your comments and responses to drafts. When the writing group is finished, summarize what happened and evaluate the process. Email your summary and evaluation to me, along with your specific comments on your group members' drafts.Copy this document to at least one other group member. Also, please write your subject line carefully (since I am swamped by email these days).
C.
I will turn back the comments and grades for the "Procedure or Process"
assignment today (this time at the END of class, thus following the common
practice). Please also review my general comments
on this assignment.
Then we have two items on the table for the day: 1) Getting index pages (or "home pages") in order; 2) practicing annotations, by "annotating your links."
1. Getting index pages (or "home pages") in order:
A lot of people that I know -- colleagues both from ETSU and other institutions -- have been visiting the 3120 page to see what you students are doing. Since your pages are starting to have a real live audience, I'm feeling an imperative to have you get the home pages in order.
Remember that your home page -- in addition to being, often, an expression of your personality and interests -- is also an index. That is to say, it's a reference tool. So it should be clear and easy to read and follow. This means, for one thing, that all the links should be arranged clearly and in terms of a heirarchy.
So here are some guidelines to follow for your home page. I'd like you to work in teams to implement these guidelines, in class today:
Generally, an "annotation" is simply a note or commentary appended to a text. The term might refer to a formal annotation for a scholarly bibliography, but it also might refer to some notes that you've scribbled in the margin of a textbook. (Sure; if you've scribbled notes on your textbook, that textbook is now annotated.)
When I talk about "annotating" your links, now, what I mean is that you want to provide notes on each link, in order to explain what the link is. Your rule of thumb is that you want to make your annotations helpful, so that someone can figure out exactly "where" a link will go, before clicking on it. More specifically, for the exercise we're doing today, I'd like you to include three elements in your annotation:
1) A description of how the page to which you're linking fits
in with a broader web site.
2) Notes on the "content" of the site.
3) Notes on the author of the site (even in the case where,
as we so often find, the "author" is an institution.)
4) Your judgement on the value of the site.
Here's a sample:
For the first part of the class today, you'll do some in-class writing, sending me emails regarding your assignments:
A) First, I'd like you to look over your last assignment (the "Procedure or Process" assignment), and review my comments and grade on it. Then send me an email, responding to my comments.
B) After you've done that, use the questions for evaluating persuasive writing, which I've posted, and use these questions to send me an email regarding your assignment that is due today.
II.
We'll then review some annotations, as a class. (See the notes from last class meeting.)
III.
I'll be at a meeting on Wednesday, so I won't be in class. Nonetheless, I'll have someone here to take attendance for me. With your time remaining today, work on your web page project and plan how you'll use class time on Wednesday.
What is a "draft" exactly? Technically, a draft could be anything. As usual, I'm not grading the draft; I'm just checking off to see that you've made a good faith effort.
Yet, for Monday, your goal should be to get the web project as complete as possible. On Monday, then, I'll ask you to write a message to me, telling me what else you plan to add before you post your revised material -- on the following Monday -- for a grade.
When I review the draft, I'll focus on the CONTENT, and I'll be able to tell you what else needs to be there, in terms of content, in order for your project to approach "A" level.
Regarding the style, however, I will only make general remarks. It's up to you to get your postings written in a style and format appropriate for the web.
So, today in class, we'll review the criteria for style and writing, for a web page. Where do we get this CRITERIA? Well, Lannon's checklist is pretty good, on p. 421 of chapter 20 from his eighth edition (which I passed out in class).
In our class meeting today, we'll review that checklist and evaluate
it. By now, you all have had enough experience with web writing to
make some sound judgements. Then the rest of the period will be a
workshop.
1) Write an email to me that includes an evaluation of your web project, and of your role in working with the group (if you are in a group), by following the posted web project Questions for Evaluation.
2) Begin working on your resume project, with a couple of brainstorming
exercises. You will not be compelled to show the results of these
exercises -- or "invention activities" -- to anyone:
On Thursday we'll talk about principles of organization for the resumes.
1) Review my on-line comments on the "Letters to Obtain Results." Also review the comments I wrote on your letter, specifically. Email me a response to my comments. Please address specific comments that I made in the letter.
2) Look over the updated calendar, including instructions for the on-line dossier, which covers most of what we'll do for the rest of the semester. We'll talk about all this in class today, and we'll look at some sample career objectives and discuss principles of organization.
1) Who is the author? What is the person's name? What qualifications does the person have? What can you infer about the person's motives?
2) What do you know about the site itself? That is, who sponsors
and runs the server on which the file is physically stored? Where
in the world is that server located?
1) We'll look at some sample resumes from the book, talk about what's
good and bad, and develop a checklist for evaluating resumes. Your
mission:
a. In teams of two or three, develop a checklist.
Designate someone to type it as a text file.
b. Save it as a text file, entitled "clist.htm."
c. Use the "ftp" software to transfer it to
someone's course subdirectory. But do not post a link to it from
any other page.
2) We'll look at some grammar handbooks and talk about grammar, with
a focus on parallelism.
After all that is done, you will, of course, with the time left, participate in a rousing, engaging, and tenacious peer review workshop.
Also note that the "monster.com" site has sample resumes. Maybe we'll look at a few, to begin the class.
In any case, here is the formal agenda:
1) First we'll discuss grammar, including the focus on parallelism from Monday's lesson, and the idea of a "telegraphic style" conventionally used in resumes.
2) We'll have a resume workshop, using the check
lists that students developed on Monday.
We have two main items on the agenda today:
1) Cover letter workshop. We'll do a practice workshop, first,
using a sample
from monster.com.
Let's do a full-blown, formal practice workshop, using the ol' course
writing
group procedure. Then you'll break into small groups and review
each other's work.
2) Then we'll browse the student web page projects, commenting on notable features, after which discussion I'll pass back my grades and comments on those projects.
Also, today, let's be sure to discuss privacy issues related to this
final project.
I) User Test
First, you will pair up and partners will use Lannon's "Checklist for Web Site Usability" (copies of which I'll hand out). Use the checksheet, but, more importantly, take the time to throughly "user-test" your partners web site. Take thorough notes, while your partner does the same. Then confer.
II) Individual Work
Assuming that the user test turned up something you want to change (user tests always do), take the time to modify the web page.
III) Use yet another copy of Lannon's checklist and evaluate your own site, with one important modification: Instead of simply checking all the items that apply, put a rating on all the items that apply, using an evaluation scale of 1-5 (1=very poor; 5=very good).
Also write your name on the top of the sheet. When you're done,
turn the sheet in to me.
The grade for this final will be weighted equally with your other "Shorter Graded Writing" activities (including How-to, Process, and Results Letter), all four of which, together, make up 25% of your final grade.
Today, in class, we'll review, generally, the principles covered in the course, and brainstorm material that might be used in the final exam. We'll also practice approaches for "impromptu" or "in-class" writing.