Jerz: Writing for the Internet (EL 236)


4 Oct 2006

You will be given a sample task and asked to "link" and "blurb" it in HTML.

After you have successfully uploaded your practice "ceramics" website, create another file called "practice.html," and follow these steps to create a single web page that offers blurbed links to five online resources that you think have important things to say about writing for the internet. Upload that new page to your web space, and post the URL in a comment on this page. (That URL should be http://people.setonhill.edu/[yourid]/practice.html"). You may choose to focus on coding, writing style, awareness of audience, or you may instead try to be more comprehensive. (in an earlier draft of the syllabus, I was planning to give you sample text to mark up, but I think we need extra practice on the HTML, so I'm going to shift the emphasis to structure today... we'll talk more about form later.) We will continue working on this project for Friday.

  1. To create the new file, you can just save a copy of ceramics.html, change the name to "practice.html," and strip out all the ceramics-specific content.
    1. Remember to change both the title and the h1 heading.
    2. Remember to attach a style sheet (you are welcome to resuse your ceramics styleshsheet)
    3. Upload it to your web space.
  2. Look over the following links. You may wish to use some of these, or other readings we looked at earlier in the course, or a completely different set. I'd suggest that, to get stated, you choose one of these links, and replace the ugly linked URL with an informative title and blurb.
  3. Upload your revised page to make sure the link works.
  4. Look at a few more URLs, and decide on your selection criteria. For instance, my Writing Electronic Text portal clearly states the focus of that page (content, not the coding). Rather than a half-page mission statement, think a one- or two-sentence, very basic, very important explanation of what your page offers to the busy web surfer.
  5. Once you have determined and expressed your evaluation criteria (for instance: "Pages that fill gaps in the EL236 reading list," which would have a small readership but might serve those readers well, or "Detailed reference resources for serious HTML coding"), go about the business of choosing 5 links to evaluate.
  6. Supply a link and an evaluative blurb for each. My list of URLs is random. Omit ones that you don't think go well together. Find new ones that you think are more helpful.
    7. End with a few links that point towards websites that feature more links, so a reader who hasn't found what he or she is looking for on your site can still benefit from your suggestion of where to look next.

Once Google finds your website, it will learn that somewhere, somebody (you) linked to these particular pages using these words, and Gogole will be more likely to steer web searchers to the pages that you recommend.

You may consider using some of these links, or finding your own.
http://www.ology.org/tilt/cgh/index.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/EL236/016840.php
http://www.matcmp.sunynassau.edu/~glassr/html/errors.htm
http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980111.html

Trackbacks
Comments

Not sure how to go about it, but with the proper training I will.

Posted by: jeremy barrick at October 3, 2006 11:41 AM

I think I may just have it now. While i am stil haviong trouble with my castro stuff, I did manage to master the linking and blurbing exercise. :)

ftp://people.setonhill.edu/practice.html

Posted by: Rachel Prichard at October 4, 2006 12:29 PM

Thanks for the reports, folks.

Rachel, can you follow up with the URL in the format "http://people.setonhill.edu/[yourid]/practice.html"?

Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at October 4, 2006 1:30 PM

http://people.setonhill.edu/EL236kss/practice.html

Posted by: Kayla Sawyer at October 4, 2006 2:22 PM

Yeah, I finally got mine up!
http://people.setonhill.edu/Men0825/practice.html

Posted by: Cherie at October 11, 2006 2:00 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?






August
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    
September
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
          01 2
3 04 5 06 7 08 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
October
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 02 3 04 5 06 7
8 09 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31        
November
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
      01 2 03 4
5 06 7 08 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30    
December
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
          01 2
3 04 5 06 7 08 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31