13 December 2004
Final Exam (15%)
The exam (in A405, from 10:30-12:30) is your opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned about researching and writing online, using hyperlinks effectively, troubleshooting common Web page errors, and important current issues in cyberspace.
Notes:
Open-book, open-notes, and open-Web -- but no collaboration is permitted.
You will publish your final exam on your setonhill.info website. (If that site is down for some reason, I will announce an alternate plan during the exam.)
10 December 2004
8 December 2004
6 December 2004
Today's Topic: Usability Workshop 2
Demonstrate your ability to apply what you have learned so far this semester.
Working in groups of two or three, format and organize the following dummy text, following the principles that make online text legible and useful.
One group member should post the revised text on his or her setonhill.info website.
Each group member should post a brief reflection that 1.1) contains a hyperlink to the assignment page; 1.2) contains a link to the revision your team worked on and 1.3) describes, in specific detail, what changes you made to the dummy text. (You don't need to post multiple copies of the revised text.)
Each student should post a reflection (and link to the revised text) at "yourname.setonhill.info/usability2/index.html".
simonandrews: Usability Workshop 2
larissabanker: Usability Workshop 2
nehabawa: Usability Workshop 2
kristenbergstein: Usability Workshop 2
ryanburger: Usability Workshop 2
amandacochran: Usability Workshop 2
michaeliorio: Usability Workshop 2
rachelkaylor: Usability Workshop 2
stormyknight: Usability Workshop 2
vanessakolberg: Usability Workshop 2
melissalutz: Usability Workshop 2
victoriamara: Usability Workshop 2
valeriemasciarelli: Usability Workshop 2
samanthaolinger: Usability Workshop 2
misheilapellot: Usability Workshop 2
evanreynolds: Usability Workshop 2
moirarichardson: Usability Workshop 2
stefanierobb: Usability Workshop 2
leslierodriguez: Usability Workshop 2
denishiasalter: Usability Workshop 2
ashleythornton: Usability Workshop 2
timothytraini: Usability Workshop 2
christopherulicne: Usability Workshop 2
Assume that someone else has already approved the content, so you cannot cut anything. What are other things that you can do that will make the site more usable?
3 December 2004
1 December 2004
29 November 2004
Today's Topic: Don't like the news? Change it! -- Wikinews
Since we don't have a panel today, this is the reading you should use for your blog portfolio, should you choose to blog on today's panel. Don't worry -- I know you're all busy, so this article is short.
Wired News: Wikipedia Creators Move Into News
Through a new effort, Wikinews, members of the open-source community who write and edit Wikipedia's encyclopedia entries are encouraged to test their skills as journalists. The news site follows a similar set of rules as the encyclopedia, which allows anyone to edit and post corrections to entries, so long as each change is recorded.
22 November 2004
Today's Topic: Interactive Fiction (Panel 2-E)
Present a thoughtful, researched response (with quotations and links) to an interactive fiction game that you have not already played for Exercise 2-3. You may compare two IF games, compare a work of IF to a work in a different medium, or suggest a different approach.
19 November 2004
Today's Topic: Into the Blogosphere 3 (Panel 2-D)
Everyone should read The Labyrinth Unbound: Weblogs as Literature and bring to class a one-page response. (Feel free to blog it if you like.)
Presenters should choose from one of the following texts, and introduce it to the class by making connections to/contrasts with the required text.
17 November 2004
Today's Topic: Web Authoring Workshop 2
Assignment:
Write a brief, but informative web page that describes your independent project, and features annotated links to online resources that have helped you out so far (or that you plan to use in the near future).
Your page will be most useful to me, as I try to offer you guidance and feedback in these last few weeks, if you offer links to any drafts or prototypes that you have online, to blog entries you have already written describing your progress, to classroom exercises you found helpful, etc.
You are welcome to work together and/or ask me for help.
You are welcome to recyle the two-page progress report that is due today, but if you do, make sure that you revise your work so that it follows the conventions of online writing. (See especially the Top 5 Conventions of online writing.)
An annotated list of links (see an example) is a page that includes not just the bare URLs of useful sites, but rather features blurbs that describe and evaluate the content of those pages.
Blurbs: Writing Previews of Web Pages
You're reading a blurb now. If it helps you decide whether to click the link, then it's doing its job.
Checklist
Post today's exercise at yourname.setonhill.info/workshop2/index.html, and use the stylesheet "http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/EL236/2004/workshop2.css".
simonandrews: Workshop 2
larissabanker: Workshop 2
nehabawa: Workshop 2
kristenbergstein: Workshop 2
ryanburger: Workshop 2
amandacochran: Workshop 2
michaeliorio: Workshop 2
rachelkaylor: Workshop 2
stormyknight: Workshop 2
vanessakolberg: Workshop 2
melissalutz: Workshop 2
victoriamara: Workshop 2
valeriemasciarelli: Workshop 2
samanthaolinger: Workshop 2
misheilapellot: Workshop 2
evanreynolds: Workshop 2
moirarichardson: Workshop 2
stefanierobb: Workshop 2
leslierodriguez: Workshop 2
denishiasalter: Workshop 2
ashleythornton: Workshop 2
timothytraini: Workshop 2
christopherulicne: Workshop 2
15 November 2004
Today's Topic: Usability Workshop 1
Most readers of online writing are trying to do something. Usability is the measure of practical, objective factors such as how much time it takes, how many mistakes they make, and how much they remember. How users feel about the task is also part of usability -- if they hated the design or they didn't trust the author, that can affect how "useful" the site is.
Usability testing is the careful, systematic observation of a real, live user who attempts to accomplish a specific task.
The U.S. presidential election of 2000 may have been affected by the confusing design of a ballot in Palm Beach County. (I'd suggest caution when drawing political conclusions from this evidence, but it's still interesting from a design perspetive.)
As I have said numerous times in this class, our primary focus is writing, not design. But poor design can hurt the effectiveness of even the best writing.
When I evaluate your final projects, you won't be there to tell me, "Click here!" or "No, the game wants you to type, 'dance tango with mysterous stranger,' it won't accept 'dance with stranger'."
You can help ensure that I see all the hard work you put into your project, by giving an advanced protopye to a user who must learn to use it on his or her own. (As part of your project, you can of course provide your user with links to online instructions, or you can write instructions yourself... my point is that you, personally, won't be there to tell me what to do when I load your project and start exploring it.)
Often, we can improve the usability of a site without actually using it. Consider the following screencap, taken from a student project. What does this page need in order to make it more usable?
We can make changes to the form without knowing anything about the content, but as students in Writing for the Internet, you have already absorbed quite a bit of knowledge that the average person does not have. While you may see some problems with a design that the average user doesn't see, at the same time, the specialized knowledge you have absorbed in this class may blind you to problems that will be obvious to your average reader. (This is why I, as an experienced user of interactive fiction, need your opinions about what games are good for newbies, because you are experts in what it is like to encounter interactive fiction for the first time.)
Upcoming Usability Activities
Panel 1-G will be devoted to usability case studies. Exercise 2-4 will ask you to conduct a preliminary usability test on a prototype of your term project. If you don't have a prototype yet, now is the time to get one.
12 November 2004
Today's Topic: Into the Blogosphere 2 (Panel 2-C)
Everyone should read Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom. Bring a one-page informal response to class (you are encouraged to blog it.)
Presenters should sign up to give a presentation that explores areas where the above text reinforces, contradicts, expands upon, or intensifies one of the following texts:
10 November 2004
8 November 2004
5 November 2004
Today's Topic: Into the Blogosphere 1 (Panel 2-B)
All the "Into the Blogosphere" panels will ask students to summarize the main points contained in one of the essays in the "Into the Blogosphere" collection, and compare/contrast/apply that essay to another assigned reading that the whole class has been assigned to read. For Into the Blogosphere 1, the assigned reading can be either "Blogging as Social Action" or "Phantom authority...".
For your presentation, quote specific passages from the assigned readings and the additional essay that you are summarizing. Focus on two or three main points that you think will lead to a productive class discussion.
Presenters in this panel should choose one of the following:
3 November 2004
Today's Topic: Introduction to CSS
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) help you take control of the design of your site. If you have personlized your MoveableType display, you have already fiddled with CSS.
When used in the right way, CSS lets you separate the content of your site from information on the color, layout, and design. The design information is centralized, so that you only have to change one file, and hundreds of pages on your Web site will automatically reflect the changes.
While CSS may seem to be more bother than it's worth when you create a very small site, understanding CSS will help you make sense of huge re-design jobs (on sites with hundreds or thousands of pages, such as my own jerz.setonhill.edu).
See instructions: CSS In-Class Activity
(If you are interested, you can find much more on CSS on the Internet. Try searching for "CSS tutorial" for more step-by-step instructions, or "CSS reference" for a detailed description of exactly what you can change and how.)
Linkcheck Area
simonandrews: Style Test| Blog Style
larissabanker: Style Test| Blog Style
nehabawa: Style Test| Blog Style
kristenbergstein: Style Test| Blog Style
ryanburger: Style Test| Blog Style
amandacochran: Style Test| Blog Style
michaeliorio: Style Test| Blog Style
dennisjerz: Style Test| Blog Style
rachelkaylor: Style Test| Blog Style
stormyknight: Style Test| Blog Style
vanessakolberg: Style Test| Blog Style
melissalutz: Style Test| Blog Style
victoriamara: Style Test| Blog Style
valeriemasciarelli: Style Test| Blog Style
samanthaolinger: Style Test| Blog Style
misheilapellot: Style Test| Blog Style
evanreynolds: Style Test| Blog Style
moirarichardson: Style Test| Blog Style
stefanierobb: Style Test| Blog Style
leslierodriguez: Style Test| Blog Style
denishiasalter: Style Test| Blog Style
ashleythornton: Style Test| Blog Style
timothytraini: Style Test| Blog Style
christopherulicne: Style Test| Blog Style
1 November 2004
29 October 2004
Today's Topic: Weblog Case Studies (Panel 2-A)
1. Kaycee Nicole
2. She's a Flight Risk
3. Dear Raed
4. [TBA -- consult with instructor in advance.]
27 October 2004
Today's Topic: Weblogs and the Google Galaxy
This presentation is based on an article, On the Trail of the Memex
25 October 2004
Today's Topic: Rescheduled: Discussion of Blood (The Weblog Handbook) 3
Chapters 5-7
This this activity was moved here as part of a readjustment that gave us more time to talk about Exercise 1-5.) We'll get to it today.
Suggested blog entry: Implement two or three of Blood's suggestions for publicizing your weblog (or your e-newsletter). Include links.
22 October 2004
Today's Topic: Interactive Fiction Workshop 2
Whoops, I had this numbered "3" on the original syllabus.
This class period will be a basic introduction to interactive fiction authorship. Most students have little trouble with this exercise, and come away with a greater appreciation for what IF authors have accomplished.
Homework:
Before class starts, download this file: IF-edit.zip (click on it and then click "Save". Put it in the EL236 folder of your networked space (that is, "I/EL236").
When it is finished downloading, right-click, choose "Extract All...", click Next, and then change the value of the first box from "P:\EL236\IF-edit" to "[yourletter]:\EL236\", where [yourletter] is either I or J (whatever the student networked space is -- I can never remember)
If you'd like to get started, double click on EL236\IF-edit\editor\IF-IDE.EXE (if you don't see the .EXE, then look for the cursive "ie" icon).
From within the Inform Integrated Developing Environment, check to make sure that your editor knows where a interpreter (game player) is. Click View, Options, Compiler/Interpreter, and then the [...] button next to "Interpreter Path." A file explorer window will pop up. Find your way to WinFrotz.exe (the program that plays interactive fiction games). It will probably be in your EL236 folder (if it's not there, look in EL236/EL236). Click OK.
Now, load the demo file. Click File, Open, and then find "EL236/IF-edit/games/demo.inf".
To run this demo game, click the [!] icon. Feel free to change any of the red text (except if the word Include is before it).
The second demo game, demo2.inf, has embedded instructions for letting you personalize the shell of a game.
(I don't want to spend class time waiting for the download, so please do it in advance.)
20 October 2004
Today's Topic: Individual Project Workshop 2
1) Form five groups: one interactive fiction group, two technical writing groups, and two creative writing groups.
2) Within the larger groups, pair or triple up.
3) I have already asked you to come up with a number of sources (web pages or games) that illustrate the kinds of things they want to accomplish with their own individual project. By now I hope you have already spent some time investigating those sources.
4) In class, each small group should look at two or three sources, and spend about a twenty minutes coming up with a list of about five "Questions and/or Challenges". (Each group should write down the points on a page with their names.)
5) After about 20 minutes have passed, pairs/trios should swap lists of questions/challenges within their larger groups. Spend the next 20 minutes drafting a "Solutions" document. (The solutions don't have to be complete, but if the group really is stumped, make some decisions about how best to use the resources available to you in order to get yourselves over that obstacle. Please take this assignment seriously, since I'll use it to determine how to spend class time teaching you what you feel you need to know.)
6) In the last 10 minutes, a spokesperson from each group should share with the whole class the main points that arose during the workshop.
7) Each group submits their "Questions/Challenges" and "Solutions Draft" documents. (Group members should sign the pages). [Today's in-class activity would make an excellent blogging topic.]
15 October 2004
13 October 2004
11 October 2004
Today's Topic: Newsletter Writing Workshop 1
Preparation: Bring a printed draft of a sample article, and printouts of two articles from an e-newsletter that you would like to emulate (it can be one of the ones you signed up for earlier in the semester, or some other newsletter).
Review the links that were part of Group Project Workshop 1, and write a one-page reflection that examines your proposed newsletter topic according to the following guidelines (as always, you are enouraged to blog your responses if you wish):
-
Audience: Who is the target audience? How will you get to that audience -- where are they now? How will you get them to sign up for your newsletter? (Please don't send them unwanted bulk mail.)
Benefit to the reader: What concrete benefit will the reader get from your newsletter? If your readers feel like they are reading an advertisement ("Open this e-mail!! You won't be disappointed by the amazing stuff you find inside!!!"), they will be turned off. Saying that your newsletter provides "information" or "entertainment" is not a sufficiently specific answer -- there are plenty of sources for that kind of thing. Mike Arnzen's Gorleletter offers disturbing horror poems with a weird sense of humor; there really aren't a lot of sources for that kind of thing, so he's definitely found his niche.
- Publicity: Closely related to both of the above.... You might spend time with Google, finding obscure, underrated websites; tell the webmasters you are including them in your newsletter, and ask them to publicize your newsletter in return. How else can you get the word out? Writing style: Note that e-newsletters tend to be broken up into chunks that can are easy to find and read easily. Newsletters typically start with a table of contents that briefly describes what the letter contains. Use of medium: Your readers can click on links within your newsletter, in order to DO things. This makes an e-newsletter different from its print counterpart. How are you using the rest of the internet to help you serve your readers?
8 October 2004
Today's Topic: Postponed: Discussion of Blood (The Weblog Handbook) 2
Read and disuss chapters 5-7.
Preparation:
- Examine metablogging communities such as Technorati, TruthLaidBear, and BlogShares. Type in the URLs of blogs that you like, and see what you find.
Either 1) add your blog to these services or 2) if you prefer not to publicize your work in that manner, write a short paragraph on internet privacy concerns.
This blog page is under construction...
6 October 2004
Today's Topic: Information Literacy
Information literacy is a librarian/researcher's term for the ability to recognize and use the materials and resources that you need.
When I was a graduate student, I got to know a medieval studies student who knew exactly how to read a religious painting. He knew how to read the hand positions of the figures in the painting, so that if two people are shown with their hands on an object, you can "read" whether one person is giving it to the other, whether they are fighting for it, sharing it, etc.
My friend had an informed visual literacy that I lacked. We both looked at the same painting. We both saw the same colors and shapes -- we saw the same data -- but he saw more information that I did.
In small groups, look at each of these pages, and evaluate its credibility. If you were writing a college research paper on a related topic, how likely would you cite this page? What strategies do you look for as you evaluate the quality of information you find on the site?
http://www.gatt.org/homewto.html
http://library.albany.edu/briggs/addiction.html
http://www.chem.vt.edu/chem-dept/dessy/honors/papers/ferris.html
From the Google home page, search for "victorian robots".
From the Google home page, search for "french military victories"
After this exercise, I will discuss traditional academic peer review, and Google's PageRank system. If we have time, I will walk you through the interface at Slashdot (and an example of real-world, informal peer review, in a discussion of the assassination of Ultima's Lord British).
4 October 2004
Today's Topic: Rescheduled: Introduction to IF-Comp 2004
The 10th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition
For the last ten years, the readers of the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.int-fiction have held a yearly interactive fiction competition. For fans of the old Infocom games as well as for newcomers to the genre, the competition is a chance to enjoy some of the best short adventure games available anywhere.
We will soon have an exercise on programming IF. If you enjoyed the games we played the other day, and you'd like more IF, you might consider writng an IF game for your individual project.
If you aren't keen on programming, you could be a judge in the IF competition, and posting a website with game reviews. To be a judge, all you do is download the (free) games, and play at least five of them, for no more than two hours each. At the end of two hours, you give them a score (1-10). You can keep playing the game if you like, but if you do, you can't change the score. If you've played at least five games, you can be a judge.
A term project would involve creating a website with your reviews of the games you voted on (but the contest rules say judges shouldn't publish their reviews before Nov 15, so as not to influence the voting). The website should include at least reviews of the games you wrote, with links to solutions, other reviews, author's home pages, your own original interviews with the authors, etc.
Today's Topic: Topics in Cyberfiction (Panel 1-G)
1. Chatbots and/or MUDs/MOOs (Ashley Thornton)
2. Star Trek’s “Holodeck” as a Story Vehicle
3. Story-driven Videogames (Rachel Kaylor)
4. Hypertext Fiction (Victoria Mara)
Update: I have e-mailed tips to the students who have already signed up. Thanks! --DGJ
1 October 2004
Today's Topic: Wiki Workshop
Today we will complete the Wikipedia tutorial, modify an existing Wikipedia entry, and create at least the "stub" of a new entry.
Practice
- What's a Wiki? A wiki (from the Hawaiian word for "quick") is a collaborative authoring system. (See Michael Iorio's Introduction to Wikis.) Just like there is no one "book" or "TV show," there are many different wikis that use slightly different methods. There are even wikiblogs. A Wiki is open source -- that is, when you publish something on the wiki, you do so with the understanding that other people can (and will) change what you wrote. The vast majority of changes will be improvements. Since a wiki is relatively easy to learn (no WS_FTP or FPE involved!), a person who knows a tiny detail or observes a minor typographical error can, with very little effort, make the change immediately. If person A makes a change that person B dislikes, person B can put the old version back. Person C might suggest a happy medium between A and B, and so on.
First, I'll briefly show you the Wikipedia sandbox (where you can practice the syntax).
A wiki uses a simplified syntax to generate HTML. To the reader, a page may look like this.
Jerz's EL236 Test Area (Friday, 1 Oct, 2004)
Here are a few links. It's very simple to make links to Wiki pages.
If the Wiki page does not exist, the link is red. Rainbow Hector You can create a page simply by clicking on a red link.
Here's what I wrote:
== Jerz's EL236 Test Area (Friday, 1 Oct, 2004)==Here are a few links. It's very simple to make links to Wiki pages.
[[Seton Hill University]]
[[Internet]] [[Weblogs]]
If the Wiki page does not exist, the link is red. [[Rainbow Hector]] You can create a page simply by clicking on a red link.
By the way, please don't create a Rainbow Hector encyclopedia entry -- the world is not ready for that yet.
Move on to the Wikipedia tutorial (which lets you move at your own pace.) I'll come around to help anyone who needs it. Note in particular the "Neutral Point of View" discussion (on page 7 of the tutorial). Wikipedia is a consensus builder. If you say something outlandish and unsupportable, other users will tone it down until it is acceptable to the body of Wikipedia users. While Wikipedia aims for a neutral point of view, it's probably the case that people who like technology (and like things like interactive fiction) will probably spend more time on Wikipedia writing about it, as compared to someone who dislikes computers, who would just ignore Wikipedia.
Assignment: Once you have gotten through the tutorial,
Edit: Find an existing page on Wikipedia on a topic that interests you (there's a search box on every Wikipedia page), and make some change to it. (Be sure to save your work when you are finished.)
Create>/b> a new "stub page" on a topic that would be of interest to Wikipedia users. (There are probably few who need to see a page that lists your favorite movies, for example. Leave that sort of thing for your blog or your website.)
The easiest way to create a new page is to find a red link (which signifies that no page exists for that topic). Click it, and sketch out the beginning of an entry (a "stub").
The easiest way for you to find a red link that interests you is simply by reading existing wikipedia topics until you come across a red link that interests you.
If you have a specific topic in mind and can't find a red links to it, add one yourself. Find an existing page on a related topic . Edit that existing page, inserting a bracketed word or phrase in an appropirate place. (For instance, if you want to write an entry on a particular type of cheese, go to the [[Cheese]] page). If the link you added isn't red, then somebody else has already created that topic.
For example, if you created a stub page for your hometown's world-famous apple harvest festival, it might link out to existing pages for your county or hometown, for [[apples]], and for [[harvest festival]]. Edit all three of these pages so that they include links that point to the stub that you just created.
Required: Save the URLs of all the pages you worked on. Exercise 1-7 will ask you to check back on them.
29 September 2004
Today's Topic: Interactive Fiction Workshop 1
First of all, Hot Text is in the bookstore now. Please pick it up -- there will be a reading assignment due Oct 6.
Today's class builds on Moira's introduction to interactive fiction.
I will pass out a one-page guide to using IF; there are several such resources online.
Download IF.zip and save it to a temporary space. Right-click on the icon and choose "Extract All." Extract the compressed files to "I:/EL236/IF". In that folder, double-click on WinFrotz. In WinFrotz, select "File, Open New Story," and then find the file "I:\EL236\IF\booth.z5".
When you've finished that, we'll try "905.z5".
27 September 2004
Today's Topic: You Can't Do That with Text! (Panel 1-F)
1. Constrained and Variable Writing
2. Adventures of the Internet Bookmobile (Denishia Salter)
3. Introduction to Wikis (Michael Iorio)
4. Introduction to Interactive Fiction (Moira Richardson)
24 September 2004
22 September 2004
Today's Topic: Introduction to Web Authorship
Demonstration of the process of making a Web site.
Today you will download a simple web-authoring software (FrontPage Express), along with a tool that you will use to publish your web pages. You have already been given
space at firstnamelastname.setonhill.info -- if we have time today, I'll show you how to publish there.
If you have already learned a different web authoring tool, you're welcome to use it for your projects, but go ahead and install this version so you have ready access to it during class. You'll need about 7MB free on your I drive.
Downloading and Unzipping the Software
Click the link to download the file http://dennisjerz.setonhill.info/EL236.zip (4.63 MB). Save it to a portable drive (if you have one) or your student network space (usually your I drive).
With 20+ people downloading the file at once, it will probably take a long time. (If you're reading this message before class starts, please go ahead and start downloading -- it will save us all a bit of time.)
Unzip the folder (I'll show you how if you aren't sure; this, too, will take some time). It will create a "EL236" folder. Inside that folder will be two more folders -- FPE (for "FrontPage Express, a free version of a Microsoft web-authoring tool) and WS_FTP (the program you will use to upload your web pages.)
We will first create a very simple page, and then upload it. After that, if we have time, we will work on more complex tasks.
- Start FrontPage Express. (Look in the EL236/FPE folder, that was created on your I drive.) There are a ton of files in the FPE folder. The one you want is a red feather on a white notebook; the filename is "fpxpress.exe". There's also another red feather on a white notebook with the name "Fpxress.ico" (but that's nothing but the icon used by the previous file... very stupid and annoying, but the program is free).
You will see what looks like a word processor with a gray background. Go ahead and type something -- "I am a Seton Hill University student" will do. Apply bold to "am" (select the word and click the "B" button) and make "Seton Hill University" a link to the SHU home page (select the phrase and click the blue planet with a chain link, just under the "B" button).
To view the HTML code that FrontPage Express is generating, select "View" and "HTML..." A window will open. Close it when you have glanced at the code.
Save your work. Click the disk icon. A dialog box will ask you to provide a title for your page. Come up with something at least a little more creative than "My test page". When you save your file, put it in the EL236 folder, under a new directory called "sample". Call your file "index.html". (The "l" at the end of the filename is important.)
Now open the program WS_FTP95.exe, which is found in EL236/WS_FTP. (Note: If you are using Seton Hill as your internet service provider and dialing into Seton Hill's bank of telephone modems, you won't be able to FTP over a phone line.) "FTP" stands for "file transfer protocol. It simply means it's a tool that you can use make a copy of the "index.html" file that you just saved to your I drive, and to publish that copy on a website where others can view it. (Each time you make a change to your local web file, you will have to publish it again.)
Open your remote file system (the place where you will publish your pages). A dialog box should have popped up when you opened WS_FTP.
- If you haven't already created a profile, click "New".
Profile Name: "yourname.setonhill.info"
Host Name/Address: "yourname.setonhill.info"
Host Type "Automatic Detect"
User ID: "yourfirstnameyourlastname@setonhill.info" (It's different from your blog ID.)
Password: The numeric code on the piece of paper I handed you. (It's different from your blog password.)
Account: (leave blank.)
Press OK. (You will probably be asked for your password again... enter the number I handed you.)
-
Using Front Page Explorer, create a new page called "links.htm". Save it in the same folder that has your local copy of "index.html". On that page, create a link to your page "index.html". (Select the text you want to turn into a link, click the blue ball with the link icon, and for the URL type "index.html" (without the "http://" or anything else.)
Edit your local copy of "index.html" to include a link to "links.htm".
Use WS_FTP to upload updated versions of both files to your website, and then click the links.
Now that that you have the basic technological details down, we will examine some more basic principles of online writing. (Watch this space... what we don't cover we'll roll over into Friday's class.)
20 September 2004
Today's Topic: Current Issues in Cyberspace (Panel 1-E)
1. Google, Microsoft, and “Evil” (Melissa Lutz)
2. File-Sharing and Ethics (Leslie Rodriguez)
3. SPAM: In Your E-Mail and on Your Blog (Dennis Jerz)
4. Viruses, Spyware, and Security (Samantha Olinger)
17 September 2004
Today's Topic: Discussion of Blood (The Weblog Handbook)
Chapters 1-4.
On page 15, blood says that "[m]otivated bloggers" research and link to opposing viewpoints. Is there anything inherent in the design of weblog software that encourages online authors to link to opposing viewpoints? Is there anything about welogs to discourage a blogger from linking to someone who shares his or her biases and doesn't challenge his or her opinions in the slightest?
On page 18, Blood mentions the importance of linking to primary material. Thus, if you dislike a particular politician, post a link to a speech or a news story that describes something specific that that politician said or did. Even if most of your blog entry is a rant, the link is a service to someone who is interested in that politician, regardless of whether you reader shares your opinion. Page 20 offers some observations about eyewitness accounts and their relative value when compared to traditional journalism.
Page 28 describes Blood's own motivation to use fewer words when she writes. She describes a tension between posting frequent but uncultivated entries, or less frequent and well-digested essays. (I leave that up to you, but be warned -- if you procrastinate, your portfolio assignment will be much more stressful and much less rewarding than it should be.)
Page 30 and 31 offer some good observations about what happens when a blogger chooses not to post something; also, how blogging encourages critical thinking.
I and your peers have already already walked you through most of the material contained in chapter 3, but seeing it all in print may help spark some ideas and connections.
Suggested blog entry: Respond to Blood's Chapter 4, "Finding Your Voice." Read the blogs posted by your peers. How are some of them developing their voice? Link to a few specific blog entries (use permalinks -- click on the time stamp at the bottom of a posting) and comment on the voice. Reflect on how your own voice is developing.
Today's Topic: Group Project Workshop 1
Form groups to discuss the newsletter-writing group project. First issue is due October 13.
Much of what I and a former student put in "Writing Effective E-Mail: Top 10 Tips" also applies to e-newsletters, but people are much more likely to scan (or trash) newsletters that seem irrelevant.
I like e-mail newsletters because they are self-contained -- I can print them out and read them offline, or I can download them to my digital organizer (which doesn't have internet access) knowing that I can read it while standing in line at the grocery store or during my son's piano lesson, and I won't feel disenfranchised by the fact that I can't click a link.
Review the e-newsletters that you signed up for in Exercise 1-2.
How does an e-newsletter differ from other similar sources (such as a newspaper article or a weblog)? What is the purpose of an e-newsletter?
How would you describe the writing style of an e-newsletter?
Consider Mike Arnzen's prize-winning "Gorelets" (horror)
Langalist (hardware and software tips and troubleshooting)
E-Mail Newsletter Writing Tips
- What A Newsletter Can Do For Your Business
7 Formulas for Writing Articles that Get Read
Writing E-Newsletters that Sell
Targeted Email Newsletters Show Continued Strength
Discussion Questions for your Group
Topic for your newsletter? The ones I can think of right away: Success at Seton Hill University;
Value to readers? Your friends and family members may read your newsletter simply because you wrote it... maybe your teammates will care about a newsletter devoted to your club... but what kind of newsletter would a wide range of people, who are just as busy as you are, actually bother reading? What concrete benefit will your readers get? (Will you be able to save them time, by doing research for them? Save them money, by pointing them towards good deals and away from bad ones?)
15 September 2004
Today's Topic: Before Web Browsers (Panel 1-D)
1. History of E-Mail (Vanessa Kolberg)
2. History of Usenet (Newsgroups) (Dennis G. Jerz)
3. History of the Personal Computer (LeCrisha Mattox)
4. History of Word Processing
5. Feedback on in-class writing exercise (Dennis G. Jerz)
Instead of the History of Word Processing, we'll spend a bit of time on the problem in my instructions for Exercise 1-4.
13 September 2004
Today's Topic: Discussion of Kilian (Writing for the Web)
It's a short book, so I'm asking you to read it all.
In discussion: A basic principle of writing is "Know Your Audience." What does Kilian's book teach us about the readers of online documents?
On a piece of paper: How are you personally adjusting your own academic writing style in order to write for this class? Give an example of a sentence that you would have written for a traditional (printed) form, or in an informal online environment; then, revise it so that it will be acceptable for a college course in writing for the internet.
Small group exercises: A few short selections from the textbook (bulleted lists; .
Suggested blog topics:
Kilian introduces "semantics" and "register" as part of a discussion that distinguishes between informing, persuading, and marketing. Examine the Seton Hill University website, and evaluate it in terms of semantics and register, as well as its ability to inform, persuade, and market. (I'd prefer that you not start a blog entry with a list of terms and then just write a few sentences on each in the order which they are listed on this page. Come up with a point that you want to make, and use the terms Kilian provides in order to help you make that point.)
Compare the online syllabus for EL 236 with a syllabus you received in a different class. Is your other syllabus mostly designed for print, or is it also an online document? If it is designed for print, how does it differ from EL 236's syllabus? If it is also an online document, how does your other professor handle the needs of online writers?
10 September 2004
Today's Topic: The History of the World Wide Web (Panel 1-C)
1. The Web and 9/11/2001
2. The Web Browser Wars
3. Dot-Com Boom and Bust (Jerz)
4. Hypertext before the WWW (Jerz)
8 September 2004
Today's Topic: Introduction to Weblogs II (Panel 1-B)
1. Personalizing Your MovableType Blog (Valerie Masciarelli)
2. Pundit Blogs & Edu-blogs (Chris Ulnice)
3. Hoaxes and Fictions
4. Videoblogs and Audioblogs
5. Informal Tour of SHU Blogging (Stephanie Robb)
6 September 2004
3 September 2004
Today's Topic: Introduction to Weblogs (Panel 1-A)
1. Weblogging Overview (Stormy Knight)
2. Anatomy of a Weblog (Neha Bawa)
3. Getting the Most from Your Academic Blog (Amanda Cochran)
4. Blogging Culture @ Seton Hill University (Evan Reynolds)
1 September 2004
Today's Topic: From Text to E-Text
From "Computer Labs Aren't Designed for English Lit Students"
We are in many ways a post-literate society, but books of all sorts are still a big part of the academic life. We’re in a period of transition, to be sure. While Harry Potter and other blockbusters sell a lot of copies, many, many other books hardly sell at all. Since there more readers on the planet, and more different books being produced than ever before, the chances are rapidly diminishing that any two readers have read the same book. If we don’t read the same books, we can’t talk about them, and the culture of books becomes less cohesive, less worth discussing.
Ordinary text is linear -- consider the scroll.
Paragraphs, capital letters at the beginnings of sentences, and even spaces between words were late inventions in the history of writing.
A book lets readers flip back and forth between pages, in a way that isn't possible with a scroll. The technology of the book changed the way people read, write, and think. The same thing is happening, and has already happened, with electronic text.
30 August 2004
Today's Topic: Course Overview
Welcome to Writing for the Internet.
Today we will walk through the syllabus, look at the major projects, and briefly preview upcoming homework assignments.
We will also spend some time getting to know each other.
The paper syllabus that I handed out on the first day of classes is a convenience for students. The official syllabus is located on the course website, at blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/EL263. I have set it up so that you can post comments to each individual item on the syllabus.
27 August 2004
Textbook Woes in EL236
The textbook gods have not been kind to me this summer. Two of the three textbooks are not yet in the bookstore.
Burg. BlogTalks. (This title has proved extremely difficult to get. If it doesn't arrive by the time we need it, I will make other arrangements.)
Kilian. Writing for the Web. (This one was scheduled to arrive OK.)
Price and Price. Hot Text: Web Writing That Works. (This title is on backorder with the bookstore. If the copies don't arrive soon, I'm going to have to drop this book and make some other arrangement.)
If any of these books haven't shown up, don't panic -- I've already adjusted the syllabus so that we don't need them right away.
8 August 2004
Student Weblog Roster
SimonAndrews
LarissaBanker
NehaBawa
KristenBergstein
RyanBurger
MichaelIorio
RachelKaylor
StormyKnight
VanessaKolberg
MelissaLutz
VictoriaMara
ValerieMasciarelli
LeCrishaMattox
SamanthaOlinger
MisheilaPellot
EvanReynolds
MoiraRichardson
StefanieRobb
LeslieRodriguez
DenishiaSalter
AshleyThornton
TimothyTraini
ChristopherUlicne
