Writing for the Web (Fall 2008)

Specifics

After you have completed (or nearly completed) your sites, you will give a short presentation (5-10 minutes) on your site in class on December 3 . In the presentation you will:

• describe your client and purpose for making the site
• show the site and describe its features
• explain how your site is a good fit for the client and why you made the design and writing choices that you did
• answer any questions that people have for you

Everyone in your group should take a speaking role in the presentation.

Grading Criteria

The presentation will be graded on the quality of your descriptions and the quality of your delivery.
Your group can earn a total of 25 points for your presentation.

After you’ve completed the group Web project, you will write a short reflection about what this experience taught you about writing for the Web.

Specifics

You will write a short reflection of one or two double-spaced pages where you:

• Describe your role in the project and the work you completed.
• Explain any problems that you encountered during the project.
• Describe and reflect on what you learned about writing for the Web from this project and from the course in general.

Grading Criteria

The instructor will grade the memo based on the quality of your descriptions, the quality of your reflections, and your use of English. You can earn a total of 25 points for this. The memo is due as an e-mailed attachment to the instructor by December 10.

Monday, December 1

Today you’ll continue to work on your Group Web Projects, including preparing to give your presentations on Wednesday.

Assignments for Next Class

Continue to work on your projects. Prepare to present your site to the class.

Wednesday, December 3

Today you’ll (hopefully) finish your Group Web Projects and present your sites to the class. We’ll also conduct course evaluations.

Due By December 10

• E-mail from one group member with Web address for final version of site
• E-mail from each group member with reflective memo
• All questions of the week completed

Today, we’ll:

Discuss different types of site testing.

• Functionality: does everything work?
• Usability: can people do what they need to do on the site?
• Accessibility: can everyone use my site?

Conduct usability tests on your site drafts.

User testing is an important part of understanding how the writing and design of a Web site work (or don’t work) in the hands of users. It allows you to identify and correct problems at all stages of the design process.

User testing involves three stages, which you will work through in this activity.

1. Task Creation
2. Task Observation
3. Task Write-Up

Task Creation

First, your group needs to make a list of common tasks that users might do on your Web site. Use the following questions to help you make this list.

• Why would users visit this site? What would they want to do or find on this site?
• What information would users look for on this site that is not on the main page of the site?

Based on this list, write a description of a task that users could do when they visited your Web site. Here are some examples:

Find the product page for the FreebleMaster 6000 and add a FreebleMaster to your shopping cart.
Use the site to locate information about the current movies playing at the Arty Art Theatre.

After you’ve written a description of the task, prepare several computers in your area for task observation by pulling up the appropriate page in a Web browser and getting ready to take notes.

Task Observation

In the task observation phase, your group will take turns observing users performing your task and being users for another group’s task. Your group should attempt to observe at least three users completing the task you designed in the first phase.

Each member of your group should observe one user. As the observer:

1. Explain the task to the user.
2. Watch as the user completes the task and take notes on what the user does.
3. Thank the user for their time when they are done.

After each group member has completed observing a user, you should regroup and either participate in the other group’s user test or proceed to the task write-up stage.

Task Write-Up

After you have observed all of your users and participated in the other group’s user test, your group needs to write up your results. Use your notes and observations and the following template to create a brief memo in Microsoft Word to the instructor about the results of your test.

To: Dr. Karper
From: Your Group Member’s Names
Date: November 19, 2008
Subject: User-Testing Write Up

Description of the Site

(Provide a description of the site and its purpose.)

Description of the Task

(Describe your task and explain why you chose it.)

Description of the Test

(Describe how you conducted the user test.)

Description of Results

(Describe the results of the test and what you learned about your site from the test.)

Recommendations

(Describe any recommendations for changes to the site that should be made based on the testing.)

E-mail your memo as an attachment to the instructor. She’ll grade it and it will be worth 25 points for the Group Web Project.

Continue to work on your sites.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the final question of the week.
User testing memo due by beginning of class on Monday.

Please post the answer to this question in your blogs by December 5. Remember that you can also catch up on past questions of the week if you want to get full points for this assignment. All answers are due by December 10.

What have you learned about Web writing during the semester? What do you think the most important or significant differences are between Web writing and other forms of writing?

Monday, November 17

Today you’ll work on generating content and creating Web pages.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Continue working on group Web project; working version of your site (at least two pages) needs to be published to the Web for testing by beginning of class on Wednesday.

Wednesday, November 19

Today you’ll conduct and report on user testing and then continue working on your Web sites.

Assignments for Next Class

User testing memo due by beginning of class on Monday.
Continue working on your Web sites.

Please post the answer to this question in your blogs by Wednesday, November 19.

In his discussion of his “Long Tail” theory, Chris Anderson says: our economy and culture is shifting from mass markets to million of niches. It [the book written about it] chronicles the effect of the technologies that have made it easier for consumers to find and buy niche products, thanks to the “infinite shelf-space effect”–the new distribution mechanisms, from digital downloading to peer-to-peer markets, that break through the bottlenecks of broadcast and traditional bricks and mortar retail.

Two questions for you:

1) Are you seeing this “long tail” effect in your own consumption/production habits?

2) What does this have to do with writing for the Web?

Today, we’ll:

Discuss issues in creating collaborative Web sites.

Certain issues arise when people build collaborative Web sites.

• How to divide work fairly.
• Creating usable templates.
• How to link up pages that individual people are creating.
• Which person will “host” the site on their NU Web space.
• How to transfer files to the person hosting the final version of the site.

How to make the site building process go smoothly:

• Assign people roles and divide up page creation before building the site. Decide who will take responsibility for the different pages.
• Decide who will host the site on their NU Web space.
• Have the host create a folder on their NU Web space that will host the files. (Ask the instructor to show you how.)
• Come up with a process for sending the host completed pages or sending the host formatted content that could be pasted into a Web page. (HTML files and images can be sent as e-mail attachments or put into Zip files and sent via email to the host. You can also put them on a USB stick and pass the USB stick to someone. Or, you could set up a site on each computer and have the person enter their FTP information and password for you.)
• Decide on how you will name files: remember to avoid using spaces, punctuation, or special characters.
• Create a template for subsidiary pages from the wireframes that you built.
• Set up a site in Dreamweaver to store the files you will be working on.
• Use the wireframe for the index to create your index page.
• Use the template for the subsidiary pages to create subsidiary pages.
• Test the site in browsers frequently to make sure that links work.
• Send your pages to the host and have the host upload the final site.

Discuss ways to build templates for your Web pages.

Templates are built from the wireframes that you created. They should contain:

• Logo or organization information
• Title of the page
• Navigation, including working links
• Color scheme
• Places for content (text, images, media, links)

Templates should basically be working versions of the Web pages — you simply add the necessary content to create the pages. All pages should use the templates that you built.

Work to build templates and create pages for your group Web sites.

Use the feedback on your wireframes to help you create the templates for your subsidiary pages and to generate an index page from your index page wireframe.

Assignments for this Week

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Work on the group Web project.

This week we’ll work on creating and editing content for your Web pages. Plan to work in your groups both days.

Assignments for this Week

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Work on the group Web project.

After you’ve written your proposal, you’ll then begin to design the site by making choices about the organization and the presentation of content. You’ll demonstrate the proposed design for your site by creating a site map and two wireframes for your project.

Specifics

The site map should:

• show the number of pages on your site
• clearly label each page with a short description of its content or title
• show how the pages will be connected to each other
• be created on a computer or on paper

You will create a wire frame for the index page of your site and for the subsidiary pages of your site. The wire frames should:

• show the placement of content and navigation on the site
• demonstrate an understanding of the box model by showing the “boxes” for content and navigation and where they will be positioned
• show the possible colors for backgrounds, fonts, links, and other types of emphasis, fonts, and logos that will appear on the site

You do not have to include content on the wireframes, but you can include “dummy content” to show what a page might look like.

Grading Criteria

The site map and wireframes will be graded on the creativity and audience appropriateness of the organization, navigation, colors, images, and presentation. You can earn 25 points for this project.

Due Dates

Both the site map and the wireframes are due by Monday, November 10 at the start of class.

Today, we’ll:

Discuss the guidelines for the next stage of your project: site maps and wireframes.

Discuss how to translate your proposed content into a site.

• Develop a plan for how many pages the site will have, what each one will contain, and how they will be connected to each other.
• Create a visual representation of this plan on the computer or on paper: this is called a site map.
• Use the site map to develop and plan navigation.

Please draw a preliminary site map in your groups.

Discuss creating navigation for a Web page/Web site.

Navigation should:

• Emerge from your plan for the site: show readers the choices available to them on the site.
• Explain the various categories of information available
• Provide readers with clear choices for where to go next
• Use unambiguous language and/or images to label links (no mystery meat navigation)
• Provide short and clear labels for each category of information
• Be provided in multiple places on a page:
  • Top
  • Bottom
  • Sidebar

Navigation can take the form of:

• An index page
• A link bar (with or without images)
• A list of links
• Links in the text

Discuss what a wireframe for a Web page contains.

Web page content usually includes:

• Navigation
• Text
• Images
• Any other content (logos, consistent graphics, embedded media)

A wireframe or a sketch of a page indicates where this content will be placed and also what types of fonts, logos and colors will be used. Wireframes are usually first drawn on paper and then created as Web pages so that people can see how they will look on the screen. Before you can create a wireframe, let’s talk a little bit more about color.

Discuss choosing colors for a Web page.

In the past, Web-safe color was important, but most browsers have evolved beyond the need for Web-safe color.

In any case, you should create a color palatte for your Web site. This should include:

• Page background color
• Link colors (unvisited and visited)
• Text colors
• Dominant colors in images: you might want to create a color palatte based on the colors in a client’s logo or an image representing the company.

To make it look professional, try to limit yourself to no more than three to five colors, and make the colors match each other. You’re creating a color scheme similar to designing a print document or decorating a room.

Make sure to provide enough contrast between background color and link and text colors.

Color scheme designer for you to use: Spin the Color Wheel

Work on creating site maps and wireframes for your Web pages.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Continue work on the group Web project; finish site map and wireframes if you haven’t already.

Please post the answer to this question in your blogs by November 12.

Web design (which controls the appearance and format of Web writing) goes through trends much like any other form of design or fashion. Take a look at Current Web style to see some examples of the current trends in Web design. What do you think about these current trends? Would you want to use any of the common features described in the article in the design of your group’s Web site?

Monday, November 3

Today you’ll work on producing proposals for the Group Web Project.

Assignments for Next Class
Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Finish your proposal and email it to the instructor (if you haven’t already done so).

Wednesday, November 5

Today you’ll work on producing site maps and wireframes for the Group Web Project.

Assignments for Next Class
Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Continue work on the group Web project; finish site map and wireframes if you haven’t already.

Please post the answer to this question in your blogs by Wednesday, November 5.

What does this cartoon have to do with the processes of Web writing and Web design? Please be specific.

Today, we’ll:

Generate lists of content for your group Web projects.

Please create a list of content for your Web sites.

Discuss principles of information architecture.

The big secret of Web writing/Web designing: Writing for the Web requires the classification, arrangement, and presentation of information on multiple levels.

The classification, arrangement, and presentation of information is also called information architecture. (On a larger and slightly different scale, it’s also called rhetoric.)

Information architects decide how the content for a site will be arranged at the macro and micro-levels.

• They divide information into categories, sections, objects, and pages.
• They label categories and sections of information so that users can identify them.
• They decide how parts of a Web site will be linked to each other and connected to other sites on the Web.
• They design navigation aids (such as navigation bars, link lists, headers, and footers) and search capacities for sites so that users can find the information they need.

Information architecture for a site works at multiple levels on larger sites:

• Design and navigation of the whole site (Niagara University Web site)
• Design and navigation of sections of the site (Niagara University English department)
• Design and navigation of individual pages within sections (Course description page for the English department)

Sometimes you may design an entire Web site and arrange all of the content for that site. Other times you may be working within an existing larger site structure and just be designing or re-designing the classification, arrangement, and presentation of a certain section or amount of content. In either case, information architecture can help you – it can even help you arrange content on a page.

Whether you are designing an entire site or a certain section of a site, you need to:

• Be aware of how different groups of users approach your site and the terms and ideas they use for locating information. Use these terms and ideas to help develop the organization and navigation.
• Be consistent in your arrangement of information (make sure it works with the larger site structure and organization).
• Be consistent in your use of terms in navigation and also in the Web text.
• Be sure to test your designs with users and get their feedback.

For example, the Niagara Web design staff had already created an information architecture for the entire Niagara site. They’d also created page templates that contained navigation for the entire site and a place for navigation of each section of the site (such as the English department).

However, the content for the English Web site still needed to be classified, labelled, and arranged for presentation on the Web in a way that fit into that template. There were multiple ways of arranging and presenting this content to the user. As the Web content creator, I needed to know how to best organize and present the content.

How do information architects decide how to classify, label, and arrange information for presentation? There are many ways, some of which we’ll practice in class, such as:

• Site maps
• Wireframes
• Analysis of usage patterns from exisiting sites
• Asking for feedback from users and groups
• User testing and focus groups
• Card sorts

What can differences in how users arrange information tell us? Areas of difference tell us about:

• “content that participants haven’t understood well
• content that could belong to more than one area
• alternative paths to content
• how different types of participants see information” (Wodtke)

Do a card sort activity to determine organization for your sites.

Work on writing the proposal for your Group Web Project.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Work on the Group Web Project.

Today, we’ll:

Go over the weekly agenda.

Go over the site proposal guidelines.

Discuss principles for planning a site.

User-centered design

• Effective design must reflect how people think and what they need.
• User-centered design starts with the needs, thoughts, and feelings of the user and shapes a design that will work for them.
• You use the user’s language and thought processes to help you shape the information architecture and content of the site.
• You get information by:
  • Analyzing the characteristics of your audiences
  • Creating “personas” for model users
  • Conducting a purpose analysis
  • Talking to your users during different stages of the process
  • Conducting usability testing during different stages of site design
  • Providing mechanisms for users to provide feedback
  • Talk about audience analysis and creating personas.

Purpose analysis

• Why are you building this site?
• What needs to be on this site?
• How are you going to make your site stand out?
• How are you going to attract people to your site and keep them there?

What would be the purpose for the English department Web site?

Audience analysis

Defining the different groups of people who might use your site, their purposes for using the site, and any unique needs that they might have.
Example: English department site: students, faculty, prospective students. What would be their purposes for using the site? What needs would they have? What would make them different from the other groups?

Personas
Creating a specific description of a sample user from each potential audience that represent a specific pattern of needs.

Describe:

• Demographics and information about them, particularly related to hobbies, activities, interests.
• Expected level of Web experience.
• Purpose for using the site: what are they looking to accomplish when they visit your site?
• Information needs: what specific types of information would they look for on the site?

What would be some sample personas that would be generated for the English Web site?

Jane is a 17-year old college junior at a local high school who really likes creative writing. She wants to go to college close to home, and would like to major in English. She’s comfortable with using the Web to locate information, so she’s been using the Web to research colleges that are close to home. When she visits the site, Jane wants to learn what it’s like to be an English major at Niagara. She’d like to know what the requirements are to major in English at Niagara, and she’d also like to read some course descriptions so she can tell whether or not they’d be too boring. Since her parents want her to be able to get a job when she graduates, she’d like to know what kind of jobs she could get with an English degree. (Prospective Student)

What would be some other personas?

Work in your project groups to conduct a purpose analysis and an audience analysis for your project sites.

In your groups, please:

• Answer the questions on pages 37 and 38 of Writing for the Web in a Word document.
• Download and complete the persona activity for your site.
• E-mail both documents to the instructor when you are done.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Read Chapter 8 in Writing for the Web.

Proposals are an important part of communicating your proposed work to a client. Often clients will review competing proposals for a Web site and decide on the one that they like best. Your group must write a short (2-4 page) proposal which analyzes the primary and secondary audiences for the site and explains the proposed content (or revisions to content) that the site will contain.

Specifics

Your proposal should:

• Describe the client (organization, group, business, entity).
• Describe the purpose of the site.
• Describe the competition and how your site will be distinguished from the competition. (Hint: use material from the purpose analysis you did in class.)
• Describe the primary and secondary audiences for the site: include demographic details, their reasons for visiting the site, why they would be repeat visitors to the site and how you will keep their interest. (Hint: use material from the audience analysis you did in class.)
• Describe the possible content (or revisions to content) that your site will contain: include the categories that you will use for organization/navigation and a list of topics that the site will cover. Also mention if you will need to get any permissions for content before it can be used.
• Describe your timeline for creating the site, and your plan for site maintenance.

Formatting

Your proposal should:

• Be between two and four pages (single-spaced) using a 10 or 12 point font.
• At the top of the first page, list your group members’ names and the title Proposal for Client Name.
• Use headings to make distinctions between sections.
• Attribute any words, ideas, or information that you get from other sources by using in-text references.
• Be clear, concise, precise, and use conventions for standard written English.
• Be e-mailed to the instructor as an attached Microsoft Word Document.

Grading Criteria

The proposal will be graded on:

• The quality of your description of purpose, client, and competition. (15 points)
• The audience description and analysis. (15 points)
• The description of content and your timeline for creating the site. (15 points)
• The clarity and precision of your language use. (5 points)

Your group can earn a total of 50 points for this project.

Due Date

Final version due at the end of class on November 3rd.

Monday, October 27

Today we’ll go over the guidelines for the site proposals. Then we’ll discuss the information that you need to gather for your proposals, including audience analysis and content analysis.
Assignments for Next Class
Read Chapter 8 in Writing for the Web.
Answer the question of the week in your blogs.

Wednesday, October 29

Today we’ll discuss types of content and ways of organizing for your Web site projects. You’ll learn a technique called card sorting to help you work with sorting and categorizing content.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Work on the Group Web Project.

Today, we’ll:

Form groups for the group Web project.

Poetry Society
Nolan
John
Corinne
Brittany S.

WNIA
Heather
Nick S.
Michael
Diana

Learn And Serve
Vincent
Brittany M.
Lily

Kiss 98.5
Kadie
Meghan
Alexis
Nick F.

Campus Food Services
Melissa
Deandra
Gigi

Hate your group? You can switch to another one as long as you clear it with me first.

Please:

• Exchange contact information.
• Brainstorm a list of possible ideas for content and design.
• Discuss concerns about the project.

Discuss the characteristics of informative writing for the Web.

Genres

• Academic writing/research

• Government Web sites
• Help sites: manuals/product information
• How-to/instruction sites
• Journalism/news

Characteristics of most informative writing (except for academic writing)

• Audience awareness/analysis (trained incapacity or “the point of astonishment”)
• Accurate, precise, concise prose (unambiguous wording, vocabulary at the level of the audience)
• Careful organization that makes meaning clear to the audience (inverted pyramid, ordered or unordered lists)
• Testing and adaptation for audience needs.

Do an activity which asks you to create some informative Web writing.

1. Create a Web page of instructions for a common task that you do every day (tying your shoes, making a sandwich, etc.). Include images or diagrams as appropriate.

2. Publish the page to your NU Web space and send the Web address to the instructor.

Work on the activity from the previous class if you did not already finish it.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Read “Mystery Meat Navigation” and “Biggest Mistakes in Web Site Design, 1995-2015.”

Please send your top three client choices to the instructor by Wednesday, October 22.

• WNIA
• NYPIRG
• Catholic Youth
• Kiss985
• The Poetry Society Web site
• Lil’ Slice of Love
• O’D Hall
• the new literary magazine
• the communications department
• campus food services
• Niagara University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
• Niagara University Softball Team
• Niagara University Women’s Basketball Team
• Niagara Study Abroad Program
• Niagara Swimming and Diving Team
• Learn and Serve at N.U.
• Sociology Major at N.U
• Writing Studies Minor at N.U.
• Everafter Magazine – A local buffalo wedding magazine.
• English Department at NU.
• Guido’s Ulphostering and Decorating Center – local niagara falls business
• boyscout troop
• marching band
• Dollar/Thrifty Car Rental- Cheektowaga, NY
• Sports Collector’s Corner- Prime Outles Niagara Falls
• Niagara Index

Monday, October 20

Today we’ll go over the guidelines for the group web project and discuss possible clients. Then we’ll discuss some of the characteristics of commercial/promotional Web writing and practice creating some of those types of writing.

Assignment for Next Class

Email in votes for the Group Web Project (if you haven’t already).
Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Read Chapter 7 in Writing for the Web. BRING YOUR BOOK TO CLASS.

Wednesday, October 22

Today we’ll form groups for the Group Web Project, exchange information, and brainstorm ideas. Then we’ll discuss characteristics of informative Web writing and practice creating one of those types of writing.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Read “Mystery Meat Navigation” and “Biggest Mistakes in Web Site Design, 1995-2015.”

Overview

Throughout this class, we’ve been discussing different aspects of Web writing and Web design. You’ve been asked to practice with different forms of Web writing and to research different aspects of Web writing, as well as practicing Web writing and Web design skills in the Web Workbook assignments. The final project for this class asks you to combine the skills that you’ve learned in this class and will continue to learn throughout the semester. You’ll also be asked to work collaboratively in groups; since most if not all “real world” Web sites are a result of team efforts, this is not an unreasonable undertaking.

This assignment will require you to collaborate with your classmates to create a writing-intensive Web site for some aspect of the Niagara University community or the community around you. You will each participate in identifying the needs of the site audience, producing and revising content, creating a usable and attractive site design, and testing your site for usability and accessibility.

Guidelines

How are Web sites created and how does writing play a role in the process? In order to discover exactly how Web sites are produced and how people work together to create them, you will collaborate with your classmates to create or revise a writing-intensive Web site. To complete the assignment and receive credit, you (as part of a group) will:

• identify a specific group which needs a Web site created or revised. You must submit three topic ideas to the instructor via email. The instructor will then make a list of topics and ask people to vote for their top three choices. Votes will be used to divide people into groups.

• write a short (2-4 page) proposal which describes the client and their needs, analyzes the primary and secondary audiences for the site and explains the proposed content (or revisions to content) that the site will contain.
• create a site map and wireframes for your site which demonstrate how information will be organized, formatted, and presented to the user.
• produce, edit, revise, and format written, visual, and any other forms of content necessary for the site.
• build all necessary Web pages and publish the site on the Web.
• test the site for usability and accessibility and write a short memo (1-2 pages) explaining your testing.
• give a short presentation (5-10 minutes) on your site to the class in which you present the site, explain your choices, and answer questions.
• write a short reflective memo (1-2 pages) providing context and reflections on the project

In terms of content and Web page elements, your Web site should also contain, at a bare minimum:

• A main index page
• Navigation which demonstrates an understanding of information architecture principles
• Subsidiary pages with substantial content (text, images, and/or other forms of media)
• A design which uses the principles of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity as well as color theory and is usable and comprehensible
• The use of HTML for markup and CSS for presentation
• The incorporation of feedback mechanisms or contact information

You will need to devise a system for hosting and designing your pages and for dividing the workload fairly among your group members. Strategies for collaboration will be discussed in class.

Grading Criteria

The assignments will be graded on:

• the quality of your descriptions of content and audience analysis as explained in the proposal. (50 points)

• the creativity and audience appropriateness of your proposed site design as detailed in the site map and wireframes for the intended site. (25 points)
• the thoroughness of the usability and accessibility testing as detailed in the memo. (25 points)
• your presentation to the class (including visual aids) and your fielding of questions about the site. (25 points)
• the final version of the site’s content, presentation, and design. (150 points)
• the quality of your reflections on the project as detailed in the memo. (25 points)

You can earn a maximum total of 300 points for all assignments combined.

You will be asked to evaluate your own performance and the performance of your group members in evaluations that will be turned into the instructor. These evaluations will have an impact on your final grade for this project. The instructor will grade the project, and then decide who in the group deserves full credit for the project based on their contributions. If you encounter problems with working in your groups, please see the instructor as soon as possible so that she may help broker a resolution to the problem.

Due Dates

• Topic Suggestions/Votes: October 20
• Site Proposal Due: November 5
• Site Map/Wireframes Due: November 10
• Usability testing memo due: December 1
• Presentations: December 4
• Final version of site/reflection memos: December 10

Today, we’ll:

Go over the weekly agenda.

Publish your portfolios to the Web and send the instructor links.

Go over the guidelines for the group Web project and generate a list of clients.

Discuss the characteristics of Web writing that is written for business/commercial reasons.

Genres of business/commercial writing:

• Product or service descriptions
• Sales assistance
• Text ads/banner ads
• White papers
• Press releases

Characteristics of good business/commercial writing on the Web:

• Listen to what consumers want and write about them first. (Price & Price 343)
• Write in a way that appeals emotionally to the consumer. (Price & Price 343)
• Cut marketing babble — write concise, crisp, and clear sentences. (Price & Price 343)
• Write like a human being: put yourself into your writing and be passionate about what you say.
• Provide well-organized information.
• Provide more information about products, such as product shots, overviews, benefits, features, results, data sheets, reviews, case studies, but make sure that it’s well organized and clearly presented.
• Give customers a clear sense of where they are when they are locating products.
• Allow consumers to easily ask questions and provide feedback.
• Pay attention to the features of most Web writing: short paragraphs, use of lists, headings, white space, and concise and action-oriented style.

Practice creating these types of writing.

You will work in groups for this activity. Each group will be assigned a fictitious product about which to write. If you are having trouble understanding what the features for each product should look like, consult the examples or search the Web for additional information about these genres.

For this product, please create: a Web page for the fictitious product, including a product description, features, benefits, reviews and purchasing information. You will need to include more then the initial product description, although you certainly may use that as a starting point.

Publish the page to a group member’s NU Web space and send the instructor a link to it.

All product descriptions are taken verbatim from the Time Digital: Special Issue.

Group 1

The Gooey-Glove

Do your kids suffer from frustrating joystick blisters? Molecular Assembly’s Gooey-Glove ($299/liter) will dry those tears forever. The Gooey-Glove is a game controller that comes in a can: just dip Junior’s hand in this self-assembling plastic slush and seconds later it dries, shrinks and cracks into a form-fitting personal smart glove — fast, accurate and full of reactive feedback. It is nontoxic, washes off in minutes with soap and water and is compatible with most home game consoles. Not recommended for other body parts.

Group 2

Play-Doh Omni-Fab 4000

Last year Hasbro debuted the Omni-Fab 3000, a device that transformed ordinary household trash — table scraps, wood shavings, whatever — into a reasonable facsimile of good old lovable Play-Doh. Trouble was, the faux Doh smelled awful and was too hot to touch for several hours. This year’s version ($399) repurposes the extra heat, so the unit is self-powering, and you can choose from a menu of aromas: anything from fresh oranges to warm cookie dough. Not recommended for toddlers, who tend to put small pets in the intake hopper.

Group 3

Swatch Circadian Timepiece

Ever feel like your watch is a part of you? The Swatch Circadian Timepiece ($2,499) practically is. Once a day it quietly, painlessly extracts a drop of blood from your wrist, does some basic bloodwork — checking hormone and glucose levels, that sort of thing — then sets itself based on where your body is in its daily metabolic cycle. The results are approximate at best — it’s a little like strapping a sundial to your wrist. On the plus side, there’s no fiddling with knobs and buttons, and given a few days it even adjusts to changes in time zone. On the minus side, you have to watch your stimulants: drink one extra cup of coffee in the morning, and the darn thing runs fast all day.

Group 4

The GrimeBuster Spectrometer Mop

Apparently the phrase “too much information” has no meaning to the brainiacs at Consolidated HouseWarez, inventors of the GrimeBuster electronic mop ($299). The GrimeBuster is the first wetware mop that paints a digital picture of household germs while it cleans. Its head features a water-activated protein spectrometer that performs an immediate genomic analysis of whatever it encounters. As you mop, the GrimeBuster provides a running report on the micro- and macroorganisms with whom you’re sharing your home. Cat dander, ragweed pollen, dust mites, spores, amoebas and worse — nothing escapes the keen eye of the GrimeBuster. Trust us: your floor may look spic and span, but after one cleaning with this electronic mop, you’ll never go barefoot again.

Assignment for Next Class

Email in votes for the Group Web Project (if you haven’t already).
Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Read Chapter 7 in Writing for the Web. BRING YOUR BOOK TO CLASS.

Please answer this question in your blog by October 29.

In “Biggest Mistakes in Web Site Design, 1995-2015,” Vincent Flanders talks about sites that have “heroin content” — the type of stuff that keeps users coming back over and over again: “it’s what your audience wants that counts.” As an audience member, what are some Web sites that you would describe as having “heroin content” for you? As a designer thinking about the needs of an audience, what might the “heroin content” be for the Web site your group is developing?

Please answer this question in your blog by October 22.

Read this article. Tell me what you think.

(Yes, I’m intentionally being vague. Again.)

Today, we’ll:

Work on creating the final version of your portfolios.

As you finish your online portfolio, please use this checklist to review your Web site.

Content

Does my site contain (at a minimum):

• Information about me that helps my reader understand who I am and what I do?
• A Web version of my resume?
• A link to a printer-friendly version of my resume (such as a Word document)?
• Links to work that I’ve done?

Information Architecture

Does my site contain:

• Navigation on each page of the site that presents the reader with clear options?
• Link names that clearly describe content (as opposed to “click here”)?

Web Writing Principles

Is the Web writing on my site (except for links to professional work):

• Using short paragraphs with concise sentences?
• Use headings to separate information and help my reader to skim?
• Using lists to present related information?
• Using white space to separate paragraphs?
• Identifying the content and purpose of links in the text?
• Using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

Design Principles

Does my site:

• Use a limited color palatte (no more than five colors) that makes my site appear professional?
• Use fonts and font sizes that are easy to read from a distance and up close?
• Create contrast between headings and body text?
• Provide enough contrast between background color and text color?
• Repeat color, font, and navigation choices on each page of the site unless there is a very good reason to change them?
• Align body text and lists to the left?
• Group related chunks of information?
• Use images that are appropriate for a professional site?

When you’re certain that your portfolio is finished, please send your Web address (the http://eagles.niagara.edu/yourusername address) to the instructor by e-mail (ekarper@niagara.edu).

Assignments for Next Class
Final version of portfolio due: publish to the Web and send instructor the link.
Answer the question of the week.

Today, we’ll:

Publish a working version of your portfolios on the Web for testing.

Conduct peer review of your online portfolios.

• Download portolio review questions.
• Open the questions on your computer.
• Preview your Web site in a browser (or open it in a browser if it is published on the Web).
• Switch computers with a partner and answer questions about their portfolio on their computer.

Continue to work on your portfolios.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the question of the week.
Continue working on your portfolios.

Please post the answer to this question in your blogs by Wednesday, October 15.

Please read this article and respond to it. (This question left vague so that you will have to read the article. Sneaky professor is sneaky.)

Monday, October 6

Today you’ll have studio time to work on your portfolios.

Assignments for Next Class
Have a version of your portfolio posted to the Web for class commentary on Wednesday.
Answer the question of the week.

Wednesday, October 8

Today you’ll work to provide feedback on portfolios and then continue working on them.

Assignments for Next Class
Answer the question of the week.
Continue working on your portfolios.

Today, we’ll:

Turn in your Web/print comparison papers.

Review principles for working with images on the Web.

What do I have to do before I can use an image on a Web page?

• Download the image and save it in the same location as my other Web page files.
• Make sure the image is a .gif, a .jpg, or a .png file.
• Resize the image to make it smaller, and crop out irrelevant information.
• Create a description of the image that can be used as an alternative by visually impaired users.

What are some issues I need to be aware of when using images on Web pages?

• Copyright and credit: you can’t use any image from the Web without permission. There are some sites which allow you to use images for personal use as long as you give them credit, but most sites do not allow for reproduction of their images.
• It’s important to respect copyright and to give credit to images created by other people that you use through captioning or a site credits page.
• Image size: images make your Web pages take longer to download. It’s important to think about how many images you need or want on a Web page.
• If images are an important part of your page, how will the visually impaired use your page? You need to provide alternative descriptions to help them out.

Learn how to insert images into Web pages.

• Download the sample image.
• Save the image in the same place that you are saving all of your other Web page files.
• Click on the Insert menu and choose image.
• Locate your image file.
• Click on OK.

Learn about the different types of links that can be made between Web pages.

• External: to other Web sites
• Internal: to other pages or documents on the same site
• Email: to activate someone’s email client and send email

Learn how to create links.

How to create a link to another page or file on your site:

• Create the page file that you want to link to and save it in CMS 222 network folder.
• Highlight the text that you want to be a link.
• Click on the folder icon next to “Link” in the Properties window.
• Locate the file and select it.
• Hit enter.

How to create a link to another site:

• In a Web browser, visit the site that you want to link to.
• Copy the address from the address bar of the browser window.
• Return to Dreamweaver.
• Highlight the text that you want to be a link.
• Click in the box next to “Link” in the Properties window.
• Hold down the Control key and hit the letter V to paste the link into the link box.
• Hit enter.

Practice working with images and links. (My Web Workbook #5)

• Create two new HTML pages.
• Save the pages in your mww folder.
• Search on Morguefile or FreeStockPhotos for two pictures that you find striking. Download and save the pictures to your mww folder.
• Resize the picture in Photoshop.
• Add the picture to the Web pages.
• Add text which describes the pictures.
• Create external links and internal links in the text.
• Publish the pages to your NU Web space and send the instructor the Web address for one of them.

Work on your portfolio templates.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Work on your portfolios.

Monday, September 29

CLASS IS CANCELLED TODAY. Web/print comparison papers due Wednesday. Email me if you have questions.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Web/Print comparison papers due.

Wednesday, October 1

Today we’ll cover how to include images and links in Web pages. Then you’ll continue working on your portfolio pages.

Assignments for Next Class
Answer the question of the week in your blogs.
Continue working on your portfolios.

Please post the answer to this question in your blogs by Wednesday, October 8.

Do a search for some blogs or journals related to an interest or hobby of yours. Are there a lot of blogs? Only a few? Why do you think this is so? What are other bloggers saying about your interests? Do you agree or disagree with what they’re saying?

Today, we’ll:

Review guidelines for writing resumes and discuss issues related to putting resumes on the Web.

Types of resumes:

• Functional (skills-based)
• Chronological (education and experience organized by most recent to least recent)

Resume sections:
• Contact information
• Objective
• Education
• Work Experience
• Skills
• Volunteer Experience (if significant and relevant)
• Honors and Awards

Resume formatting:

• Headings
• Bulleted lists
• Professional presentation

Web resume issues:

• Privacy (consider leaving out your home address and phone number)
• Linking (connect up to relevant and appropriate sites, such as places you’ve worked)
• Printer-friendly versions (provide Microsoft Word and/or Adobe PDF versions that print at one page for people to download and print)
• The Web version doesn’t have to look exactly like the print version!

Critique the resume of a partner.

Complete the resume critique exercise with a partner.

Discuss the “box model” for designing Web pages.

Sample pages:

• Sample page using the box model.
• Box model page with content
• Box model page with table
• Box model page with table and content

Important Concepts:

• Objects: elements that can be placed on the Web (Text, pictures, video, audio, etc).
• Containers/Boxes/Box model: A way of thinking about placing objects on Web pages by creating virtual “containers” for objects and arranging those containers in Webspace. Boxes consist of padding, borders, margins, and content.

Important HTML/CSS terms that go with these concepts:

• Layer: A way of creating a “virtual box”
• Div: The HTML tag which delineates virtual boxes.
• ID: The unique name that you give to your “virtual box” so that it can be distinguished from others and so you can change its attributes (like appearance, position, or other things) by using CSS
• Table: A way of organizing objects into rows and columns. Each bit of a table is called a cell.
• Positioning: arranging elements. The ways we talk about:
• Top
• Bottom
• Left
• Right

Work on using the box model to create templates in HTML and CSS for your portfolio sites.

1. Create a new HTML page.
2. Create boxes: Click on the insert menu, choose layout objects, and choose layer.
3. Click on each layer and give it a name in the properties box.
4. Resize the layers and position them on the page.
5. Click on a layer, and then click on the CSS button to bring up the CSS window. Then click on the pencil icon in the CSS window to edit the style for the layer.
6. Use the CSS style window to change the background color and borders for each layer.
7. Design templates for your index page and secondary pages by creating boxes to hold navigation and content on each page. You don’t have to worry about putting content in there right now — just worry about creating the layout of your page and setting up a color scheme.
8. When you are satisfied with your template, ask the instructor about transferring the contents of your internal style sheet into an external style sheet.

Make sure that everyone can publish a page to the Web.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the Question of the Week in your blog.
Work on your Web/Print comparison papers and on gathering materials for your online portfolio.

Please post an answer of at least 200 words to this question in your blog by Wednesday, October 1.

In your opinion, what are the three most important qualities of a Web site that make it “good”? Feel free to provide and link to examples. How will your professional site emulate those examples?

Here’s what you have to do to complete tonight’s workbook.

1. Download the sample pages and move them into the cms222 folder in your Z:/ drive.

2. Open the Web page called samplepage.html and the CSS file called sample.css in Dreamweaver.
3. Follow along as the instructor explains how HTML and CSS are used together to format text. She will show you how to do it “by hand” and also how to do it by using the tools within Dreamweaver.
4. Create a new HTML file and save it in your site.
5. Create a new CSS file and save it in your site.
6. Add a link to the CSS file in your new HTML file. (Click on the Text menu; Pick CSS Styles; Pick Attach new style sheet…; locate your style sheet and click OK.
7. In your new HTML file, create some text (such as writing about Zorro’s next adventure) and use markup tags (either by hand or through the properties window) to format the text. Your writing should contain:
   • A title for the page
   • At least two levels of headings
   • At least four paragraphs
   • At least one list.
8. In your new CSS file, create CSS style definitions (hint: you can copy ones from the sample style sheets and edit them) for:
   • The background color of the page
   • The headings
   • The paragraphs
   • The list.

   Make significant changes from the sample.

9. Save your CSS file and HTML file and publish them to your Niagara Web space.
10. Send the Web address for the page you published to the instructor in an e-mail so that she can grade your work.

Today, we’ll:

Go over the weekly agenda.

Learn how to set up sites for making Web pages.

1) Create a folder in your Z: drive called cms222.
2) Create a folder inside the cms222 folder called mww.
3) Start Dreamweaver and create a site by following the directions.

Learn about the languages used to present content on the Web.

HTML: format (Telling a browser which elements on a page are headings, text, tables, lists, images, video, links, etc.)
CSS: presentation and style (telling a browser how to lay out and present content: color, font, size, style, etc.) CSS can be inside an HTML file (an internal style sheet) or outside an HTML file (an external style sheet). We’ll use both types of style sheets in this class.

An example of CSS and HTML working together: CSS Zen Garden.

Learn how to format text using HTML and CSS.

Visit My Web Workbook #4 to learn more about and practice formatting text using HTML and CSS.

Learn how to publish content to the Web.

Here are the directions for publishing content to your NU Web space using Dreamweaver.

Play with formatting text for your portfolios.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the Question of the Week in your blog.
Read Web-based Resumes: Just One Tool in the Online Jobseeker’s Toolbox.
Bring an electronic copy of your resume to class on Wednesday.
Bring assets with your for your site (images, etc) with you to class on Wednesday.

Monday, September 22

Today we’ll learn how to publish content on the Web and how to format text on Web pages by using HTML and CSS.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the Question of the Week in your blog.
Read Web-based Resumes: Just One Tool in the Online Jobseeker’s Toolbox.
Bring an electronic copy of your resume to class on Wednesday.
Bring assets with your for your site (images, etc) with you to class on Wednesday.

Wednesday, September 24

Today we’ll review how to format resumes in general and how to format resumes for the Web. Then we’ll work on building templates for your portfolio sites using the box model.

Assignments for Next Class
Answer the Question of the Week in your blog.
Work on your Web/Print comparison papers and on gathering materials for your online portfolio.

Today, we’ll:

Do an exercise which asks you to consider various issues related to the production of knowledge, the production of culture, and credibility in Web writing.

This activity asks you to think about how we evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and usability of information and how those ideas change when we develop new ways of writing and new genres of writing. The “new” genre of writing under consideration is a Wiki; the specific example being used is Wikipedia. You will be asked to think more about this genre and one of the controversies surrounding it, and to take a position in a debate.

What is a Wiki?

• A wiki is a dynamic Web site that’s database-driven — this means that the content is generated automatically and can be edited from an interface on the Web rather than one or many users. Wikis allow anyone to edit pages right on the Web — this allows for the quick and easy creation of Web pages without a lot of specialized tools or specialized knowledge.

• According to the “What is Wiki” portion of the Wiki.org site:
  

  Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself. Like many simple concepts, “open editing” has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.

• People have been using Wikis to create various collaborative efforts for organizations, businesses, or large-scale projects. One of the largest is the Wikipedia, which is a collaborative encyclopedia. Anyone can add articles to it or edit existing articles. And it’s there that the controversy begins…

  

The Activity

Your mission is to learn more about the issues related to the credibility and usefulness of Wikipedia and to form an opinion that you can express in a debate. The class will be divided into two groups: one to advocate for using and trusting Wikipedia as a source of information, and another to advocate against using and trusting Wikipedia as a source of information. You may qualify these positions in any way that you wish.

Each group should prepare a document (in Word, PowerPoint, or any other format that you all agree on) of at least 500 words which states their position and provides reasons and evidence (including pointers to sources) that will be turned into the instructor via email. Each group will also give a presentation to the class about their position and respond to questions.

Links that could be helpful in getting started (but you can use any information you want):

• A column from Al Fasoldt expressing an opinion about the information quality and credibility in Wikipedia.
• A blog entry from TechDirt responding to the column
• An article about “Can You Trust Wikipedia?”
• Stephen Colbert on Wikiality
• An article where “Internet encyclopedias go head to head”
• Opnion pieces from Wired about “Your Right to Be an Idiot” and “Wikipedia FAQK”
• An article on How wikis are changing our view of the world
• Google News coverage of Wikiscanner, a tool that lets you see who’s editing Wikipedia entries.
• Revealed: The Wikipedia Vandals (from Sunday Herald).
• The Wikipedia page about replies to common objections regarding this issue.

Assignments for Next Class

Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Work on the copy for your professional Web site.

Today, we’ll:

Go over the weekly agenda.

Discuss the features of Web text in terms of style and format.

How is the Web different from print?

• “The Web, as a medium, makes reading hard, limits content, challenges even the most eager skimmer, destabalizes the text we devote to content, stabilizes and solidifies the text that acts as part of an interface.” (Price & Price, 65)
• It’s harder to read on-screen than it is on the page: “People often read slower, comprehend less, recall less, and do less in response” (66)
• It’s hard to know what information and ideas come next on a Web site or Web page.
• Text works as both content and interface on the Web:
• Words are used as labels for navigation as well as to provide other types of information on the Web
• People rely on textual cues to help them understand the purpose of a site, a section, or a page before they actually start consuming or processing the information contained there.
• “Within a page, people rely very heavily on your title, headings, boldfacing for indications of your structure, and their location within it. […] Moral: you have to be more aware of structure when you write online than you were when you wrote for paper. The shape and scope of your online writing is dificult for users to perceive. So you have to work hard to communicate your main point, your organizing patterns, and your starting and stopping points.” (68-69)

How can you generally make usable and readable Web text?Style

• Consider the rhetorical context for your text when following any of these guidelines: decide what choices are most appropriate based on purpose, audience, and genre.
• Break text up into sections and paragraphs.
• Provide headings and subheadings to break up sections of text and to communicate a sense of content.
• Use key terms and concepts in headings and in introductory paragraphs.
• Use terms that visitors know and use to present your content.
• Focus your text on a specific purpose; cut off-topic text, links, and images.
• Write shorter text:
  • Write short paragraphs (2-3 lines of text)
  • Cut down text-based paragraphs by approximately half
  • Put the main idea in the beginning of the paragraph.
  • Revise sentences to be concise and precise.
  • Cut text that doesn’t serve your purpose, or move it to another page, pop-up window, or sidebar.
• Write simple text; aim it at the reading level of the expected audience or provide different versions of the text for different audiences. Use short, common words.
• Organize key concepts, ideas, or instructions into ordered or unordered lists.
• Use tables, charts, or graphs to help people visualize and compare data.
• Make link names clear and unambiguous; provide context to make it clear what people will find when they click on the link.

Formatting

• Place key terms where people pay attention first: top of the page, and in headings. Put key terms in a format that stands out from the text.
• Use different sizes of headings to create a hierarchy of headings and subheadings that people can easily skim.
• Make headings stand out by making them a different color or a different font.
• Use an appropriately sized font for body text.
• Use white space to separate paragraphs and sections.
• Break longer texts into multiple pages and provide navigation.
• Use bold or italics to emphasize key words or ideas within paragraphs.
• Create bulleted or numbered lists.
• Make sure charts and graphics are clearly labeled.
• Make sure links are easy to identify through highlighting, underlining, or bolding, and readers know where they will be going when they click on one.
• Break up lengthy texts into multiple pages and provide users ways to easily move from page to page (For example: Back || Index || Next or Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
• Provide users with the ability to navigate directly to specific sections of a lengthy document by providing in-page navigation. (For example: Jump to: Language Courses, Writing Courses, Literature Courses)
• Provide a printer-friendly version of text for people to read offline.

Want more? Here’s another good set of guidelines (and practice) from Web Writing That Works.

Practice revising texts to make them more Web friendly.

Samples for Whole-Class PracticeThe agency has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firmly held commitment to the protection of your privacy. We comply with widely held privacy principles, and the following material discloses our information-gathering and information-dissemination practices for our site. Because of our deep commitment to the principles of disclosure and informed consent, we have agreed to disclose our information practices to you at this time so you may make an informed decision about the privacy of your personal information.

As you consider purchasing a new handheld device, the thing to do before anything else is to endeavor to determine where and in what circumstances you might be utilizing such a device.

Since its brilliant beginning at a top-rated international laboratory, the World Wide Web, or the graphical and interactive side of the vast and complicated network of networks known as the Internet, has swept the computing world, and indeed, the whole world of business, like a tidal wave. The Web wows end users because it offers such incredibly intuitive technologies as fast and accurate searching, hypertext navigation, and instantaneous connection with information in almost every country in the world.

Work on My Web Worbook #3.

Assignments for Next Class
Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Begin drafting the copy for your professional Web site.
Read: How wikis are changing our view of the world, Can You Trust Wikipedia?, Your Right to Be an Idiot and Revealed: The Wikipedia Vandals (from Sunday Herald).

Monday, September 17

Today we’ll discuss the features of text on the Web, and you’ll practice revising and editing text to make it more Web-friendly.
Assignments for Next Class
Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Begin drafting the copy for your professional Web site.
Read: How wikis are changing our view of the world, Can You Trust Wikipedia?, Your Right to Be an Idiot and Revealed: The Wikipedia Vandals (from Sunday Herald).

Wednesday, September 19

Today we’ll discuss how the Web is having an impact on the production of writing and the production of culture by debating some of the issues surrounding Wikipedia.
Assignments for Next Class
Answer the question of the week in your blog.
Work on the copy for your professional Web site.

As the famous New Yorker cartoon says, “On the Internet, no one knows if you’re a dog.” It’s remarkably easy to create a false identity (or several) on the Web, and to use these fake identities for a variety of nefarious purposes. The nature of the Web as a medium also allows for anyone with access to publish content, as we’ve been discussing over the last few classes.

As a consumer of Web writing in personal and professional contexts, how do you decide who or what is accurate and honest when you read on the Web? As a producer of Web writing, how do you make it clear to readers that you are being accurate and honest? Should corporations and individuals be allowed to edit their own Wikipedia entries and/or control what information about them is released on the Web?

This web workbook asks you to do some exercises where you revise text to be more appropriate for the Web.

1. Download the sample text.
2. Revise and edit the text to be more Web friendly using some of the style and formatting tactics we discussed in class.
3. Save the revised text.
4. E-mail it to the instructor as an attachment.

Today, we’ll:

Finish up site maps and wireframes for your online portfolios (if necessary).

Discuss how the Web is contributing to different changes and controversies in authorship, identity, and adapting from print, using journalism as a focus.

Big changes/big challenges:

• Diminishing print circulation and diminishing audiences who want to use print
• Rising costs for producing print
• Rise in Web popularity/newspaper Web site popularity
• The Web 2.0/social web model of “personalized, localized, community-based, and social content”
• New forms or genres such as podcasting, vodcasting, blogging, wikis
• Power to the people: peer production, open source, crowdsourcing, “the people formerly known as the audience,” “Citizen Journalism”
• Ethical dilemmas:
  • Should journalists blog? Are bloggers journalists?
  • Do rules and traditions need to change?
  • Is the open source model always right?
  • Is the crowd always right?
  • Is crowdsourcing always ethical or responsible?
  • Is expertise still important, or even necessary?
  • Do we still need Big Media?
  • Do we still need journalists, writers, editors, and producers?
• What does this mean for those of you who want to be writers, editors, producers?

Related videos:

(Cambrian House on crowdsourcing)

(Timelapse of 12 hours of Wikipedia changes during the 2005 London bombings)

(Colbert on wikiality)

(What is citizen journalism?)

(Changes in converging media)

Thinking About Changes and Controversies

Download the scenarios activity and complete it in your groups.

How might these changes and controversies apply to other areas such as business, marketing, education, or entertainment?

Assignments for Next Class

Read Chapter 5 in Writing for the Web.
Answer the question of the week in your blog.

Monday, September 8

Today we’ll talk about the processes for Web writing and design and then apply these processes to your online portfolios. You’ll spend some time brainstorming ideas and possibilities for your online portfolios in My Web Workbook #2.

Assignments for Next Class

Turn in preliminary assets list, site map, and wireframes for your portfolio.

Read “Bloggers Join the Mainstream,” “Citizen Journalism Wants You!” and “Mixing, Matching, and Multimedia”

Answer the question of the week in your blog.

Wednesday, September 10

Today we’ll discuss some “hot topics” in writing for the Web, including authorship, identity, and shifting from print. We’ll also continue work on the online portfolio project.

Assignment for Next Class

Read Chapter 5 in Writing for the Web.
Answer the question of the week in your blog.

This activity asks you to begin working through the process of Web design for your online portfolios and to apply the principles we discussed in class today.

Context Analysis

Sample sites to analyze for context:

• Jay Lohmann
• Jacqueline Jones Design
• derek m. powazek
• Gina Pace
• Adactio: Jeremy Keith

Pick one and run it through the questions we used on Wednesday.

What does this tell you about what your site could look like or do? What ideas do you like or dislike? How might your site fit into this context?

Brainstorming Ideas and Listing Assets

What do you want your site to have on it? What do you want it to look like?

What assets do you need? Make a list of:

• Documents
• Text to be written
• Images
• Video
• Sound
• Links to other sites
• Anything else you can think of!

Drawing Site Maps and Wireframes

• How are you going to organize all of this content into separate pages?

• How will these pages be connected to each other?
• How will people be able to move from one page to the next?
• What will pages look like? Where will content go? Where will navigation go?

Draw out your answers in site maps and wire frames.

Turn these in to the instructor by the beginning of class on Wednesday, September 10.

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Wednesday, September 17.

In “Web 2.0 .. The Machine is Us/ing Us,” Michael Wesch talks about a number of things that we’ll have to rethink, including “ethics, aesthetics, rhetorics, governance, privacy, commerce, love, family, and ourselves.”

How do you think we’ll have to rethink those things? What might happen as a result? Pick any two.

Today, we’ll:

Go over the weekly agenda.

Review the context exercise we did last Wednesday.

Discuss the parts of Web pages: navigation, content/assets, and layout/design.

Navigation (See another example)

• Whole site navigation

• Sub-section navigation
• Page navigation
• Site maps
• Search boxes

Content/Assets (Information)

• Writing

• Pictures
• Sound
• Video
• Flash animation
• Dynamic content (rss feeds, scripts)
• Links to other sites

Layout/Design

• Placement of navigation

• Placement and organization of content
• Color scheme
• Fonts
• Graphics/logos/branding/identity
• Labels

Discuss Web writing as a process.

We can see Web writing/creating Web pages as a process, just like all writing is a process:

• Analyzing the context for the Web site.

• Brainstorming ideas
• Collecting and creating content and assets
• Organizing and categorizing content/assets into related groups of pages; developing labels which group related information and allow the user to know what to expect. This forms the basis for site navigation.
• Generate visual or written representations which show whole-site navigation and organization, sub-section navigation and organization, and in-page navigation and organization. (Site maps, wireframe drawings, etc.)
• Create a layout for the site which places navigation and content on the reader’s screen.
• Make design choices about colors, fonts, branding, graphics/logos
• Build the site by creating pages which contain content and navigation and which use the layout and design you created.

Begin working on My Web Workbook #2.

Assignments for Next Class

Turn in preliminary assets list, site map, and wireframes for your portfolio.

Read “Bloggers Join the Mainstream,” “Citizen Journalism Wants You!” and “Mixing, Matching, and Multimedia”

Answer the question of the week in your blog.

Today, we’ll:

1) Set up your NU Web space so that you can use it to publish content.

2) Go over the guidelines for the Web-Based Self-Presentation Assignment.

3) Go over the answers to the My Web Workbook #1 questions.

• Download answers.

4) Review and discuss terms and concepts for analyzing and discussing the context of Web writing, using the readings you did for today.

Download the PowerPoint presentation used in the discussion.

5) Practice analyzing the context for different Web sites.

You’ll work in groups to analyze the context for a Web site given to you by the instructor. After you’ve answered the questions in the activity, put your group members’ names on it and e-mail it to the instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).

Sites for Groups

1. The Onion
2. The White House
3. Salon
4. Facebook
5. Amazon

Assignments for Next Class

• Answer the Question of the Week in your blog.

• Read Chapters 3 and 4 in Writing for the Web.
• Read “Newspapers Should Really Worry”.

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by September 12.

In “Newspapers Should Really Worry,” Penenberg says:

The Post experience merely mirrors the results of a September study by the Online Publishers Association, which found that 18- to 34-year-olds are far more apt to log on to the internet (46 percent) than watch TV (35 percent), read a book (7 percent), turn on a radio (3 percent), read a newspaper (also 3 percent) or flip through a magazine (less than 1 percent).

You’re in that demographic — how accurately does that study describe your media consumption habits? How do you get your news? Are the print forms of newspapers and magazines going to cease to exist “when the dead-tree readers [...] die off”?

How do you present and represent yourself on the Web? Chances are that you already have a social self-presentation online by participating in social networking sites. This assignment requires you to apply the principles of Web writing that you learn in class to create a professional Web-based self-presentation that you could show to employers or graduate schools. At a minimum, you will include a brief biography, resume or CV, and samples of work. You could also create profiles on appropriate professional sites and link to them as well.

Guidelines

For this project, you will create and publish an online portfolio that could be used to help you gain employment or employment experience in your chosen field. Since you all are in different fields, the specific content of your portfolio will vary. However, your portfolio should include:

• a resume (Web and print-friendly versions) detailing your accomplishments, presented in a style that is appropriate to your field
• evidence of your experience and accomplishments in the field, such as writing samples, music samples, video samples, images, or other ways of demonstrating your skills and creativity
• a statement from you that explains your self-presentation and provides context for visitors to your portfolio
• engaging and appealing writing that presents you as a qualified and competent professional

Your portfolio should be presented on the World Wide Web, using your Niagara Web space. Time will be spent in class learning how to edit and upload files to this Web space, as well as on learning about the basics of Web design and site architecture.

In terms of content and Web page elements, your portfolio should also contain, at a bare minimum:

• a main index page
• a page or pages that showcases your samples
• a page for your resume or vita
• information architecture, including navigation and usable page designs

Additionally, you will be expected to pay attention to Web-specific elements such graphics, fonts, and color choices and to demonstrate an understanding of how these elements work in your portfolio. You’ll also be expected to demonstrate your growing knowledge of Web writing and how it’s different from other types of writing.

The goals of this project are for you to showcase your best work and professional experience, and to be creative and innovative in your self-presentation. These guidelines should be seen as minimum, not maximum requirements.

Grading Criteria

The assignment will be graded on:

• the quality and quantity of your biography, resume, samples, and other elements and how well they reflect principles for effective Web writing (100 points)

• the presentation of material and how well it reflects the use of principles for Web design, including information architecture, readability, usability, color, and fonts (75 points)
• the appropriate use of Web writing conventions and appropriate usage conventions for English. (25 points)

You can earn a maximum of 200 points for this project. You will receive comments from the instructor and from your classmates on your portfolio as you build it. You will also receive a grading rubric that explains your grade after the “final” version of your portfolio is turned in.

Due Dates

• Assets List for Portfolio Due: September 10
• First Draft of Portfolio Due: October 8
• Final Draft of Portfolio Due: October 20