Welcome to English 384!
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Writing for Electronic Media is a lab-based course on writing for the web. The course exposes students to web-design principles and techniques, important differences between print and electronic media, and image-editing techniques for web-graphics development.
This course is designated as Writing Intensive and will meet one of three WI courses required for graduation.
Prerequisites: English 125 and some familiarity with the personal computer, word processing software, and a web browser. No experience with HTML, website design, or photo/image editing required or expected.
Necessary Information
- Class meets TU 2-2:50 & TH 2-3:50
- We meet in 2A08, except when we meet in 4M03 (Multimedia Lab)
- Office hours after class on Tuesdays/Thursdays, and by appointment
- Do the homework on time, don't be late for class, don't miss class, and we'll be pretty good.
- Miss more than 4 class meetings and expect to see your grade lowered; miss more than 8 classes and expect to fail.
What to Buy
- Readings will be online or on reserve
- Buy a USB/Flash Drive (get 2-4 Gigs and you'll thank me in a year or two)
- Consider buying your own domain name and some web hosting
What We'll Learn
- Blogging
- Collaborative Writing in Wikis
- Web Development Basics
- Web Design Basics
- Basic Graphics and Image Editing
Major Assignments
- Personal Weblog (via Blogger)
- Collaborative Writing in a Wiki
- Collaborative Web Development Project
- Personal/Professional Website or E-Portfolio
About the Course Website
The course website is modeled on the Mediawiki default skin or theme. The design is modeled on Mediawiki because we'll use a Mediawiki installation as our course wiki environment. (Check out the link in the navigation area.) This is a new course element and I wanted to visibly signal the newness through design. The design is working if the website looks a little like Wikipedia since that online encyclopedia is driven by Mediawiki's software.
I have named the course website design (theme/skin) "Wikiwiki" in overt reference to the origins of wiki software. (Look it up!)
The course blog is powered by Wordpress. While I did not take the time to write a stylesheet to design the blog around the Wikiwiki theme, I did customize the header graphic to carry the blue orb over into the blog design.
One risk of a mock Mediawiki design is user confusion. The course wiki and website look similar, though they work in completely different ways. We'll grasp the differences between wikis and websites before the course is finished!
As part of an ongoing intellectual experiment, I have included a set of alternative skins or themes for the course website. Feel free to restyle the course design if the wiki look is confusing to you. The alternative styles are at the bottom of the page, at least in Wikiwiki style.
About the Instructor
Michael J. Cripps is an English Professor at York College. His scholarly work includes explorations of academic writing in electronic media. He can be reached via email at cripps@york.cuny.edu.
Don't like the look? Restyle!
Wikiwiki | Escher
| Cloisonne | The
Blues | Negative | Skinless