Faculty Course Description
ENG300: Writing for Online Environments
Dr. Lara Whelan
Associate Professor
Office: Evans 215
Office phone: 238-5876
e-mail: lwhelan@berry.edu
Course Description:
Students will learn how to present information in online formats for a variety of purposes, audiences, and clients including commercial sites, not-for-profit organizations, educational or academic institutions and government or civic entities. Students will also develop their understanding of how linked or hypertextual writing affects online writing projects. This course will incorporate some elements of technical writing, such as designing online help pages and developing instructional materials for clients and/or users.
Course Purpose:
The purpose of English 300 is to give students the opportunity to enhance their understanding and mastery of rhetorical strategies for writing audience-appropriate materials for specific purposes by investigating the unique demands of writing for online environments, including but not limited to web sites, interactive tutorials, and email newsletters.
Course Goals:
• Students will broaden and deepen their understanding of ways in which audience and purpose impact writing.
• Students will build on rhetorical strategies learned in RHW courses to improve their mastery of strategies for writing appropriately for specific audiences and purposes.
• Students will develop an understanding of the unique rhetorical demands of linked, associative and hypertextual writing.
• Students will demonstrate through practical applications their mastery of strategies for determining the demands of audience, client and purpose in their online writing.
• Students will gain an understanding and demonstrate principles of best practices in web design.
Expected Results:
Students will be able to produce a variety of web pages, site plans and graphical electronic newsletters that are appropriately targeted, in text and design, to the assigned audience and for the assigned purpose(s). Students will demonstrate these abilities on final drafts of 9 projects to an average of C.
Methods of Instruction:
Lecture, class discussion, practice, peer review, demonstration, and analysis of existing work.
Texts and Materials:
? Web Writing, Web Designing. M. Batschelet. Longman, 2001
? Several disks for transporting files
? Active email and CampusWeb accounts
Course Requirements:
• Reading: You are expected to come to class having read the assigned material, if any, for that day. If tutorials from the reading are assigned, these should be completed and the results brought to class on disk. If reading is more theoretical in nature, questions, ideas and questions regarding the readings should be brought to class.
• Web Work: You will complete nine web projects for this course. Some projects will be full sites; some will be a combination of a site plan plus a few pages. Rough drafts of each project will be peer-reviewed in class as part of the project assignment.
• Participation: You are expected to participate in class. Participation includes coming to class with all the required materials, including any drafts needed for that day; volunteering an idea or part of your own drafts for class discussion; and participating materially in class discussions of ideas and reading assignments. I often call on students without waiting for volunteers. Be prepared.