Syllabus

Fall 2008

Course Information: WRIT 5230—Section 002, course # 11005—meets from 9:00-9:50 in KPlz 143 (Monday and Wednesday) and SSB 216 (Friday). Course home page: <http://www.d.umn.edu/~cstroupe/f08/5230/002/>

Professor Information:
Dr. Craig Stroupe, cstroupe@d.umn.edu, 218-726-6249, Humanities 425, Office Hours Monday and Wednesday 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. or by appointment.

Purpose | Expectations | Resources Needed | Grades

Purpose

This class is intended to teach you the aesthetic, cultural, and rhetorical uses of Web-design techniques—including writing. While the class is not primarily focused on technical tools, it is designed assuming that you have no prior knowledge of Web design, and intending to provide you with introductions and resources to master to the basic skills.

In this class, you will gain practice and expertise in the following areas:

applying principles of rhetoric, design, cultural theory, and creative thinking to your Web-design work and writing;
discussing your work in critically informed ways;
writing critically and knowledgeably about issues and questions raised by the digital culture;
conceiving and carrying out writing/design projects that engage potential audiences on a variety of levels;
participating in and contributing to a community of writer/designers;
learning to develop successful working relationships with clients and support teams, which are especially necessary in the creation of documents for institutions, businesses, and civic organizations;
using a variety of software to create documents for delivery via the Internet.

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Expectations

Exercises and Projects

This course is organized as a series of projects and exercises.

The projects are long-term, individual works which you will complete on over a period of weeks.
The exercises are activities done together in class, usually in 15 to 30 minutes.

The Projects. As described on the Works Page, the projects are larger pieces that you'll complete individually over a period of two or three weeks using the skills you've learned from the exercises and insights from the readings and class activities. Most of the projects are Web sites/pages, including a personal home page (due around week 3), an audience-focused informational site (due week 8), and "Client Project" for a real-life organization, individual, business, professor, or campus unit of your own choosing (due week 14). You will also have an opportunity to do a "global revision" of one of the projects (due Finals Week).

Exact due dates for all requirements are included in the online schedule, which will be updated throughout the semester. Please note that often digital projects will be due on non-class days.

There is a three-point penalty per day for late projects.

Digital projects are late if the URL is not posted to the correct Webx discussion as of the day and exact time specified in the schedule. A digital project that's five minutes late is the same as one that's 23 hours late. Changes made to the projects after the assigned day/time may or may not be included in the evaluation.
Paper-based projects need to be submitted as a hard copy at the time and place assigned. I will not accept e-mail-attached or electronic copies of paper-based projects.

Exercises. We'll do the exercises together in class to learn particular skills or techniques, and you'll have 24 hours after the class meeting (if needed) to complete and post each exercise to the Web for credit.

Extra Credit for "Technique/cal" Help Meetings via the Experts List

Given the wide range of experience and learning styles in a class like this, it is important that each of you be responsible for your own progress in developing the hands-on skills in Dreamweaver and Photoshop necessary to complete the Web-based projects. The exercises—and the portions of class time devoted to them—are intended to acquaint you with these skills, but for some of you the exercises in class will not be sufficient, and for others these introductions will be unnecessary.

I will offer extra credit to

those experienced among you who will be willing and able to serve as "experts" in these softwares and techniques, and
those who need the help and are willing to seek it out as a "client."

We will use the Webx discussion board to match experts and clients, and allow you to arrange times and places outside of class to meet face-to-face. You can check the lab schedules to find available full-service labs if you wish.

After you've met, both the expert and client should document details of their meeting via a Web form that I will make available, and this report will also serve as the means of applying for this extra credit.

The amount of extra credit for each reported meeting may vary from zero to 1% of your total grade (up to a maximum of 8% for the semester) based on the specificity of the report and the usefulness of the meeting.

Since this extra credit is based on the honor system, I will ask you to explain in the report the very specific skills and techniques that you taught/learned, and to point to the results in particular exercises, projects, or other samples of work. I will rescind the extra credit for reported meetings if the skills and techniques claimed do not become part of the client's everyday working skill set.

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Other Expectations

In addition to the design, creation, and writing of the exercises and projects themselves, you will complete:

writings on our online Webx discussion board
brainstorming sessions and preliminary writings or designs for your projects,
peer critiques for workshops
occasional self commentaries on your work
other writings.

While there is no final exam in this class, you will have assignments due by that time and date, which are specified on the schedule.

Readings

On days when readings are assigned, please do the following:

have the readings done by the beginning of class;
before class, complete any "Reading Guides" that I have assigned,
expect brief quizzes or other opportunities for response at the beginning or end of class. There are no make-ups on these responses if you are absent, late or leave early.

Attendance

Since this class will function as a community of writer-designers, your regular attendance is absolutely necessary.

Absences: For Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes, absence in excess of 4 will deduct 3 percentage points each from your overall grade. For Tuesday/Thursday classes, absences in excess of 3 will deduct 3 percentage points each from your overall grade. For night classes, absences in excess of 2 will deduct 3 percentage points each from your overall grade
These possible absences short of these limits can be spent however you wish and so there are no excused or unexcused absences. Save your "free" absences for a rainy (or snowy) day.
If you are absent, you are responsible for all material covered in class.
In the case of absences or lateness, some requirements like quizzes and guided in-class activities cannot be made up when timeliness or group interaction is critical.
In addition to your budget of allowed absences, you also have instances of arriving late or leaving early to use (with or without an excuse) if necessary: 4 for Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes, 3 for Tuesday/Thursday classes, 2 for night classes. Instances in excess of these allowed occasions will decrease your overall grade by 2 percentage points each. If during the semester you need to leave class early, even if it's one of your allowed instances, please arrange it with me in advance.

Participation

A larger goal of this course is to establish a community or network of writer-designers—with a wide variety of backgrounds, expertise, and interests—to enhance your learning and enjoyment during the next sixteen weeks. The class is designed to provide a number of avenues for this community building, including peer workshopping and critiquing, in-class "studio sessions," support groups, and various Internet-based communications and collaborations. Your sincere and regular contributions to maintaining this collaborative environment will count in your grade and of course will greatly benefit your final products in the course.

Because your work is the subject matter for this course, turning in all projects and writings precisely on time is critical; work turned in late will be assessed a 3% penalty per day.

Special Needs

If you have a disability, either permanent or temporary, which might affect your performance in this class, please notify me at the beginning of the semester. Methods, material, or testing will be adapted as required for equitable participation.

Incompletes

Incompletes for the semester will be given only in the following very limited circumstances:

you must contact me in advance of the semester's end to make a request for an incomplete;
no more than one or two weeks of class, or one or two assignments, can have been missed;
you must be in good standing in the class (not already behind, in other words);
you must have a documented family or medical emergency, as required by university policy;
you must arrange a time table with me for completing the missed work that is acceptable for both of us.

Academic Integrity and Student Conduct

Please see UMD's pages concerning these two issues:
<http://www.d.umn.edu/assl/conduct/integrity/>
<http://www.d.umn.edu/assl/conduct/code/>

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Resources Needed

Books: Reading Digital Culture, David Trend (ed.); The Non-Designer's Web Book, Robin Williams and John Tollett; Macromedia Dreamweaver 8, Tom Negrino and Dori Smith
a UMD e-mail account
a USB drive (a.k.a., jump drive, pocket drive, thumb drive) for saving and transporting your work (at least 100 Mg.)
occasional access to a digital camera, which can be checked out from ITSS.
access to a printer, or funds for printing

Grades

Your work on the major projects and various exercises (weighed according to the size and complexity of the project): 90%
Participation in class generally, including in-class activities and contributions, online discussions, attendance, conferences, quizzes, peer workshop responses, Webx discussions, class discussion, promptness: 10%

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