8/6/07 PLEASE NOTE: These pages have to be revised to allow for updates to the lab software. If you're trying to "get ahead," be aware that though the book order info is correct, a lot else will change in the next two weeks. Danger, Will Robinson!

WRIT 501, Writing for Electronic Publication, is a class that prepares you to write for some of the most common kinds of electronic media. That means learning not only to compose for these outlets but also to come to terms with the demands of audiences and clients and the constraints of technology and legality. This is not a class in software. There will be some direct instruction in using software, but you must keep in mind that writing competently, thoughtfully, alertly, and usefully for electronic publication involves much more than knowing the workings of a bunch of software programs (which will probably be obsolete before you graduate, anyway). It involves understanding the principles of rhetoric as they apply to electronic texts, and that will be our focus.

So this is a course that will be as much about interrogating the rhetorical and social factors of writing for electronic publication as it is about doing that kind of writing. Since it is a 500-level course, the practical material will be enriched with readings from scholars, theorists, and professionals to deepen your understanding of the "whys" behind the "hows." (In other words, yes, there will be theory as well as praxis.) It will require an enquiring and critical mind, a steady clicker finger, and probably a fair bit of patience. Anne Francis Wysocki has written that

If you want to make webpages and websites that not only appeal to (if not fascinate) your intended audience but that also are responsible to that audience and add ethically to the ongoing discourses that shape all our lives, then you need to be thinking about how the design of what you make shapes the possible actions and thinking of those who “read” your site. To do that, you need to develop understandings of how we have been shaped to read what is on the web… and that means developing understandings of not only how we learned to read letters on a page or screen, but also how we learned to respond to colors and shapes, offline as well as on, and how we understand what is at stake when we read online as opposed to off, and who we and the rest of the world imagine ourselves to be when we read, and how we came to be in the position of having these big expensive tied-to-a-massive-power-grid-and-production-system machines sitting on our desks—machines that have been designed to keep us reading and interacting by ourselves physically. (http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~awysocki/archive/courses/HU2650-S02/page1.html)

Thus, by the end of this semester, you should be able to demonstrate your ability to meet the following eight goals:

· To examine critically the changing literacies and rhetorics of the electronic age and how they affect our reading habits and practices

· To design and compose texts that respond to online readers’ needs

· To be able to articulate principles of style, design, and content that allow for evaluation of pieces of writing for electronic publication

· To show your understanding of the legal and ethical constraints governing online authoring, including copyright and fair use of materials

· To show through effective praxis that you can consider alternative electronic means of presenting critical and creative viewpoints

· To deliver information that integrates visual, auditory, and textual information in rhetorically effective manners

· To use technology to collaborate with other writers

· To use technology to facilitate editing and production