WRT 351 Syllabus

Course Description

This course teaches you how to produce electronic documents from a rhetorical perspective with a “hands-on” and theoretical approach. You will learn how to better communicate through electronic media, and understand how purpose, audience, and context affect the development of Web pages and other electronic documents. Topics include principles of Web-based document design, creation, layout, editing, and posting to the Internet, user testing, and information architecture.

While we will spend time working with HTML, CSS and technical issues, this is not a course in programming. Instead, we will focus on developing strategies for creating websites that invite and encourage users to interact with their content.

Course Objectives

• Analyzing specific audiences and rhetorical situations in the design of websites
• Gaining familiarity with the various genres of communication on the Web and the qualities which make them effective
• Practicing how to analyze, design, and/or revise websites
• Understanding principles of information architecture and user-centered information design
• Gaining proficiency in using professional Web publishing software such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Homesite, and Fireworks
• Developing skills to work on Web design team and interact with management, sales and marketing, and subject-area experts

Computer Responsibilities

You have the following computer-related responsibilities in this class:

• You are expected to store primary and backup copies of your work, including drafts, e-mail, and notes, on your home directory and on backup disks. Be prepared in the event that one of these backups fails!
• You are expected to check the class web page and your e-mail regularly for updates to the schedule, new assignments, and messages.
• You are free to work on any computer you like to use outside of the class. However, you must be prepared to convert all in-class work, shared files for group projects, and electronically submitted files to the appropriate format. You are responsible for learning and making any necessary cross-platform translations between machines.
• You are responsible for spending time outside of class to get up to speed on computer technologies and applications that are unfamiliar to you.
• You will also need a positive attitude towards learning technologies with which you may be unfamiliar. In most cases, you will not need to be extremely experienced in the specific program or procedure you will be asked to do. Rather, you have to be patient and curious enough to keep trying until you learn the best way to work.

Think of the network environment in this class as your workplace. Adapting to new computer systems, platforms, and software will be increasingly important as you progress in your professional development.