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Page - 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.