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Digital Rhetoric

English 8123

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Syllabus

Course Description

Digital Rhetoric focuses on the practice and art of effective and rhetorical web design. The main objective of the course is to provide you with a practical and hands-on foundation in web design. We will explore various aspects of web design:

  • Rhetorical principles
  • Usability & usability testing
  • Interface design
  • Navigation design
  • Graphic design
  • Web writing strategies
  • Website genres
  • Web project management & collaboration
  • Social issues, ethics, and copyright issues
  • “New Media” including podcasts and audio

Generally we will spend half of each class discussing the topic of the week and examining and critiquing websites and the other half applying the topic of the week to web design in a workshop setting.

Although this is a class that focuses on web design, this is not a “how to” class on web design or a class on a particular web design software package. We will instead concentrate on the art & practice of digital rhetoric to provide you with the background you need to design effective web pages.

Disclaimers

  • You do not need to have any previous experience in web design, however you may not be happy in this course if you are not willing to spend hours online or if you don’t have basic computer knowledge.
  • This syllabus provides a general plan for the course. Deviations may be necessary.

 

Texts

  • Principles of Web Design by David Farkas & Jean Farkas, ISBN: 0205302912
  • Robin Williams Web Design Workshop byJohn Tollett, Robin Williams & David Rohr, ISBN 201748673
  • Tricks of the Podcasting Masters by Rob Welch and Mur Lafferty,  ISBN:0789735741
  • Macromedia Dreamweaver 8: Hands on Training by Daniel Short & Garo Green, ISBN: 0321293894

 

Materials

  • portable computer storage devices that will work in the lab formatted for IBM-compatible computers
  • an e-mail account for communication
  • access to a web browser & your student h: drive
  • You may want your own copy of Dreamweaver, which you can buy from the school for fairly cheap (although various campus labs have copies you can use including the English lab, the Instructional Technology Student Computing Center (Education building room 200), and the Digital Aquarium). You can also download Dreamweaver free for 30 days.
  • A copy of Adobe Reader to read the ERes readings, which you can download for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

 

Attendance & Participation

Due to the discussion- and workshop-based nature of this course your attendance is expected. If you have a good reason for missing class (I determine what a good reason is), you must make arrangements ahead of time. Missing three classes will result in an “F” in the course. For any absences beyond your first absence, you must submit a 2000 word detailed reading response within a week of the missed class (not doing so will result in a letter grade deduction from your final participation grade) or an additional technology project. Talk with me about this so we can determine an appropriate topic. For a graduate course, “attendance” means more than showing up to class. It means coming to class with the readings done and participating in class discussions and activities, both electronic and physical. It also means bringing homework and examples when they are due. As a courtesy to me and other class members, please turn off pagers, text messaging devices, and cell phones during class.

 

Accommodations


Students who require special arrangements because of a disability should contact the professor with an accommodations form within the first two weeks of class (preferably) or as soon as possible to determine the necessary accommodations.

 

Academic Honesty & Copyright

The policy on Academic Honesty can be found in the Georgia State University Catalog. It is your responsibility to be familiar with the policies in both the Catalog and the Student Handbook and to abide by them. As a general rule, all work for this course must be original, created during this semester, and created expressly for this course by you. Any sources you consult or utilize must be properly attributed including the use of copyrighted images. Make sure you follow copyright policies with the use of copyrighted materials. Plagiarism will result in automatic failure of this course.

 

Questions & Availability


I am happy to answer your questions and discuss class related issues during free time in class, during my office hours, by appointment in my office, over Internet chats, or via email. If the office hours conflict with your own schedule, please email me to arrange an appointment. 

 

Grading


Work will be due in various forms such as email, web, and paper. Work that is not submitted in the correct form will receive deductions. I will be happy to look over draft assignments and provide comments as long as I am given enough time. All assignments are due on the day indicated; assignments 1 day late will receive a lowered grade, after 2 days I will no longer accept the late assignments. If you think you might have a problem meeting a deadline, speak with me at least 48 hours in advance of the deadline.

Grades

A

This assignment is superior and is of a near professional quality. The paper meets or exceeds all the objectives of the assignment. The content is sophisticated, thorough, and well-suited for the audience; the style is clear, accurate, and appropriate; the information and design is well-organized, understandable, usable, and formatted to be accessible and attractive; the mechanics and grammar are correct. The paper has publication potential.

B

This assignment is competent, but requires improvement in style, organization, design; or it contains easily correctable errors in grammar, format, or content; or the content is superficial.

C

This assignment is unsatisfactory for a graduate course. It may meet some of the objectives of the assignment but ignores others. The paper needs significant improvement in concept, details, development, organization, grammar, or format. It may be formally correct but superficial in content.

 

Grades will range in each letter from a plus to a minus. F’s may be given if work is unacceptable. Zeros will be given for assignments not turned in. 

The new Plus/Minus Grading system will be employed in this class. If you have not already done so, I suggest you review the explanation GSU gives of the new system: http://chhsweb.gsu.edu/docs/PlusMinusGradingOption.pdf