English 604-01
Instructor: Philip Young PhD
Meeting: W 6:30 - 9:30, Room: TBA | Computer Lab Room Eberhardt 160
Office Hours: 24/7 at pyoung@imap.unc.edu
Office Phone: 919-962-0592
Course Description | E-mail and Listserv | Texts | Assignments | Syllabus
Learning Goals for English 604
Students will be expected to learn how to create a tri-fold
brochure using Word, a PowerPoint presentation, and a Web site based on a
concept generated at the beginning of class. Students will determine an appropriate audience and work on design
skills for each electronic medium. By
the end of the class students should have final products of all three designs
for their exiting portfolio.
English 604 will use a semester project to take students through various design techniques, beginning with a brochure and ending with a Web site. The course will begin by working on an idea/concept that students can use to create a print brochure, a PowerPoint presentation (which students can present or invite someone to present for them), and finally a Web site. Students should have computer experience using Word or similar word processing program (Works, WordPerfect, etc). Knowledge of PowerPoint and Web design are not necessary, but helpful. Comfort and confidence using a computer is essential. The course has pragmatic goals in mind: build your resume by learning computer applications that will make you more marketable in the job market, learn design and presentation skills, and create an online portfolio that will be available as a link from your resume or vita.
Since I commute from Chapel Hill and this course deals with electronic discourse, my office is online and the course will have a class listserv. If you are not used to checking your e-mail daily this will be a good time to start :-). The listserv can be accessed through a Web browser. Go to the Listserv.
Required: Reporting Technical Information by Kenneth Houp, 9th Edition
Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielson
http://www.useit.com/
Recommended text series for applications to be used in the class.
Teach Yourself Visually Series. Books in this series include ones on HTML, PowerPoint, and Word. These books provide screenshots for learning as well as reducing text to the technical minimum :-).
Visual Quickstart Guides include another excellent series of books on HTML, PowerPoint, and Word.
For Dummies is yet another series in the genre of technical writing texts about technology.
At the end of the course you will have produced an online portfolio in the form of your Web site that will include a word processing document, a PowerPoint presentation, and any other professional material connected to your Web site (such as a resume, etc.)
There will be three large assignments beginning after the third week of the course and spanning four weeks each. The first assignment will be to write a seven to ten page paper that includes images, graphs, and tables based on your idea or concept for your class project using techniques from Reporting Technical Information. The second assignment will be to design a PowerPoint presentation for the class about your idea/ concept. The third assignment will involve designing and releasing a professional Web site on the Internet. Smaller assignments will be announced during class and asked to be posted to the class listserv.
This is last semester's syllabus; it will be modified shortly, but it does still give a good idea of the course work and expectations
August 21 -- Week One -- Introduction to the Course
Information to set up student Web space
Discussion of topics/concepts for semester project
Skills assessment
Reading for Next Week: RTI Chapter 3, Writing Collaboratively
August 28 -- Week Two -- Cover Letters, Letters of Inquiry, and Resumes
Meet in the Eberhardt 160 (Computer Lab)
Setting up student Web accounts
Reading for Next Week: RTI Chapter 12, The Strategies and Communications of the Job Hunt
September 4 -- Week Three -- Computer Skills Assessment and Review
Cover letter and resume due.
applications review for this course (Word, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver)
Reading for Next Week: RTI pp. Chapter 8, Document Design
September 11 -- Week Four -- Document Desing Using Word for Windows
Using Tables to Layout a document
Inserting graphics
Reading for Next Week: RTI Chapter 10, Graphical Elements
September 18 -- Week Five -- Basic Graphics Editing
resizing and croping
manipulating graphics
graphics for the Web
Reading for Next Week: RTI Chapter 17, Oral Reports
September 25 -- Week Six -- Presenting Information/Designing Information to Present
Brochure for idea/concept due
Introduction to PowerPoint
Reading for Next Week: DWU, Chapter 1 & 2, Introduction and Page Design
October 2 -- Week Seven -- PowerPoint Advanced/Dreamweaver
adding animation
adding sound
Reading for Next Week: DWU Chapter 3, Content Design
October 9 -- Week Eight -- Dreamweaver Part II
Reading for Week 11: DWU Chapter 4, Site Design
October 16 -- Week Nine -- PowerPoint Presentations
October 23 -- Week Ten -- PowerPoint Presentations
October 30 -- Week Eleven -- Web Page and Web Site Design
Reading for Next Week: RTI Chapter 16, Proposals and Progress Reports
November 6 -- Week Twelve-- Proposals and Progress Reports
Abstract of your course project
Progress report of your project due December 4
November 13 -- Week Thirteen--Presentation of Web Projects
November 20 -- Week Fourteen--Presentation of Web Projects
December 4 -- Week Fifteen--Final review of class