ENC 4414: WRITING AND HYPERTEXT

Professor J.D. Applen Telephone 823-2533

Class Period T-Th 12-1:20 Classroom Colbourn 203

Office Colbourn 303D Office Hours T 1:30-2:50,

Th 5:45-7:30

* If you cannot make these hours, please feel free to make an appointment with me. Please believe me when I tell you that I like it when you come to my office with some specific concerns about the class. When you have questions or offer ideas to me in my office, you help me understand how we are all connecting in class.

E-mail japplen@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu

Course Overview

The advent of hypertext is beginning to have a considerable impact on our society; much of our future learning, communication, and information gathering activities will utilize the World Wide Web. Studies in Hypertext is a writing and web page construction course, which means you will be learning how to use the library and the Internet to gather, distill, and present information in two mediums: a research paper and a web site. There will also be a number of shorter writing assignments in the course, and we will be spending a significant amount of time studying theories about information so we can develop a more critical sensibility regarding hypertext.

The topic for your paper will be on one of the many issues associated with hypertext such as First Amendment rights, copyright law, gender, community, and the use of the World Wide Web in business and education. After we have finished our written projects, you will turn it into a web site that utilizes the rhetorical advantages of hypertext to their fullest advantage.

Materials

• Berners-Lee, Tim. Weaving the Web. Harper Perennial.
• Castro, Elizabeth. HTML for the World Wide Web. Sixth edition.. Peachpit Press
• Some way of storing digital information: disks, thumbdrives, flashdrives.

SUMMARY OF POLICIES

Plagiarism Plagiarism is stealing. Plagiarism is a serious offense in all courses at UCF and, like other forms of cheating, it may endanger a student's whole career. Students who may plagiarize receive severe penalties, including immediate failure for the assignment, probable failure in the course, disciplinary referral to the appropriate dean, and possible expulsion from the university.

Students are guilty of plagiarism if they do the following:

· copy or repeat without acknowledging the source someone else's words, phrases, or ideas

· summarize or expand someone else's work or ideas without properly acknowledging the person or source

· copy papers by other students or allow other students to copy their papers

· allow anyone else to revise or edit their work without their instructor's explicit permission.

Course Assignments and Grades The format and the length of written assignments will be discussed well in advance of the due date. Please ask any questions about the assignments that you might have. Hopefully, you will do this in class before your classmates who might have the same question.

I base all written assignments on four general criteria: content, organization, expression, and mechanics. I will explain how you have met these criteria in written comments and/or in conference.

Attendance Attendance is mandatory. There will be something offered in every class meeting that can substantially improve your ability as a writer and a thinker and, therefore, it is important that you come to class. Please note the following absence rules:

· You can miss one class a semester without affecting your grade.

· Every absence after your first absences reduces your grade by one-half of a grade per class missed.

· I will also count three late appearances to any class as one absence. Please be on time.

· If you miss a conference, this counts as one absence.

· I will drop you if you miss more than three sessions of this class. An administrative drop results in a grade of F.

If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to get the assignment for the next class period from a classmate or me.

Late Papers Papers turned in late will be marked down one full letter grade per class meeting. For example, a "B" paper that is due on a Tuesday and turned in on Thursday will be marked as a "C." Papers are late if you do not have them at the beginning of class. There is little reason for turning in a paper late since all assignments are given to you, in writing, well in advance of the due date.

Required Course Assignments. (Look to syllabus for due dates)

Quizzes/Small Writing Assignments/On-Line Work 35%

Personal Web Site 10%

Annotated Bibliography/Reader's Journal 10%

Research Paper 30%

Final Web Site Project 10%

Class Participation, Collegiality, Computer Skills 5%

COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1: January 9, 11	Introduction. Outline of course and rudimentary HTML. Note: in the weeks to follow, I will either be asking you to do some writing or taking a quiz on the reading that is required and HTML that needs to be learned. Online quiz on Thursday.
Week 2: January 16, 18	Weaving the Web, pages 1-34. Chapters 1 (only pages 27 to 37) and 2 in Castro.
Week 3: January 23, 25	Read pages 35-89 in Weaving the Web and chapters 3 and 4 in Castro.
Week 4: January 30, February 1	Read pages 91-155 in Weaving the Web. Chapter 6 in Castro (Links). By this week it is up to you to have figured out how to use the scanner in the ETWL. You also need to be able to take and store an image found on the WWW. I will ask that you work with partners in this endeavor. If you already know how to do this, make sure that you work with someone who has not yet acquired these skills. Begin personal web site.
Week 5: February 6, 8	Read Weaving the Web, pages 157 to 198.
Week 6 February 13, 15	Read 199-209 in Weaving the Web. Begin thinking about a topic for final paper that you will do some annotations for and then produce a written paper. The information in this final paper will serve as the basis for your final project web site. (This is not to be confused with your personal web site.) Chapters 7 and 8 in Castro . Begin assignment where you work in pairs to design a description of how to use style sheets. Begin annotations.
Week 7: February 20, 22	Set up your own Pegasus account. If you already know how to do this, make sure that you work with someone who has not yet acquired these skills.
Week 8: February 27, March 1	Turn in your own web site on a disk on Tuesday the 27th. You should learn WS FTP on your own (with your partners) this week and be able to access your own web Pegasus account. Go to http://tutorial.ftpplanet.com/LE/ to do this.
Week 9: March 6, 8	Chapters 9, 10, and 11 in Castro. Continue assignment where you work in pairs to design a one-page description of how to use style sheets.
Week 10: March 13, 15	Spring Break.
Week 11: March 20, 22	Turn in annotations on Tuesday.
Week 12: March 27, 29	Conferences on Tuesday. Turn in style sheet directions with partner.
Week 13: April 3, 5	Final web site project. Begin planning your own web site based on material in final paper.
Week 14: April 10, 12	Work on your own final web site. Turn in final paper on Tuesday.
Week 15: April 17, 19	Work on your own web site. Evaluations of instructor.
Week 16: April 26	Turn in your final project and present it to the class during our finals period which is 10:00-12:50 a.m. on Thursday the 26^thof April.