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The study of English in what has been labeled "the late
age of print" has become a very different discipline than it was just a few years ago. The introduction of the computer into writing and literature classrooms and the ever-expanding availability of
hypertextual resources on the World Wide Web cause us to reconsider the traditional notions of text, textuality, authorship, reading, writing, interpretation, and intellectual property. I believe it is
vitally important to the discipline itself and to the futures of our students that we examine the various changes and challenges that new writing and information technologies present us. Below, I briefly
describe some of my Web Literacy projects and provide links to sample student Web projects.
Romantics Unbound
Romantics Unbound is a Web-based learning environment devoted to the study of European
Romanticism. This educational and scholarly site provides an organized collection of links to resources for late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century poetry and prose, Gothic literature, and
Romantic art and music. Eventually, it will also be a learning center in which students can post questions, responses, and essays dealing with Romantic studies as well as engage in
threaded discussions with other students, teachers, and scholars. Furthermore, this site will be an instructional resource for teachers of Romanticism. This project was funded by a 1997
-98 NYIT-AAUP grant.
Honors Composition Web Journal
My Autumn 1997 Honors Composition class designed and constructed their own electronic
journal titled Reflections on Modern American Society. The class was divided into editorial work groups focusing on a single social or cultural issue, and each work group had its own
editor who was responsible for reviewing student essays and formatting them for the Web journal. Each editorial group was also responsible for writing a short introduction to their
section and for providing links to interesting Web pages dealing with their particular issue. Please click on Reflections to view their work.
NYIT Technical Writing Pages
Spending only a few minutes on the Web demonstrates that technical and professional writers
are increasingly responsible for more than creating technical manuals and in-house publications. Professional writers are being asked to design and create documents and
materials for Web publication. Therefore, I am incorporating Web-based assignments into my professional writing curriculum. Below are two different types of assignments with student
examples. Feel free to contact me if you have questions about these assignments.
Please note that students submitted the assignments on disk, and I transferred the sites to my
NYIT server space. In some cases, not all of the site features function properly, and some text links and image links are broken.
Website Portfolios
Starting with my Fall 2000 courses, I have Technical Writing students create Website portfolios
in which they publish their work on a Technical Writing Website. These sites include the following features:
- Introduction with linked table of contents
- About Me or Resume
- Set of Instructions
- Process Analysis and Recommendation Report
- Research Proposal (PowerPoint Slide Show)
- Research Report
- Sample Progress Report
Fall 2001
Spring 2001
Fall 2000
Individual Web Research Projects
In my Fall 1999 Honors Technical Writing class, I asked the students to create a Web-based
research site as their final project. These sites are the culmination of a semester worth of work, and each individual site contains at least the following features:
- Introduction or Startup Page with linked table of contents
- About Me (resume)
- Site Map
- Process Analysis
- Web Research Report
- Linked Bibliography
- Related Sites Links
Most of the students started the course with little or no knowledge of Web page design and
creation. A few of my technology or computer science students had some prior Web page creation experience. Below is a select list of student examples from my Fall 1999 Honors
Technical Writing class.
Collaborative Corporate Web Site
Professor Marshall Kremers and I developed a corporate Web page project for our technical
writing classes. The students divide themselves into work groups and form mock Web page authoring companies. Each mock company receives an invitation to bid for a Web authoring
contract from Amadeus Incorporated, a fictitious music instrument and parts supply company. Each group must write a project proposal bidding for the contract, write individual progress
reports describing their role in the group, construct a complete corporate Web page for Amadeus Inc., and give a formal presentation of their project.
There were six project groups in my Spring 1997 Technical Writing class, but I have limited
Web server space; therefore, I am presenting only one group project at a time. Click on the mock Web authoring company name below to see the students' Web pages.
Grafix Designs
(Gerald Brown, Leslie Julien, Quizan Mullings, Phillippe Pierre, and Shawlyn Rattray)
Literary Research Projects
In my intermediate and advanced literature courses, students can choose to create a literary
Website as their second literary research project. These sites must serve as a research resource for some specific topic, including a researched essay and links to related resources
on the Web. Please follow the links below to view sample Websites created by students in my literature courses.
Rachel Aubrey, The Neverending Story. Created for LITR 450 Narnia, Middle Earth, and Beyond: Fantasy Realms in Literature. Fall 2005.
Sarie Bott, Shadows in Fantasy Literature. Created for LITR 450 Narnia, Middle Earth, and Beyond: Fantasy Realms in Literature. Fall 2005.
Lynn Precht, Women's Suffrage and Influencial Female Writers. Created for LITR 420 From Revolution to Postmodernity: A Survey of Romantic, Victorian, Modern, and Postmodern Literature. Spring 2000
Ohio State University Intermediate Writing Pages
Embracing Technology: America's Love Affair with the Machine
While I was teaching at The Ohio State University I taught an intermediate writing course in
which we analyzed American technoculture. My students published their course portfolios on the web, and they designed their own home pages which explore specific issues related to
technology in America. If you would like to visit that site, click on the image below.
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