Writing for

Digital

Media

Dr. Gerald R. Lucas

Writing for

Digital Media

We will cover web site design and implementation, HTML, CSS, blogging, wikicollaboration, Podcasting, video production, and rudimentary server administrationskills. By the end of the course, you will have a working digital portfolio on yourvery own domain name that will feature your skills as a digital writer.Marshall McLuhan is best known for his statement “the medium is the message.”Nowhere has this been more true than with digital media. While we could interpretMcLuhan in a number of ways, it seems that the primary thrust of his ideaencouraged developing a rhetorical sophistication when interpreting andcomposing through various media. This class will explore the rhetorical aspects of new media. That is we will endeavorto create the best message we can by using various digital media in the mostsavvy ways possible based on our current technologies, our understanding of digital literacies, and our analyses of these media. The message is ourselves. How can we communicate the nest of who we are byour use of digital media? The end result of this course should be a digital portfoliothat highlights your college life and provides an entré into your professional life.

Required Materials

There are two required texts for this course, both of which are available in thebookstore or on Amazon linked off the web site:

✦

Kimball, Miles.

The Web Portfolio Guide

✦

Williams, Robin.

The Non-Designer’s Design Book

. To supplement the books, you will be assigned web articles and PDFs onoccasion. These will be linked off the course web site. You will also need to purchase a unique domain name and professional webhosting for the semester. While this might sound daunting and expensive, it isn’t.Both together should run you as little as the price of a paperback book or at mostthe cost of a biology textbook. More on this below.Finally, this this course is designated as an online section, you need to have acomputer with a reliable internet connection. You will need a modern web browser(anything but Internet Explorer) and a willingness to get your hands dirty with thetechnical aspects of digital writing.

ENGL 3108, Writing for Digital Media, will focus on professionalization in the digital age. Particularly targetedtoward upper-level CIT and IT majors, Writing for Digital Media will concentrate on bringing together your digitalassets into an online portfolio of skills you have developed before and will develop in this class.

Course

Requirements

Writing for Digital Media is a hybrid-online course, so you will be doing much of the work on yourown, at your own pace. Basically, the course will be made up of several projects, all with generaldue dates and different requirements. The projects are only outlined below; consult LitMUSE forthe speciﬁc details of each assignment. The ﬁnal outcome of your projects will be a professionalportfolio hosted on your own domain name.

Project One: Domain Name and Hosting

Project Two: Setting Up a CMS and Theme

Install a content management system and set up your site’s look. This project will require someknowledge of HTML, CSS, FTP, and MySQL.

Project Three: User Analysis and Content

Decide who your users will be and write to them. You will include a résumé, a professionalbiography, and other materials appropriate to your audience.

Project Four: Blog, Wiki, Etc.

Really a continuation of project three: incorporate more digital items into your site, including anoriginal digital story.

Project Five: Images and Other Multimedia Content

This project will integrate graphics and photos into your site. We will also consider more advancedCSS and typography.

Project Six: Web 2.0 Integration

Publish your new presence on the Internet by integrating your domain with popular contentsyndicators and Web 2.0 sites, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr.Each project will be evaluated as will the ﬁnal portfolio submission. Another part of your grade willbe your participation in online activities and impromptu assignments.