English 432/532

"From Text to Hypertext"

Course Info

Textbooks

Reserve Readings

Course Goals

Attendance Due Dates

Intellectual Property

Assignments and Grading

Final exam

Helpful Materials

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Instructor Information

Name:

Dr. Carol Mohrbacher

 

Email:

camohrbacher@iastate.edu

 

Office location:

Eastman 120 (campus map)

 

Office hours:

10-noon Tuesday and Thursday.  Other times by appointment.

 

Phone:

320 308-5472

 

 

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Course Information

Course description:

This course focuses on the creation of a professional document-a report, a manual, or a proposal-in standard hard copy text form and the translation of that document to hypertext with attention to audience and rhetorical effectiveness. As groundwork for this text creation, students will read articles examining various rhetorical perspectives in the field of professional writing, and they also will analyze professional writing models (e.g., manuals, proposals, and/or websites) during in-class discussion.

 

Location:

MC 207

 

Meeting day(s):

Monday and Wednesday

 

Meeting time(s):

4-5:15 pm

 

 

Textbooks

 

A Concise Guide to Technical Communication , Laura J. Gurak and John M. Lannon, Pearson/Longman, 2nd ed./2004

 

 

The Internet Writer's Handbook , Martha C. Sammons, Pearson/Longman, 2nd ed./2004

 

 

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Additional Required Reading (on reserve)

Author: Thomas N. Huckin:

"A Cognitive Approach to Readability" New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication. Ed. Paul V. Anderson, R. John Brockmann. and Carolyn R. Miller. Farmingdale: Baywood. 1983. 90-108.

 

Authors: Patrick Moore and Chad Fitz:

"Gestalt Theory and Instructional Design" Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 23.2 (1993): 137-157.

 

Author: Charles Kostelnick:

"Supra-Textual Design: The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents" Technical Communication Quarterly 5.1 (1996): 9-33.

 

 

 

 

Author:

Karen Shriver

 Dynamics of Document Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons (1997), “The Interplay of Words and Pictures: Section 3.”      407-441.

 

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Course Goals

:

Students will better understand how to:

  • write audience centered text or hypertext documents
  • analyze the effectiveness their own and others' professional writing
  • create high-quality and well-edited text and hypertext documents
  • produce rhetorically savvy, concise, and well-edited written business documents
  • create effective visual rhetoric

 

 

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Policies

 

Attendance: Attendance is required. Because the class meets only one day a week, each missed class equals three classes missed. Your final grade will be reduced for more than one absence--excused or unexcused.

Due Dates: No single firm date. Instead, assignments will be due within a range of days, usually 7 days at the end of a project. After that range, papers will not be accepted, unless arrangements are made in advance.

Digital and Standard Intellectual Property: Borrowing either digital or intellectual property--text, images, data, or ideas--without citing the creators or owners of that property constitutes plagiarism. If you have a question about whether or not to borrow or how to cite work, check with me.

The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA) forbids acts of circumventing password protection or anti-circumvention software. Ask me if you have questions concerning this area.

 

 

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Assignments and Grading Percentages

 
  • Business Document (8+ pages)..........35%
  • Hypertext Business Document............35%
  • 2 Usability Analyses (15% each)........30%

 

Final Exam

 

Although you will not have a final exam, we will meet to have an informal discussion of the projects during exam time.

 

 

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