Due: Wednesday, March 19th at 5 p.m.
Total Points: 100

For this assignment you have four options, listed below. Choose one of them. Note that each option includes two parts:

• the page creation/revision work itself,
• a rationale and explanation (composed as a Web page) of the work (similar to your web critique; based on the checklist below).

1. Create a personal website from scratch. Provide a rationale for your design, based on the checklist below (which is similar to the checklist you used when doing your web critique assigment). I'm expecting that you'll probably at mininum create one main page, and two or three other pages linked to this page. What do I mean by "personal website?" Well, it depends on your audience. Think of your interests, passions, etc. and how you can convey those to a specific Web community that shares in those interests. You might create a list of resources for people who drive a Plymouth Neon, or express your opinions on sexism in AOL chatrooms, or use the page to promote your shareware Java applets to others who may want to use them.

2. Revise your current homepage(s) based on the issues we've discussed in class. If you choose this option, save your current page(s) before you start so that you provide me with a "before and after" comparison. As part of this assignment, you will provide an evaluation of your original page, based on the checklist which follows below. You'll also explain how you revised your page based on this evaluation.

3. Similar to the above assignment (again, start by saving your original webpage(s)), revise your current page(s) for an entirely different audience. For example, if your page is designed for an audience of your peers (college students in their early 20s) revise the content and design to appeal to your 70-year-old grandparents who have just gotten an America Online account. Again, provide me with a rationale and evaluation of your revised page, based on the checklist below.

4. Revise the initial page of any other site you find on the Web, again based on the issues we've discussed in class. For example, you might want to revise the page you chose to critique in the first assignment. Again, as part of the assignment, you'll provide an evaluation of the original page. You'll also explain how you revised your page based on this evaluation.

Website Explanation and Rationale Checklist

• Using as a guide the rhetorical principles we're discussing in class -- considerations of the audience's values and how appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos mesh with these values -- as well as anything you've read so far that might help you out, describe how you've created or revised your site to serve its purpose. Use the following checklist as a guide for completing your critique.

• Describe who you think the intended audience is for your page. Be specific -- think of the age, gender, income level, education level, occupation, hobbies, etc. Think of their experience using computers, the Web, etc. Think of demands on their time. What are you basing your assumptions of the characteristics of the audience on? What sort of values or beliefs would this audience hold in common? Could there be more than one intended audience, or perhaps a secondary audience? Could the needs or values of the audiences come into conflict?

• What is the purpose of the page? Entertainment? Promotion of a product or service? Self-promotion or self-publishing? Information provision? Self-gratification? Etc. Provide a rationale for why your audience would be interested or served by this purpose.

• What specifically have you done to meet the needs of your intended audience? Look for and provide numerous and specific uses of language (specific words, phrases, or descriptions), uses of graphics (colors, photographs, line art, icons, bullets, background patterns, etc.) and overall structure (the overall structure of how the pages are linked together, the cues that are provided for helping users navigate the site, etc.). Describe how each of these elements (language, graphics, and structure) establishes a character (ethos), or makes an emotional appeal (pathos), or conveys a systematic structure of thinking (logos)? Does the site include multiple appeals using multiple elements (language, graphics, structure).