Course Description: The Rensselaer Catalogue describes this course as one that "provides an introduction to website design with emphasis on the design of text and hypertext for personal and organizational purposes. The course offers an introduction to basic principles of writing, visual design, and usability analysis in addition to web technologies such as HTML, coding and image production and editing." Gee, now you know exactly what we'll be doing, right? Let's try that description again.

Writing to the World Wide Web is a writing course that introduces students to the relatively new genre(s) of writing for the Internet. This class is, first and foremost, a writing class, and you will do a lot of it, so get ready and roll up your sleeves. We will work collaboratively as a class to learn about the Internet and the World Wide Web, their place in our culture, and how their development has impacted the way we think about writing, privacy, publishing, intellectual property, and the creative process. Students will develop an understanding of what Bolter calls the "late of age print" and how the innovation of the web contributes to what he calls the "remediation of writing." Students will apply this understanding when designing and creating original content for the Web.

You will also get to publish a few things--your very own website to be used for professional purposes, an entry for Wikipedia, and a major website or site re-design done collaboratively with your peers. Sounds, fun, right? Of course this task requires students to understand both genre conventions and basic design principles while also developing technical skills. You will learn a variety of skills in the following major areas: Web Savvy, Collaboration, Technology and Technical Skills, Rhetorical Sophistication, and Written Expression. In short, this class will prepare you to write for real audiences. It will also give you the technical tools and rhetorical sophistication to assess and respond to audience needs when designing and writing. We have ambitious goals, but your writing and design will improve as a result. And hopefully we'll have some fun in the process. And don't worry if you've never done any of this before, you can read my statement on technology and pedagogy to learn about how this former technophobe got seduced by technology and you can check out my teaching philosophy to learn what I think about college education and my role in helping you get one!