Site Report
Purpose Statement:
Our site hopes to provide a helpful and widely attainable resource for matters of composition that commonly concern college writers. We chose, by observing in our own classes, and similar content already available on the web, which elements of rhetoric and composition would be most useful to students, not only at Bemidji State University but abroad. We decided to cover four main areas, each one more or less intensively. The Writing Process is to help students get started, organize ideas, and write logically and creatively. Style attempts to counter classical beliefs about what style should be, and offers perspectives on voice and persona. Punctuation is brief, covering what we believed to be the four most commonly used marks (comma, semi-colon, colon, dash) but offers, as most pages (will eventually), external links for further investigation. Using Sources explores research on the web, the reliability of sources, and useful advice on incorporating. Our approach overall was to provide friendly information in a friendly and user-centered manner. Rather than an admonition or prescriptive advice, we hope mostly to be encouraging, allowing for creativity and personality.
Design Notes:
Keeping in mind user-friendliness, the site design was meant to be simple, yet elegant; a boring site was our worst fears. Also, in keeping with modern web-design trends, the site uses cascading style sheets for design elements and arrangements, which can easily be turned off by text only browsers. The site being accessible by anyone, we hoped to make it just as easily navigable, hence the over-size menu, breadcrumbs top and bottom, and a consistency of layout throughout.
Many resources were brought together, both for functionality and design.
Permissions & Credits
Banner image from http://openphoto.net/gallery/image.html?image_id=5468
© Michael Jastremski, 2004. Edited from original.
Code
The JavaScript used for all pop-up window was found at http://www.alistapart.com/articles/popuplinks/
Java script library [lib.js] courtesy of DHTMLCentral.com
Creative Commons license, rdf tag and image provided by Creative Commons.
Original Content (Attributions)
The following list represents content created by us, which is subject to the terms and conditions of our Creative Commons license.
Textual content
The Writing Process and Punctuation was written by Jessica Marianiello.
Using Sources and Style & Narration were written by Vincent Marianiello.
Site design was done collaboratively: Jessie was the artistic influence, Vinny wrote the code.
Images
The five (5) images used on the punctuation page (colon.jpg, comma2.jpg, dash.jpg, semicolon.jpg) as well as the green up arrow (up.png) found on all pages are original. (collaborative)
Code
Style Sheets:
- modern.css – styles for browsers that support modern web standards, v. 5+. All code original except css hacks found at http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/
- print.css – style sheet for printer friendly version.
*Please note: Images that contribute to the design are are attached using CSS, therefore no alt tags are necessary. Button images that are navigational (up.png) are embedded in the usual manner with appropriate alternate text.
Bugs & Repairs
A problem with a javascript file Dreamweaver uses to save the current date to file produces unexpected behaviors if site cache is enabled. Our site was plagued by a number of date tag being written randomly throughout the page on save. The new date tags overwrote lines of text in the body, and fixing the text would only produce another overwrite upon the next save. It seemed like a never ending circle. (Eventually I had to use notepad to clean up the mess.)
Problem, apparently, can be resolved by un-enabling site cache. More dialog on this topic can be found at http://www.webfrustration.com/showthread.php?t=28720
Macromedia has issued no support statements on this issues at this time.
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The pseudo class :first-letter is not completely supported by Safari 1.0. Font-size and float declarations work as expected, but it does not support a font-family value. Safari will use the inherited font instead.
This is minor bug. No possible detrimental value.
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The column (div) that holds the menu breaks out of alignment in ie5.5, 5.2, 5.0
Internet Explorer 5, a deprecated browser still in use, incorrectly applies padding and margins to the W3C box model. The workaround (hack) involves placing a bogus style-sheet rule that turns off ie5's parser. (Tantek's explanation is better than mine.) The rules that follow the hack will not be read, but the next selector declaration will be applied normally (still incorrectly) by the parser. This second value, usually declared with its child/parent elements, corrects the discrepancy between margin and padding values. Newer browsers do not stumble on the hack, and therefore apply the correct value the first time, skipping the second due to the rules of specificity.
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Netscape, also a browser (supposedly) in use, doesn't not support most of the style-sheet rules. As Netscape 4 is seriously deprecated browser there is little to be done except hide the style-sheet from the browser .
Two ways of doing this are to use @import within the <style> tag to attach styles, (this can also be done from within another style-sheet. The other takes advantage of the media declaration within the style tag itself. NS4 only understands media="screen", any other declared attribute (media="all", media="screen, projection", etc.) will cause the parser to ignore the tag altogether, no style-sheet rules will be applied. The media="all" attribute is problematic if using a print version of the style sheet. Media="all" is replaced by a media="print" declaration when it is parsed for printing. Both sty-sheet rules will apply, which can cause overlapping and misalignment.
We chose the @import method, because we need a printable version of every page. Web sites that print WYSIWYG, we believe, waste space on the page and expensive, often color, ink. What good does a set of links do in a printed page? To cut down on all these wastes a separate style-sheet was created, set with standard print margins, with navigational and design elements hidden (display:none;). The media="print" attribute is supported by every browser (as far as I know) so a hard copy of the information is always attainable, despite technological differences.
Related or Sibling Sites: Reviews:
University of Minnesota English Composition Web
This is a site put together by the Department of English at the University of MN.—Twin Cities. It is the best site on composition that I have found so far. It is a large site, with access to literally hundreds of pages of useful information some of which was created locally and others that are links to related sites. This page categorizes the needs and interests of its audiences effectively. The Instructor pages include information such as “Course Design Resources”, “Sample Syllabi and Assignments”, and “Best Practices for Instructors”. I have found several ideas that I am already looking forward to putting to use in the classroom. The Student pages include and excellent “Online Grammar Notebook”. It is well organized and easy to navigate. The bread crumbs are consistently on the top of each page so you can always get “Home” or to any of the other 3 main (2 nd level) menu pages. I by no means have been able to look at every page and every link. But that is another benefit of this site. It has so much information that it will keep me coming back for more. This information is usable and presented in a simple layout. I am able to easily scan for the information that I need. There are inconsistencies in the appearance of some pages, but this is most likely due to the fact that the information has been collected from many sources—however, this does not seem to hinder easy use and navigation of the site. Over all, I am highly impressed with this one.
Luc Hens, Research and Writing Guide
This site was designed for economics students to help them compose research papers. It is set up in a Q and A arrangement. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if the answers didn’t consist of huge paragraphs stretched across the screen with only occasional bold scripted words to direct me in my search for the information I might be looking for. My eyes hurt trying to read this. Not to mention, it is hard to find what I need when the information is jammed so closely together. The links, many of which are embedded in the text, are no longer available or bring you to sites totally unrelated (note: this site was last updated Sept. 2004). Not to mention, many of these links take you away from the site with no way to return. This is a good example of an unsuccessful site. We will not be using it as a link in our own site.
CCC Guide to Grammar & Writing
The front page of the site utilizes drop down menu, six of them; each holding anywhere from seven to seventy menu items, most of these are under the headings “Word & Sentence Level” and “Essay & Research Paper Level.” Other pertinent headings are “Paragraph Level,” as one would expect, but then an odd mix in the last two: “Ask Grammar, Quizzes, Search Devices” and “Grammar Poll, Guestbook, Awards.” The first three are germane to our pursuit, and by exploring the essay level options I am overwhelmed with the concentration of choices under three broad headings (The Writing Process, Structural Considerations, Patterns of Organizations) and how the other two are separate from the first is beyond me. There is also another heading thrown up at the top of the lists, marked by asterisk: *Principals of Composition*. For exploratory purposes I take a link to Tone, under the process category, that easily could have been under the Structural Considerations category. I’ve said nothing of design until now, and mostly because their was no design, only a white page continuously interrupted by an almond colored bar with colorful and distracting punctuation marks. The heading on the main page was an awful hovering gif, and all other headings a dark gold that suggested a lack of architecture to the content. The content itself was informative, and no paragraph seemed to be more than two to three sentences long. Tables were used appropriately to enhance the text, and navigation was simple, either a top drop-down or three large buttons at the bottom, for home page and another “index” page (index2.html) which is a blistering list of everything one the site in alphabetical order. This is where one sees that the site is broken down so much that it would be hard for a student who doesn’t yet have the language to decipher what is what, and which one they need.
Writing at Dartmouth
Dartmouth has a plain and simple modern design, subtle colors and easily readable fonts. A single column is deployed, using a floated off-color divider for navigation. The main page offers three choices: student, teacher or tutor training resources. The people at Dartmouth are audience aware, and care is taken to separate out which is useful to whom. The Student Resources is another menu, not as daunting as the CCC site, but their choices cover all major areas of study in composition and each heading is devoted to writing across the curriculum: Writing in the Humanities, Writing in the Social Sciences, and so forth. Each category has specific advice for students, not just those in English Composition, but any student who needs help with the looming paper that comes due, it seems, in every class. Dartmouth reaches out beyond the Dept. of English, and writing, on their site, is not a reflection of departmental values but rather a reflection of writing is really like to a college student. I can only bolster the review by pointing to the careful quality of the work itself. Each section is held together by thoughtful and stylistic essays, and each page is a complete work in itself, with attention paid to visual formatting and clarity, as well as off-site links at the end of each page, to entice readers to easily explore more on the subject.
