MODULE 3: COMMUNICATING IN THE INFOSPHERE – E-WRITING

1) HTML and Webpage Design

The Web Diner Introduces Your Web Adventure!
Web Diner Inc. (2000), Web adventure. Retrieved 12th January 2007, from http://www.webdiner.com/webadv/index.htm

Designed especially to teach small business owners how to create their very own web space; this html-tutorial site is an excellent place for all beginners wanting to learn how to create and display a webpage. The fact the site received one million hits in its first two years of operation is testament to its ease of use. It is written and presented in a no-frills format so it’s easy to ‘jump-right-in’, even for those with no previous HTML knowledge. The authors have clear industry qualifications and experience: Laurie McCanna, having written a best selling book, as well as writing for magazines and columns, and Tim McCanna having developed online databases and web sites for large corporations. Tutorials progress from the basic mandatory tags through to generating and customising your own graphics and text, and then uploading the files via FTP to your ISP for public, online display. Not merely just a list of how-to instructions, but also tips for best practice, and common ‘design’ faults add to the quality of this site. There is only one cautionary note; because this is an ‘old’ site, developed in 1995, some of the extra support links to other sites are no longer current; nonetheless these don’t effect or detract from the excellent HTML tutorials themselves. The authors demonstrate ^concept 3-effective internet communication combines technical and communicative competence. They obviously have technical competence in how web sites work, but also communicate to their intended audience in an effective manner. In other words, they have combined both technical and communicative skills.

^ (Allen, n.d.)


2) Web Writing

Writing Well for the Web
Kyrnin, J. (n.d. a), Writing well for the web. Retrieved 12th January 2007, from http://webdesign.about.com/od/writing/a/aa061598.htm

This site is well worthwhile reading for anyone considering any form of online writing. The fact that the article is only brief is the key to, and testament of, the very topic it presents – writing (communicating) effectively on the web. There are many ‘concepts’ that attempt to explain the ‘what’ ‘why’ and ‘how’ of online-communication versus online-information, and this article successfully summarises many of them in a concise and succinct manner that’s not overwhelming. The author is sufficiently qualified to be taken notice of on this important issue, possessing a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and an MBA in Technology and Management. Her career has seen her designing web pages for over a decade, including sites of over 5000 pages for large corporations (Kyrnin, n.d. b). Developing ‘good online writing’ is practicing ^concept 4-reflective communicative practice. Without any set rules (or many ‘rules’) governing online communication, it is necessary to reflect if your, and your audience’s, purposes are being met. Directly tying in with this is ^concept 7-netiquette; good communication is something that must be practiced, not just learned. An example of this is the author’s view that neglecting good spelling and grammar (simply because it’s web-writing) constitutes bad execution of online writing. Another key area discussed relates to ^concept 31-hypertext: links or structure? The proper use of hypertext, or links, within a document facilitates better communication by giving control to the user (reader) in how they go about reading and analysing the document, whilst at the same time, also communicating how they could navigate through the document.

^ (Allen, n.d.)