Editing Exercise #4 -- Online Editing

For your last editing exercise, you will comment on a web page that is in the works.

Ann Moser is working to create/update a web page for the Writing Center.  You can help her by examining what the current writing center web site offers.  See philosophy, staff (including a brief bio of our own Meg Waldron) and workshops.

After becoming familiar with how to create web pages, and after reading the chapter on "Editing Online Documents," what suggestions can you make?  Start with the organization and "navigation" of the page:  are the categories above sufficient? What else would the users of the Writing Center need from a web page?   Why would they use it? (see Tables 19.1 and 19.2 for more questions and information). 

You might look at the following resources for help:  the elements of style, Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus, resources for editors, and basic style and mechanics.   Here are some other writing center resources:  Purdue University Online Writing Center, a list of university writing centers, and some resources for writers and writing instructors (see especially the "anti-pedantry page," or, "how Jane Austen and other famous authors violate what everyone learned in their English class.")  What other resources would you suggest?  How should these be organized? 

What suggestions would you make about screen layout, visual design, use of color, etc?

The brave and ambitious among you will actually try to create a sample page (as a branch off your home page) with appropriate style, content, and structure.  Then, email the URL (uniform resource locator) of this suggestion page to me (and to Ann, if you wish) before Monday's class. 

The rest of you will write a brief memo (1.5 pages, single space but double space between sections or headings) to Ann (but really to me) detailing your suggestions, including possible sites or resources she might include.  Put addresses in angle brackets <http://www.runet.edu./~rvannoy/rvn/407.htm>