ENG2730 Professional Editing and Revising, Spring 2024

Hello students,

Today is our last class!

We have only two objectives:

1. Take the final exam
2. Ask questions about Part 3 of the final project. Talk to Prof. Scanlan about your proposed submission time. The deadline is midnight tonight.

If you have not done so, and there is still time, please complete the student evaluation for my class.

Have a great summer, and don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any PTW-related questions.

Best wishes,

Prof. Scanlan

Agenda:

–Presentations!

–Review Part 3, especially WAVE analysis tool (watch video and review student example)

WAVE: Wave Accessibility Evaluation Tool [Source: Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice at Utah State University]

WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are part of a series of web accessibility guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) [Source: Wikipedia article on WCAG]

ARIA is a W3C specification that stands for “Accessible Rich Internet Applications.” It consists of markup that can be added to HTML in order to communicate the roles, states, and properties of user interface elements to assistive technologies (AT). This information helps screen readers and other AT to better understand the elements on a web page and to provide a user interface that enables their users to effectively interact with those elements. [Source: University of Washington Accessible Technology]

W3C: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops standards and guidelines to help everyone build a web based on the principles of accessibility, internationalization, privacy and security. [Source: W3C]

ENG2730-FinalPart3-Student–Example

–Final Exam review (business letter proofing and fixing verb phrases–see handout)

–Q & A

Homework for Tuesday (LAST CLASS), May 21: Finish Part 3 of the Final Project and prepare for the Final Exam.

Agenda:

–Return Part 1 and discuss

–Review instructions for Part 2–Presentation

Presentation-PDF-Best-Practices

–In-class work on Part 2

[NOTE: for the summary of Part 2, consider discussing the organization and type of the site–see May 2 post below.]

Homework for Thursday, May 16: prepare Part 2 and be ready to present. Please practice your presentation out loud…perhaps in front of a friend. And time yourself.

NOTE: Here is a brief example of how to frame the revision section (#4) of the Presentation (Part 2):

This example is taken from the Brooklyn Bridge Park website:

BEFORE: Volunteers of all ages are welcome (under 16’s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian) and no volunteer orientation or experience is required.

AFTER: Brooklyn Bridge Park welcomes all ages. Please note that a parent or guardian must accompany those under 16. We require no experience; in addition, volunteers require no formal orientation.

Overall, I rewrote the long sentence above as three shorter sentences.

• First sentence: I placed the subject at the beginning and made the verb active.
• Second sentence: I added “please note” and removed “be” from the verb phrase.
• Third sentence: Focused attention on the active verb “require.” And I added the signpost “in addition” and made “require” an active verb.

Agenda:

–Review two ideas from Chapter 18: the importance of headings and seventeen visual design options

–Discuss the organization of websites and their types

–In-class work on Part 1 or 2

[NOTE: for the summary of Part 2, consider discussing the organization and type of the site–see May 2 post below.]

–Make sure to submit Part 1 by midnight tonight (May 9)

Homework: For Tuesday, May 14: work on Part 2–the presentation. A good goal is the complete steps 1-3 by Tuesday. Remember, presentations are Thursday, May 16.

NOTE: in case you are interested in learning more about ontology and epistemology, see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/

NOTE: I’m giving a reading today at the Open House for the Writing Center/New Creative Writing Minor event today: 2:30-4:00 in L632. This means that I won’t hold office hours today (Wednesday). Email any questions that you have. And stop by the event if you have time–several students will be reading their creative work.

Hi Class,

Here’s our agenda:

1–Return Part 4 of the MCD project and discuss key findings

2–Website presentations

3–In-class work on Part 1

Homework for Thursday: complete Part 1 and submit to Prof. Scanlan via email by Midnight (May 9). Please see the instructions for details. 

End of semester schedule:

Final Project: Part 1

5/2: IA, Part 1 explained [HW: work on Part 1]

Final Project: Part 2

5/7: Discuss Part 1; in-class work [HW: work on completing Part 1]

5/9: Due: Part 1 [HW: work on Part 2]

Final Project: Part 3

5/14: in-class work on Part 2 [HW: work on practicing Part 2]

5/16: Due: Presentations (Part 2); Q&A on Part 3 [HW: completePart 3 and study for the final exam]

Last Class and Final Exam

5/21: Due: Part 3; Final Exam–40 points

Agenda:

1. Return Log 2, Log 3, and Quiz 3
2. Website analysis–Review 10 parts
3. Final Project: Part 1 instruction review
4. Chapter 17 review (write 6 points as questions)
5. Website organization

Homework for Tuesday, May 7:

1-Find a website that you think is unpleasant and one that you think is very good. Post the links to the Category: Unpleasant/Great Websites. Be prepared to describe the websites’ organization and type.

2-Work on A, B, C, and D for Part 1 of the Final Project. A good goal is to complete A-C and come to class on Tuesday with about 200 words drafted for D.

Definitions of IA:

1—how content is structured within a design system to help users succeed. [org/audience]

2—IA is design thinking applied to business problems. [org/audience]

Website Organization:

4 Structures:

1-Hierarchical: most common. Uses home-sub-subsub organization. Example: Macy’s, H&M, etc.

2-Linear/Sequential: series of steps, tells a story, focuses on user journey. Example: most e-commerce sites use a sequential structure at the checkout stage of a purchase.

3-Network/Matrix: complex sites like NYTimes mixes content and navigation

4-Database (interactive displays including many cards, comments, pins, posts, etc. Pinterest and Airbnb are examples)

7 Types of Websites:

1-Blog

2-Business

3-E-commerce

4-Non-profit

5-Education

6-Entertainment

7-Portfolio

What is the organization and type:

https://rivian.com/

https://www.aldaily.com/

https://www.thomaspeschak.com/

10 Parts of a Book and Website:

Example 1: OpenLab: OpenLab-10 parts of Website

Example 2: ABC: ABC-10 parts of website

Hello Class,

I have conflicting meetings today and need to cancel my Wednesday office hours. Please email any questions that you have.

Sorry for the late notice.

Best,

Prof. Scanlan

Agenda:

1. Quiz 3
2. Discuss Rolling Stone article: “These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI”
3. Website analysis–getting started

10 Parts of a Book and Website:

Example 1: OpenLab: OpenLab-10 parts of Website

Example 2: ABC: ABC-10 parts of website

HOMEWORK due Thursday, May 2: 

1–Read Chapter 17 in Rude: “Organization: The Architecture of Information.” In your notes, write down the six Principles of Content Organization. These principles form the cornerstone of our ideas on information architecture for the last project of the semester.

2–Select two City Tech department homepages and then compare them according to the prompts below. There is nothing to turn in, but be prepared to speak about your findings on Tuesday:

https://www.citytech.cuny.edu/academics/academic-departments.aspx

–Are they consistent or different? 

–What is consistent or different?

–What patterns, if any, are followed?

–Are there reasons for differences?

–What information does each program aim to teach?

 

***Have a safe and relaxing spring break!

NOTE: 

• Revised table is now below “Fix this Table”
• Updated “measurements…” in April 11 post
• Updated “Study  guide…” in April 11 post

Agenda:

-Discuss MCD Part 3

-Review measurements

-Review table best practices:

Fix this table-4-16-24

Revised-Fix-this-table-4-16-24

-Conditional sentences

-Accessibility

Homework: prepare for Quiz 3: measurements, table best practices, conditional sentences (types 0-3)