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English 375 Writing for the Web
Approved Texts:
- Farkas, David and Jean Farkas. Principles of Web Design
. Allyn and Bacon, 2002. Reviewed by
Amy Krug. Strongly
recommended. “If the text were used, it would have to be supplemented
with other examples of genres…There were lots of pictures and examples
throughout. It followed one example through most of the text, which I
thought was very helpful…. I really liked the web the book emphasized
planning, which includes laying out the visual elements/layout of the
website before doing anything.”
- Harrison, Claire and Irene Hammerich. Developing Online
Content . Wiley; 1st edition (December 20, 2001). ISBN: 0471146110
Reviewed by Amy Krug.
“This book has more of a rhetorical approach than any other I looked
at; it has a whole chapter on audience and another on e-rhetoric, the
difference between attention-grabbing text online and
attention-grabbing text on paper…. There is good emphasis on editing
and accuracy in web writing…. There’s a whole chapter on visual
rhetoric which seems very comprehensive; however, there aren’t as many
examples as I’d expect…. The overall structure has good readability,
nice summations, good website resources and the like. The fact that it
has a good mix of both rhetoric and design probably makes it the best
book I looked at for the class, but I am concerned about the lack of
examples.”
- Price, Jonathon & Lisa Price. Hot Text: Web Writing
That Works. New Riders Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 0735711518 Reviewed by Amy Krug. Recommended.
“The rhetorical approach is more customer-based…It’s well done but not
comprehensive. The focus is on building a business site; it’s more
how-to rather than theoretical, so there’s not a lot of emphasis on
copyediting, proofreading, etc. However, there is an excellent emphasis
on ‘talking like a human,’ which involved generating concise, brief
text that is very web-friendly. I would expect more discussion of
visual elements than they actually provide. Some of the HTML/web design
discussion is too technical and could be daunting if you haven’t had
any experience with it before. The chapters on ‘chunking’ text and
writing brief and concise text for the web were very well done, and
included a lot of good visual aids to emphasize how web writing is very
different from document writing, and how to get the most out of
hyperlinking.”
- Summers, Kathryn and Michael Summers. Creating Websites
that Work . Houghton Mifflin, 2005.
Reviewed by Amy Krug.
Strongly recommended. “Good attention to audience. Good discussion of
content—use of active verbs, parallel structure, elements of ‘strong
writing.’ Excellent discussion of color, visual design, and the
importance of consistency within a website; good examples and
references to websites. Something here that I haven’t seen in other
books is a section on usability testing and designing test scripts.”
- Williams, Robin; John Tollet, and David Rohr. Robin
Williams' Web Design Workshop . Peachpit Press; 1st edition (July
25, 2001). ISBN: 0201748673
Reviewed by Amy Krug.
Recommended. “The book has a good focus on audience, especially in the
part about information gathering, but no real discussion of different
web genres. There’s no real discussion of actual writing here—it’s more
about the design elements of web design rather than the writing
elements. They have great examples, just not of writing. The book
focuses on visual design. There are many beautiful examples and it’s
written in easy to understand terms with a glossary at the beginning.
The book is well written and well put together.”
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