Course Description

Instructor and Course Information

English 309, "Computer-Aided Publishing"
Instructor: Dr. David Blakesley
Section: 001
Office Hrs: T-Th 10:30 -noon and by appt.
Office: Heavilon 227
Ph: 765.494.3772
Fax: 765.494.3780
E-Mail: blakesle@purdue.edu

Overview

English 309, Computer-Aided Publishing, will teach you to use the digital tools of the 21st-Century to publish professional documents for multiple purposes and audiences. The course will have a productive, practical component that will help you learn the essential software, design principles, and document cycling processes of professional publishing. We will also spend time discussing and writing about the professional contexts and changing circumstances of publishing and the tools that make it possible.

Required Texts

• Before and After Page Design by John McWade. Peachpit Press. 2003. ISBN: 978-0201795370
• D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself by Ellen Lupton. Princeton Architectural Press. 2006. ISBN: 978-1568985527

Recommended Resource Texts and Other Course Readings

The texts listed here are not required reading but will prove useful in a number of ways for students in Professional Writing as they move forward in their careers. They have not been ordered through local bookstores, but you may find them in stock. There won't be any required reading from these texts.

• The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) (2003, University of Chicago Press)
• Exploring Multimedia for Designers: A Designer-Driven Introduction to the Essential Concepts and Technologies of Multimedia by Ray Villalobos (2008, Cengage).
• The Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color by Leatrice Eiseman (2000, Grafix Press)
• The Big Book of Design Ideas 3 edited by David E. Carter (2008, HarperCollins)
• The Thomson Handbook by David Blakesley and Jeffrey Hoogeveen (2008, Cengage)

Course Readings will occasionally appear on the course calendar and are meant as resources for in-class discussion or examination. You will also occasionally see online (free) readings on the course calendar.

Course Goals

• Learn strategies for planning, writing, and revising the content and design of documents that you can flexibly apply to future writing and publishing challenges
• Improve your management of the digital tools that are often used in the workplace and publishing industry
• Learn the principles of effective design and how to use them in creative and liberating ways, as well as when to be conservative
• Suit content and design to the rhetorical situation, including audiences’ needs and expectations of documents
• Develop a critical eye for design
• Learn what computers can do design- and publishing-wise and how to make them do it
• Consider the usefulness of emergent technologies and new venues and opportunities for digital publishing and archiving
• Develop high quality materials for your professional portfolio

Course Projects and Activities

Project 1: DIY: Design-It-Yourself Wireframe and Project Management Brief

For this project, you'll design (from a sample) a wireframe (design structure) for what's called a Project Management Brief that you can then use in subsequent projects. You'll create your Wireframe in Adobe InDesign and essentially make a re-usable template. I'll show you samples in class, and you'll learn to easily create wireframes that go with a wide variety of documents, such as websites, brochures, newsletters, etc. You'll also generate a set of questions for each type of project that will help you generate a "brief" for planning purposes. In the real world of publishing and design, writers and project managers use these documents when working with clients on complex design and publishing jobs. (Individual: 10% of course grade.)

Project 2, 3, and 4: DIY: Design-It-Yourself Document 2-4

For Projects 2, 3, and 4 you'll draw inspiration from D.I.Y.: Design-It-Yourself to come up with three relatively small projects that involve one type of document (or other type of "published" material) and that you carry through to the end by actually producing and publishing it. Your choices are only limited by the samples in the book, which cover a vast range of possibilities. For each of these small projects, you should complete a Wireframe and Project Management Brief, add weekly notes to your Project Log, collect assets at your Drop.io site, and submit printed and electronic copies of your project when it is completed. These smaller projects will be spaced out over the semester at three-week intervals. Examples of acceptable projects include but are not limited to the following: resume, stationery, flier, poster, brochure, mailer, postcard ad, advertisement, t-shirt, invitation, logo, wall graphic, CD or DVD packaging, embroidery, business card, gift, invitation, tote bag, banner, photo album, scrapbook, presentation slide template, bumper sticker, button, and more. (Individual: 10% of course grade for each project.)

Project 5: Catalog, Newsletter, or Website Design

For Project 5, you'll plan, design, research, and produce a multi-page document, such as a catalog, newsletter, or website. As for Projects 2-4, the steps will include completing a Wireframe and Project Management Brief, adding weekly notes to your Project Log, collecting assets at your Drop.io site, and submitting printed and electronic copies of your project when it is completed. (Individual: 30% of course grade.)

Project Logs

Throughout the semester, starting in Week 3, please keep a Project Log that functions as a progress report on how what you're doing for Projects 2-5. Review these Project Log Guidelines, which explain the process in detail. Each entry in your Project Log should be posted no later than Sunday on the week it is due, as specified on the course calendar. To earn full credit for this aspect of the coursework, you should post Project Log updates at the end of each week. Since they start at the end of Week 3, you'll have 12 entries by the end of the semester. The purpose of a project log is to provide a record of your progress on projects, to help with project management and planning, and to provide a resource to return to later as you start new projects. After college, you may find keeping a project log useful in your professional career for the purposes of documenting your contributions to a project, showing a client what you have accomplished, and providing a record for others who may need to continue your work later. (10% of course grade.)

Design Log and Asset Collection

Design Logs. Each week, starting in Week 3, I would like you to keep a Design Log, which will be your place to collect and comment on samples, artwork, websites, design resources, and assets that inspire you or may be useful in later projects. You may also use your Design Log to critique examples, but just be aware that your writing may be visible to others, including peers and outside designers. (Be fair and understanding, in other words.) Whenever possible, include a visual illustration of the samples you discuss. In the case of copyright protected work, you may include the assets in your Drop.io Assets, where others can view them, or you may provide the URL where they can be viewed off-site. You may also need to scan samples using the scanner in the lab or your own. Your Design Log should include at least 200 words, be tagged "Design Log," and include images or links to images that will help readers.

Each week, starting in Week 4, two students will be asked to share their design log for that week so that we can discuss, analyze, or critique the examples as a group and, thus, raise important topics related to publishing, design, layout, typography, and other features and principles. These and possibly other postings may be promoted to the front page of the class website for further online or in-class discussion.

Asset Collection. As you work on class projects, you'll need to collect assets, which are simply the images, typography, code snippets, templates, or other resources that may be useful for completing projects. You will collect these assets in a Drop.io site, where you can view files easily, add notes, and share content with others in a protected space. Drop.io sites are free and allow you 100 MB of storage space for each "drop." Your Drop.io site will need to use a common password so that others may access it to view what you collect. You'll be shown in class how to create and manage your Drop.io assets, and a full list of everyone's will be made available. You may also decide to collect assets at a Flikr site or at istockphoto.com, which is a good source for royalty-free photography and illustrations to use in projects. (10% of course grade.)

Grading

The five projects in the course will be comprised of several components, each of which will be worth a percentage of your final grade.

All major assignments will be graded on the standard plus-minus letter-grade scale: A=100-94, A-=93-90, B+==89-87, B=86-84, B-=83-80, C+=79-77, C=76-74, C-=73-70, D+=69-67, D=66-64, D-=63-60, F=59 or below.

Students must participate in all of the five major projects and complete a majority of the required project and design log postings in order to pass this class. Students with questions about final grades should review university policies regarding grade appeals, which are outlined by the Dean of Students in this brochure: http://www.purdue.edu/ODOS/osrr/gradeappeal.pdf (PDF file).

Technology Requirements

In order to participate fully in the course, you should already be able to use the technology platform and applications listed below.

• Mac OS X (in class) and Mac OS X or Windows XP or Vista (out-of-class)
• Microsoft Office for the PC or Mac (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) or Apple counterparts (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)
• Web Browser (Firefox is recommended because of design plug-ins)
• Adobe Acrobat and Reader (for PDF documents, collaborative review)

Technology Responsibilities

Familiarity with certain technologies is crucial for participation and success in the course. If you need any assistance now or at any point during the semester, please do not hesitate to ask. Students will be encouraged to help each other with new technologies, and much of our time in class will be spent developing projects so that you can receive help.

During the semester, you'll need regular access to the Internet and email. Because the course home page is the main locus of the class community, you are responsible for reading and keeping current with all content posted there, including what has been submitted by both the instructor and your fellow students. You'll be responsible for configuring your system to access course materials, to read course email and participate in online discussions, and to submit your work. Very early in the semester, you will be asked to demonstrate that you can meet these responsibilities:

• Register for the course website and complete your profile information.
• Post a message (comment) about yourself and your interests in response to the instructors "Introductions" post on the front page of our course site.
• Read the course description and calendar, then ask questions when you are uncertain about requirements or activities.
• Check the course calendar before each class meeting.
• Become proficient participating in the class Drupal space and at your Drop.io site.
• Become more proficient with unfamiliar computer technologies and applications, including Web editing software, document cycling systems, desktop publishing applications, and graphics programs.
• Maintain back-up copies of all assignments.

Because computer problems are a fact of life, always work to complete your assignments early and make frequent backups to multiple media.

Attendance

Attendance is required at all scheduled meetings. Three absences may result in your final grade being lowered by as much as a letter grade. More than three absences can result in a failing grade for the course. Excused absences will only be granted for religious holidays or university-sponsored events, provided you make a written request to me no less than two weeks in advance and that you complete any required work before the due date. Being excessively or regularly late for class can also be counted as an absence.

Academic Integrity

Purdue students and their instructors are expected to adhere to guidelines set forth by the Dean of Students in "Academic Integrity: A Guide for Students," which students are encouraged to read here:

http://www.purdue.edu/ODOS/osrr/integrity.htm

The preamble of this guide states the following: "Purdue University values intellectual integrity and the highest standards of academic conduct. To be prepared to meet societal needs as leaders and role models, students must be educated in an ethical learning environment that promotes a high standard of honor in scholastic work. Academic dishonesty undermines institutional integrity and threatens the academic fabric of Purdue University. Dishonesty is not an acceptable avenue to success. It diminishes the quality of a Purdue education, which is valued because of Purdue's high academic standards."

Academic dishonesty is defined as follows: "Purdue prohibits "dishonesty in connection with any University activity. Cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the University are examples of dishonesty." [University Regulations, Part V, Section III, B, 2, a] Furthermore, the University Senate has stipulated that "the commitment of acts of cheating, lying, and deceit in any of their diverse forms (such as the use of substitutes for taking examinations, the use of illegal cribs, plagiarism, and copying during examinations) is dishonest and must not be tolerated. Moreover, knowingly to aid and abet, directly or indirectly, other parties in committing dishonest acts is in itself dishonest." [University Senate Document 72-18, December 15, 1972]"

If you have any questions about this policy, please ask.

In Case of a Campus Emergency

In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. You can acquire updated information from the course website, by emailing me, or by contacting me through the English Department at 765-494-3740.

Late Work

The majority of missed class assignments cannot be made up. If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me in writing prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted.