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Digital literacy for the web

What writers for the web need to know

1. XHTML (or HTML5) and CSS.
• Why code? Arguments for and against writers learning programming skills, and the conclusion: professional writers should know html and css.
• Writing good code improves editing skills.
• Good code makes writers think about how writing works and what it does.
• Code is "forward compatible," so writing in code lasts forever.
• Good code adds "a whole new level of meaning to your documents for readers. Used properly, HTML allows you to give readers more information about what various parts of your documents mean. For example, you can seamlessly define abbreviations, cite quotations, or identify people and places without intefering with the readability of your documents." Furry Brains
2. Usability and web standards
• Usable design principles and guidelines
• Testing for usability
• Sample tools: Color-blindness tool and Code validator tool
3. Coding vs WYSIWYG and pre-made web templates: XHTML/HTML5, CSS, and the future of HTML
   1. Power of style sheets
   2. Styling for the web, handhelds, and print
   3. XML and the Textual Coding Initiative: the right coding language and the wrong one
      • Example: Walt Whitman Letters, Carlisle letters online and Justification page
4. Editorial guides: Yahoo, AP, Chicago, IEEE, and more
• Yahoo Word list
5. Writing and design guides: Yale Style Guide
   • Layout and page templates
   • Optimizing graphics
     • Example student site: usability and graphics
   • Typography
6. Good writing for the web
   1. Eye-tracking technologies: how we read online
   2. General guidelines
   3. Imagining audience and writing audience scenarios
   4. The FAQ model: imagining questions and designing answers
   5. Styling links
   6. Two examples of web content
      • Before
      • After
7. Putting it all together
   • Student page
   • Another student page
   • A client site