Go in depth to uncover something fresh in your topic area — something your audience would find especially compelling, something they'd recommend to other people. That's our goal in this assignment: exploit the research you've done for the Links page to find an aspect of your topic not covered well in other sites.

In the bigger picture, this article should also help you refine your overall project idea. Often what happens is that the concept you develop for this article ends up being the concept for your whole site. Think about it: your whole site will be about the length of a 15-page term paper, so if you want to go into depth about anything, you'll need more than just this 700-word article. But this article, at least after a revision or two, should be the can't-miss spot, the page other sites recommend about your site.

To do well on this assignment, you'll need to

create an original, well-researched angle — contrast your article against what others have said, contextualize it within others' ideas, uncover new terrain — so you can play the local expert and help your users make a discovery.
do research beyond the Web: print sources, interviews, your own investigating, etc.
avoid reiterating common knowledge: once you've got a story idea, give it the 60-second Google test. If you can find something similar to your idea, then reshape it — what isn't out there yet that your users should know about?
use CSS, links, headings, colors, lists, inset tables, and images to enhance your writing (but don't create graphics that distract from your prose), as detailed below.

Please remember that we just want you to get some layout practice at this stage, before devising your site design in the Homepage and Midterm. For now, focus on your research and writing, and make a simple article layout that will work easily fit with future designs.

Prep Assignment

The short prep assignment below is designed to help you find an in-depth article idea. If you don't yet have a solid idea, think about your Links page and your site's potential users: what's something they might want to know or do for which you can't right now recommend a perfect source? Could you create that resource — either as this feature article or as your whole project?

More generally, you could think about your article as if you were writing a biographical profile (try this profile-writing worksheet), or try staging it through a typical pose:

"Here's some insider background behind the new big thing — let me explain to you why some people don't really get it and what you should look out for"
"Let me give you some insider tips about how I got through this ... and how I came to understand ..."
"this isn't the new big thing, but it deserves attention now because ..."
"people typically say XYZ about ..., but for you what's important is ..."
most people who know anything about XYZ understand ..., but to go further they need to ..."

Requirements for the prep assignment: respond to the 4 parts below, save as a text document to your "hw" folder on Eden, and bring a printout to class:

Write 2-3 sentences explaining what you'd cover in a very basic, introductory-level article about this topic.
Write 2-3 sentences on what a deeper-level, follow-up article would cover instead — that's what this article should do (and you can cover introductory level material elsewhere on your site, or link to it).
List the 2 best sources you can find on line for the article you have in mind (they might just be analogous treatments of similar topics), and explain in 2-3 sentences what you'd do differently.
If you don't do this article idea, what's your next best idea?

Rough Draft

For your Rough Draft please do the following:

use at least 3 sources, 3 images, 3 links, and 700 words.
work on chunking your text, using white space, and fullfilling the further reqs below.
save your draft as "feature.htm" to your "mid" folder — and save its external style sheet there too, plus an "img" folder for your images
cite your sources (including image sources) using MLA style in a Works Cited at the bottom of your article.

Before you write, do lots of research - try the RU Libraries (especially the ejournals), Infomine, and Librarians Index, along with Google and your Links page - one of the most valuable things you could do is boil down info from sources not available on the web. Please make sure you record your sources carefully (see Citations below).

Also, remember that since this is an online article, you can link to background info - or any other stuff you may not choose to dwell on - which is why your Feature should reach some depth , almost as if it includes those linked sources. Please remember too that online writing is not like academic writing: don't slowly build up ! Start by telling people your crux - like a front-page lead - and be up front about telling your readers where to look if they want background or other info you're not interested in giving them right now (perhaps another part of your site will cover that info in the future).

Finally, begin browsing for images: try Creative Commons & Google Images for starters - make an "img" folder inside your "draft" folder for saving your images, and record the sources of any images you borrow.

Further Requirements: Once you're ready to write, use your HTML4 skills to draft a short article - and practice the following:

Design so as to spotlight your writing - that is, use images and subheads to draw attention to body text.
Include a subnav, perhaps as part of your intro, so users can access your article's sections.
Include occasional links to background info.
Float images left and right.
Chunk your text.
Use contrasting styles for subheads or highlighted materials and body text.
Include a subnav (which should double as an intro);
Use a list (<ul> or <ol>);
Include some sort of "Further Info" section, probably at the end;
Keep text columns no wider than 600px;
Include plentiful white space;
Try a pull quote, or inset table, or something similar, in addition to images;
Don't include site navigation, though you could leave space for it or dummy nav links;
Cite any phrases, images, or ideas you borrow from another source (no plagiarism).

Citations & Edits

The standard expectation in the class is that you'll use MLA in-text citation as in the example below — and use background-links whenever justified. Note that you must cite any borrowed images, as well as text, in your Works Cited. Also note the too slow, wordy, boring start & the revision attempt - culminating in the submenu for the rest of the article:

Sample Article with Lame Beginning

It can be argued that many of the new developments in copyright, or "copyleft" as it's often called by reformers, have been starting to come in recent years from Creative Commons, which has pioneered an array of licensing possibilities in response to recent copyright expansions pushed through by many corporations such as Disney.

[Revision notes: Ughh, that sucks - the one below is better, but do the Harvard and Stanford links really help the article? Further questions are whether the article should get narrower, eg just one of the "3 concerns" it raises - and perhaps start with the Girl Scout bit, since that's kinda catchy, eg "Should Girld Scouts have to pay for the "rights" to campfire songs? ASCAP says so...."]

Are the best ideas in copyright - aka copyleft - coming from Creative Commons? Launched at Harvard's Berkman Center and located at Stanford Law, the Commons have the academic clout to confront corporate ogres like Disney and ASCAP, whose bribes to Congress now ensure that Girl Scouts have pay for the rights to campfire songs! And that's only the edge of the smoldering copyright firestorm.

One of the intellectuals behind Creative Commons, Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, explains in Free Culture that "if strictly enforcing the massively expanded 'property' rights granted by copyright fundamentally changes the freedom within this culture to cultivate and build upon our past, then we have to ask whether this property should be redefined" (169). Blah blah blah ...

From the Creative Commons perspective, three concerns are paramount:

Include here an overview and sublink to Fair Use section of article.
Again here, another overview and Effects on Creativity .
... overview and Disappearing Archives .

Finish introduction and then ...

First Subhead of Article

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

......................................................................................................

Works Cited

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York: Penguin, 2004.

Remember that you need to include a parenthetical citation and Works Cited whenever you directly quote or paraphrase.

Final Requirements

Please save your finished article as feature.htm to your "mid" folder and include the following:

700+ words, plus at least 3 images & one other inset (eg table or pullquote).
Proper citation and no plagiarism.
The further requirements listed in the Draft section above - esp design that stresses your writing.
Save "feature.htm" & its stylesheet to your "mid" folder.
Save images in an "img" folder in your "mid" folder.

Please note, in terms of your grades on this assignment, that we care most about the quality of your writing and organization, plus the article's legibility, use of whitespace, & CRAP. The quality of your images we'll continue perfecting — for the Midterm — so don't fret terribly about that for now.

Site Feedback: William Magrino
wmagrino@rci.rutgers.edu