Understanding the Web: Part One

Previously, we discussed the various definitions and the complicated relationship among "old media" and "new media." In this assignment, you will become familiar with some of the web's roots in old media by using a word processor—and then HTML and CSS—to structure and format a short academic report.

1. First, you will carefully examine this report and discern the underlying logical and functional strucutre of the document.
2. Then, using Word, OpenOffice, or Google Docs, you will create a version of the same report that uses logical styles and the CRAP principles to visually convey the document's structure to its audience. This file must be Microsoft Word compatible.
3. Next, you will hand code the same report in HTML, using the built-in tags of HTML to specify the document's structure.
4. Finally, you will attach a cascading style sheet (CSS) to the HTML document to make at least five significant alterations to the document's appearance.

Resources

Files from class

• HTML (Tuesday, 17 January)
• HTML (Thursday, 19 January)
• CSS (Tuesday, 24 January):
  • HTML
  • CSS

Tutorials

• Microsoft Word Styles:
  • Word 2007
  • Word 2008 (Mac; also largely applies to Word 2011)
  • Word 2010
• W3Schools.com:
  • HTML Tutorials
  • How to attach a CSS to an HTML page
  • CSS Tutorials

Software Tools

• Notepad++ (an excellent text editor for PCs)
• Text Wrangler (a more feature-rich text editor for Macs)

This assignment description and associated
images are licensed by Jim Nugent under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.