Writing Style

When mentioning a work on the Web include its title and its URL using the format

"title," URL,

• For example: My name is listed at "Student Blogs Spring 2005," http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/cpsc104/studentBlogsS2005.html, in addition to other sites on the Web.

Internet - write this with an upper case I.

Do not use

• basically
• out there
• user friendly

Follow the rules in the style guide "web copy style," http://www.provenanceunknown.com/edit/style.html

"Observing just a few guidelines can go a long way toward ensuring you can be easily understood:

• Get to the point. Use short words and phrases, rather than longer ones, and omit unnecessary words.
• Keep it simple. Express one thought at a time, and use plain language.
• Don't use metaphors, figures of speech, technical jargon or other writerly flourishes, unless they help make a point.
• Resist using sarcasm and irony; and when you find you can't resist, say so.
• Let your readers know when you are stating your own opinions. When you state a fact, tell them where you got it from. "

Read "The Elements of Style," http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html, by William Strunk, Jr.

• ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE
  1. Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's
  2. In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last
  3. Enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
  4. Place a comma before and or but introducing an independent clause
  5. Do not join independent clauses by a comma
  6. Do not break sentences in two
     In other words, do not use periods for commas.
  7. A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject
  8. Divide words at line-ends, in accordance with their formation and pronunciation
  
  
  
• ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION
  9. Make the paragraph the unit of composition: one paragraph to each topic
  10. As a rule, begin each paragraph with a topic sentence; end it in conformity with the beginning
      Again, the object is to aid the reader. The practice here recommended enables him to discover the purpose of each paragraph as he begins to read it, and to retain the purpose in mind as he ends it.
  11. Use the active voice
      The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative principally concerned with action, but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is, or could be heard.
      

      There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.	Dead leaves covered the ground.
      The sound of the falls could still be heard.	The sound of the falls still reached our ears.
      The reason that he left college was that his health became impaired.	Failing health compelled him to leave college.
      It was not long before he was very sorry that he had said what he had.	He soon repented his words.

  12. Put statements in positive form
      Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language.
  13. Omit needless words
      Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
  14. Avoid a succession of loose sentences
  15. Express co-ordinate ideas in similar form
      This principle, that of parallel construction, requires that expressions of similar content and function should be outwardly similar. The likeness of form enables the reader to recognize more readily the likeness of content and function.
  16. Keep related words together
  17. In summaries, keep to one tense
  18. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end

Lab exercise - suggestions for improvements in blog postings.

Searching:

How Search Engines Work, http://www.learnthenet.com/english/animate/search.html

10 Step Search Strategy

Lab Exercise - Required of all students.

Meeting the Challenge of Critically Evaluating Resources Found on the Internet, http://webliminal.com/khartman/educom98.html

Boolean Searching, http://exlibris.colgate.edu/web/finding/finding8.html

How to Choose a Search Engine or Directory, http://library.albany.edu/internet/choose.html

Tutorial: Tutorial – Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet http://www.brightplanet.com/deepcontent/tutorials/search/index.asp

New Report: Pew Internet & American Life Project: Search Engine Users, http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/146/report_display.asp

• Internet users are extremely positive about search engines and the experiences they have when searching the Internet

• But these same satisfied Internet users are generally unsophisticated about why and how they use search engines.

• They are also strikingly unaware of how search engines operate and how they present their results.

• Internet users behave conservatively as searchers: They tend to settle quickly on a single search engine and then stick with it, rather than switching as search technology evolves or comparing results from different search systems. Some 44% of searchers regularly use just one engine, and another 48% use just two or three.

• Nearly half of searchers use a search engines no more than a few times a week, and two-thirds say they could walk away from search engines without upsetting their lives very much.

• Internet users trust their favorite search engines, but few say they are aware of the financial incentives that affect how search engines perform and how they present their search results.

• Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or “sponsored” results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.

Read chapters 3 and 4 in the text.

.