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(Worth 10% of your grade; due on February 19)
When you are learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and file management on the web, it helps if you have a “real” project to work on, not just a simulation that only your professor will see. For your first assignment, you will create a simple, two-page website for your newly registered domain. The first page will serve as an “online business card” that will introduce yourself to your site’s visitors; the second page will be an HTML version your résumé. You will use basic CSS to style your pages, and you should inclue at least one image on your site. You will also write a brief memo reflecting on your experiences completing this project.
Important Note: This site is not your electronic portfolio. If you are an English major, you will take English 4864 to develop your ePortfolio, and that course has its own requirements and learning objectives.
The first component of this assignment asks you to think about the initial impression you want to make when people visit your website. Your home page should be something that you continually update and maintain over the course of the semester as you learn more about HTML, but right now you only need to think of your home page as an electronic “business card” that will help people get a sense of who you are. You may want to include a picture of yourself, links to your social media profiles, or other information that you consider relevant to your professional online identity.
The résumé component of this assignment should be where you concentrate the lion’s share of your effort between now and the due date. While the style and format of your online version do not have to mirror the printed version, the content and architecture of this page should follow the “standard” expectations for information that most people have when they view someone’s résumé. The genre of the résumé has become fairly standardized over the past few decades, and when prospective employers view your site, they will expect to see certain information arranged in a logical order that allows them to quickly determine if your credentials and experience match their employment needs.
Remember: the purpose of a résumé is to get you a job interview. So, when designing your résumé, try to think like a business owner or human resources manager and come up with a list of information you would want to know about someone you’re about to hire. Making such a list falls under the category of “audience analysis,” a skill that all good professional writing students have been practicing in other courses.
As you work on this assignment, pay particularly close attention to the digital ethos you are creating when you place your finished résumé on the Web. Does the way you present yourself online make you appear like a credible, trustworthy person that someone would want to hire? For example, an email moniker such as “hokiestud@gmail.com” may be fine for interacting with your friends, but if you owned a business that grossed millions of dollars annually and that worked on accounts for Fortune 500 companies, would you hire someone whose email address was “hokiestud”? Probably not. So think long and hard about the image you’re projecting of yourself to those who visit your site.
After you have created your two HTML pages and an accompanying CSS file to style those pages, you will write a one-page (300-500 words) memo of transmittal that explains and justifies the choices you made as you worked on this assignment. For example, you may want to discuss your choice of font(s), colors, images, etc. Your memo should explain these choices in terms of the audience, context, and purpose of the assignment rather than relying on personal preferences (e.g., “I chose purple because it’s my favorite color.”). Your memo should also include the URL for your finished website. When your memo is complete, title it “Full Name Unit 1 Memo,” and upload it to your shared Google Drive folder. (Please be sure to convert your memo to Google Docs format so I can comment on it.) Your website should be live on the web and your memo uploaded before you come to class on February 19.
Your grade on this assignment will be determined by your performance on the following criteria: