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ENGW 3332: Writing Online

Week 3: Wrapping Up the Résumé Assignment

January 27, 2012 by Quinn Warnick

In class on Thursday we spent a bit more time talking about Twitter than I originally planned, so we’ll need to do some catching up during Week 3. I hope you learned something about Twitter and how we’ll be using it this semester, but if you’re feeling confused, I recommend reviewing the following sites:

We’ll check in on our Twitter adventures next Thursday, so try to do a bit of tweeting between now and then. If you tweet about something related to our class, remember to use the class hashtag: #engw3332

Our main focus during Week 3 will be finishing up the online résumé assignment, which is due at the beginning of class on Thursday. Here’s how we’ll get there:

Before you come to class on Tuesday, please read Hours 8 and 9 in the Sams book. In class, we will review those chapters and cover some of the unresolved questions and problems you mentioned at the end of yesterday’s class. As you complete your reading assignment, please apply the concepts from the book to your Unit #1 project files. By the time you come to class on Tuesday, you should have two completed HTML files and a CSS file that is starting to take shape.

On Thursday, the résumé assignment is due at the beginning of class. Please review the assignment details before you submit your project, and don’t forget the final piece of the assignment: a short memo explaining and justifying the choices you made as worked on your résumé. [UPDATE: The due date for the résumé assignment has been postponed until next Tuesday, February 7. However, Thursday will be dedicated to a "debugging" workshop, so you still need to come to class with finished versions of your project files.] If you’re wondering how to focus your energies during the coming week, here are a few tips to ensure your success on the résumé project:

  • Two of the most basic aspects of style sheets are color and typography, so I’ll be looking for evidence that you know how to go beyond the default colors and fonts imposed by your browser.
  • We haven’t spent much time on CSS positioning (we’ll get there soon!), so I don’t expect to see incredibly complex page layouts. Your résumé doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective.
  • Along the same lines, remember that you’re creating a professional résumé designed to be seen by potential employers. Yes, you should inject some of your personality into the design, but a résumé is not the best place to take big risks with an outlandish design.
  • This first assignment is designed, in part, to see how well you’ve been paying attention to the readings in our textbook. Your code should be clean and well organized, and your XHTML and CSS should validate.
  • The assignment sheet is very specific about what you should name your files and where they should be located. Please follow these directions to the letter.

I know you’ll be finishing up your résumés, so we won’t have a reading assignment for Thursday. After you submit your résumé projects at the beginning of class, I will introduce our next assignment (the Print-to-Web Conversion Project), and we will talk about the basics of content management systems. [UPDATE: We will postpone these plans until next Tuesday.]

Last but not least, I hope that all of you are keeping pace with the tutorials in the textbook. If you’re falling behind, please take some time this weekend to catch up. If you’ve put in the time with the exercises in the book and you’re still feeling lost, please come see me during office hours (Monday 9-12 or Wednesday 1-4) or email me to set up an appointment at another time.

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