Fall 2012

ETEXTAUTHORING

This course will teach skills for developing etexts for tablet computers and e-readers.

NMAC Special Topics

eText Authoring

MW 3:30p-4:50p | H/SS-124 | Dr. Gerald Lucas | litmuse.net

This course will increase students understanding of composing for the screen, in general, and eText authoring production using various software applications, specically. This section of NMAC 3999 Special Topics will focus on writing for the screen of mobile devices. EText Authoring addresses the theory and practice of writing and publishing electronic texts for digital devices. This class examines how to compose for the screen, considers the challenges of this new medium, and teaches the best approaches for delivering content using authoring software. It is strongly recommended that you have completed NMAC 3108 Writing for Digital Media before attempting to take this course. Many of the foundational skills necessary for this course will have been learned in NMAC 3108.

Required Texts

Carroll, Brian. Writing for Digital Media. Routledge 2010. (print) McKesson, Nellie and Adam Witwer. Publishing with iBooks Author. OReilly 2012. (etext) The Carroll text may be purchased from the bookstore, or both are linked off of the course website for your convenience. Please do not come to class without your book: we need it for class activities, in-class writing, and all aspects of our study. If you do not have your texts in-class, you will be counted absent.

Recommended

A Grammar/Style Book College Dictionary Flash Drive

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ETEXTAUTHORING Fall 2012

Course Details
Supplementary Documents
At several points throughout the semester, your read- nificant than the invention of writing or ing assignments will entail essays that are not in the even of printing. above texts. These additional readings will be made Douglas Engelbart available to you as PDFs or links. You will need to download them, print them, and bring them to class with you on the day we are covering them in class. Failure to do so will earn you anabsence.

The digital revolution is far more sig-

Pen and Paper

your professional self. Work should be proofread, You should also bring an ink interface of some sort, rhetorically appropriate, and illustrate your very best writing and understanding of the course material. as well as dead trees on which to take notes. Notes should not only reect good listening skills, but indi- Any assignment is not worth doing if if its not going to represent your best work. No late submissions vidual interest in every topic discussed in class. You should not sit in class like youre watching TV: learn- will be considered for a grade; technological glitches are unacceptable excuses for late assignments. ing requiresactive participation.

Devices, Etc.

The classroom experience is a vital part of college education. Interaction with instructors and other students is an important element of the learning process. Students are expected to attend all class sessions. Students whose number of absences is more than twice the number of class meetings per week may be assigned a failing grade for the course at the discretion of the instructor. Students who have more absences than the number of class meetings per week but less than twice the number of class Assignments Your work represents you. Therefore, I expect every- meetings per week may be penalized at the discrething you turn into me to exemplify the very best of tion of the instructor. Materials, like cell phones, food, magazines, iPods, etc., should be left in your car. They are not needed for our class and should, therefore, not accompany you. Anything that has the potential to distract you or the class, should not be in class. If I ask you to put away a device, I expect you not to use it and to not bring it to subsequent class meetings. This goes for laptops, too.

Attendance

Touch We are becoming increasingly intimate with our technologies, so we are beginning to demand that they become transparent extensions of ourselves.

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Conduct

As a Macon State College student and as a student in this class, it is your responsibility to read, to understand, and to abide by the MSC Student Code of Conduct from the MSC Student Handbook, available online.

Grades
A=90%-100% of total points; B=80%-89%; C=70%-79%; D=60%-69%; F=below 60%.
Heres how you can excel in this course: avoid excessive absences; view all videos; read all assigned readings; take thorough notes on lectures and readings; complete all assignments on-time and to the best of your ability; demonstrate a thoughtful and critical engagement of the course material.

Please note: I do not discuss grades via any electronic medium; if you have questions about an evaluation, you must see me during my office hours. You will receive your final grade in this course only through BannerWeb.

Plagiarism

Willful plagiarism will result in automatic failure of this class and will be pursued to incite the utmost penalty for such dishonesty. Academic falsehood, in any form, will constitute class failure. The professor reserves the right to use the plagiarism

detection service Turn It In at his discretion.

Special Needs

Students seeking academic accommodations for a special need must contact the MSC Counseling and Disability Services

(478-471-2985) located on the rst oor of the Math Building (formerly Learning Support), Room 110 on the Macon Campus. I cannot accommodate needs requests without the proper documentation.

Projects
EText Authoring will consist of one major project that will be the culmination of various smaller assignments completed throughout the semester. All assignments must be completed satisfactorily and on-time for you to pass the course. They are briey outlined here and will be explained in more detail on subsequent handouts and in class.

combination is not the only way to produce etexts, it is arguably the most popular and easiest. While the course will teach iBooks Author, we will try to keep our concepts general enough to apply to any authoring software. It will be like learning Microsoft Word: it not only teaches you that specic program, but also allows you to learn general concepts that can be applied to any word processor.

The Chapter

Daily Work

Your nal project for the course will be the completion of a unied, fully functional chapter for an ebook. It will include various multimedia objects and represent (1) a completed chapter of a larger work, and (2) a strong interactive text designed for a mobile device. Specic details will follow. To complete this project, you will be working with Apples iBooks Author and the iPad. While this software/hardware

The Chapter project will be composed of smaller assignments that well call daily work. These will essentially address two skills: rhetoric and technology. Rhetoric has to do with composition: the arrangement of textual elements for optimum effect. This has to do with writing, choosing images, constructing presentation, and the like. Technology address just that: how to use the digital tools to achieve what your attempting to do rhetorically.

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Tentative Course Overview

W1: 8/20 & 8/22 W2: 8/27 & 8/29

Course Introduction & Overview Reading: Carroll, Chapter 1 (3-22); Writing Practice No class Monday (Labor Day); Reading: Carroll, Chapter 2 (23-54); Digital Writing Practice Reading: Carroll, Chapters 3-4 (55-96); Williams, Chapters 1-3 (11-48) Reading: Carroll, Chapters 5-6 (97-134); Williams, Chapters 4-6 (49-86) Reading: McKesson & Witwer, Preface and Chapter 1 Reading: McKesson & Witwer, Chapter 2 No class Wednesday (Dr. Lucas out of town)

W9: 10/15 & 10/17 W10: 10/22 & 10/24

Reading: McKesson & Witwer, Chapter 3 Reading: McKesson & Witwer, Chapter 4 Reading: McKesson & Witwer, Chapter 5

W3: 9/3 & 9/5

W11: 10/29 & 10/31

W4: 9/10 & 9/12

W12: 11/5 & 11/7

Reading: McKesson & Witwer, Chapter 6 No class this week for Thanksgiving Workshop Workshop Final Projects Due

W5: 9/17 & 9/19

W13: 11/19 & 11/21

W6: 9/24 & 9/26

W14: 11/26 & 11/28

W7: 10/1 & 10/3 W8: 10/8 & 10/10

W15: 12/3 & 12/5 Exam Week

Dr. Gerald Lucas

Web: http://litmuse.net/ Email: prof@litmuse.net AIM: drgrlucas
Ofce (H/SS-117) Hours: MW 1-3:30pm TR 1-2pm By Appointment

I try to make myself available to students as much as possible during the week. If you need to talk with me about any aspect of the course, please come by my ofce during the posted ofce hours above, so we can talk. This is what ofce hours are for. If you need to see me outside of my ofce hours, please email me with a couple of times you would be able to make it. I will do my best to accommodate you. You can always try to chat with me via AIM, too, if you have a quick question. Please note: I do not discuss grades via any electronic medium. If have a question concerning your grades, see me during my ofce hours. Finally, I make every effort to reply to email quickly. However, please note that I do not reply to emails on the weekends. Thanks for your understanding.

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