Part One

Part Two

  • Forthcoming ...

Introduction

The Final Project for Web Authoring involves building a multi-page website devoted to a specific topic or purpose. You select the topic, but it must be approved by the instructor. There is a lot of material on the web, but there are also many gaps or absent perspectives. Your project should begin to fill one of those gaps or present a new perspective.

You'll work on the final project for about ten weeks of the semester, so it's more a semester project than a final one. Also, since you'll spend quite a bit of time on it, the project's topic should be something in which you have interest.

Note: You may produce a website to supplement research you've done in another class (e.g., producing an online version of a literature or science project). This will save time, since you'll revise and adapt work you've already done. If you want to do this, be sure to let the instructor know.

The Final Project develops in three stages. The first stage produces early draft pages: an online book review, a links sidebar to add to the book review page, and a visual page.

The second stage results in the Midterm Prototype, due around the eighth week of the semester. For the midterm, you'll revise your book review, links sidebar, and visual page; transform your bio page (that we start today) into a more formal "About" or Author's Page; develop a site navigation strategy and design; and add a front page (AKA home page, title page) that introduces visitors to your evolving website.

The final stage begins after the midterms and produces the Final Project proper, due about a week after the final class meeting. For the Final Project proper you'll fully revise the midterm and add an illustrated essay, a timeline, a glossary, and a few other supplementary pages. Emphasis will be placed especially on developing the visual aspect of your website.

To get a sense of what this work comes to, let's take a look at some Final Projects (FP) from previous semesters.

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Requirements

Pages of the final project should include:

  • Home page with title, site nav, and introductory text
  • Two text pages: (1) Review page with 9-item links sidebar and (2) second open-genre text page
  • Two different visual pages (e.g., portfolio gallery page and project photo-documentation page)
  • Two supplementary pages (each must be a different genre)
  • Feedback/User Survey Page and related Showform PHP Page (or equivalent)
  • Author page = an About page.

So ten different pages altogether, plus a main external CSS file and an IE CSS file.

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Getting Started: Choosing a Topic

Here are some very general types of project:

  • Portfolio/Professional Representation site
  • Project Documentation or Supplement site (art project, research project, living on nothing but fast food or food stamps project, etc.)
  • Web Comic site
  • Web Magazine site
  • Family (or Organization) History site
  • Location Inventory Project (site devoted to a particular place of interest)
  • The New Angle on an Old Idea Project
  • The Polemical Project (where you argue with other websites about a topic)
  • The Insider's View Project

Note: The Everything-in-One-Place Project is a BAD idea.

Here is another strong final project: The Decline of Railroading in America.

Remember, it's important that your final project does NOT cover something already covered (at least not in the same way, from the same perspective, for the same audience) or do something already well-done on the internet. If it's already there, it doesn't need to be there twice.

As you you think about your project, remember also that your idea should allow you to satisfy the page genre requirements.

Finally, all project ideas need to the instructor's approval.

And with that said, here are some projects or topics to avoid:

  • Cars
  • Sports Teams
  • Places to eat / do things / get your hair cut / etc. in New Brunswick
  • Things to do in New Brunswick, or New York City (etc.) – but a highly focused version of this topic, especially for a neglected hobby or activity, might work fine.
  • Unfocused personal sites ("All about me!")
  • Any site that does what another site already does
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Saving Your Project

Save early drafts in your "drafts" folder. Save and submit the Midterm pages in a "mid" folder inside your "425" folder on Eden. Save the final version of the Final Project in a "final" folder inside your "425" folder on Eden.

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Submitting Your Work

Special instructions for submitting each stage of the project (when, where, and in what format[s]) will be specified. These instructions will be included on the main class schedule and in updates to this page. They will also be mentioned in class.

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~ Jonathan Bass