Feature Page Assignment

Description / Page Requirements / Further Requirements / Using Images

Description

Go in depth to uncover something fresh in your topic area — something your audience would find especially compelling, something they'd recommend to other people. That's our goal in this assignment: exploit the research you've done for the Links page to find an aspect of your topic not covered well in other sites.

In the bigger picture, this article should also help you refine your overall project idea. Often what happens is that the concept you develop for this article ends up being the concept for your whole site. Think about it: your whole site will be about the length of a 15-20 page term paper, so if you want to go into depth about anything, you'll need more than just this 1600-word article. But this article, at least after a revision or two, should be the can't-miss spot, the page other sites recommend about your site.

To do well on this assignment, you'll need to

create an original, well-researched angle — contrast your article against what others have said, contextualize it within others' ideas, uncover new terrain — so you can play the local expert and help your users make a discovery
do research beyond the Web: print sources, interviews, your own investigating, etc.
avoid reiterating common knowledge: once you've got an idea for your essay, give it the 60-second Google test. If you can find something similar to your idea, then reshape it — what isn't out there yet that your users should know about?
use CSS, links, headings, colors, lists, inset tables, and images to enhance your writing (but don't create graphics that distract from your prose), as detailed below.

Requirements

For the first draft of your page please do the following:

Use at least 2 main offline sources (book or article), 4 (non-decorative) images, 3 links, and essay of 1600 words
Be sure to quote from your sources and to use MLA style in-text citation
Work on chunking your text, using white space, and fullfilling the further reqs below
Reduce the initial size (wordcount) of your essay by at least 20%
Try to eliminate all instances of "there is" and "there are" from your text (except, of course, quoted text)
Save your draft as "feature.htm" to your "mid" folder — and save its external style sheet there too, plus store all images in the "img" folder inside your "mid" folder
Cite your sources (including image sources) using MLA style in a Works Cited section at the bottom of your article (or on a linked Works Cited page).

Further Requirements

Once you've drafted your essay, use your HTML4 and CSS skills to construct your page - and practice the following:

Design so as to spotlight your writing - that is, use images and subheads to draw attention to body text
Divide your article into several logical and well-labeled sections
Include a subnav, perhaps as part of your intro, so users can access your article's sections
Include occasional links to background info
Float images left and/or right
Include the (possisbly revised) banner from your Links Page
Chunk your text
Use contrasting styles for subheads or highlighted materials and body text
Use at least one list (<ul> or <ol>)
Include some sort of "Further Info" section, probably at the end
Keep text columns no wider than 600px
Include plentiful blank space
Use a pull quote or two, or an inset table, or something similar, in addition to images
Include a link to your Links Page and dummy nav links to somne other (future) pages
Cite any phrases, images, or ideas you borrow from another source (no plagiarism)

Notes on Using Images

Each image should have a caption identifying/describing the image and identifying the source of the image (if you are not its creator).

Identify the image source by its author's name (author of the book, article, or website from where you acquired the image). For online sources of your image, let the identifying name double as a link to the source.

In terms of CSS, you might want to create standard "left" and "right" classes of div for the two most common image positions. Include both the image and the caption inside these divs. Set the float directions for each div and use margins or padding to put space between the image and surrounding text.

For an example of good image formatting with CSS see this example.

Small images: Unless it is essential to your page design, you should not center small images on your page.

Large images: If you need your user to view a very large image, put the image on a second page and create a link to it on your feature page.

Keep data size of the images on your feature page relatively small; preferably under 100 KB. If necessary, resave them at a smaller data size.

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~Jonathan Bass