American Literature to 1900
Nation and Narration

Student Web Pages

Location: [Reed College] [Department of English] [Laura Arnold] [Nation and Narration]

To Make a Great Web Page You Should Keep In Mind the Following:

Text:

• Break the text down into digestible sections
  
• Make the Text Crisp and short
  
• Be thought Provoking
  
• Organize it around a theme
  
• Have relevant pictures for each section
  
• Spell and grammar check
  
• Have a Personal Tone
  

Spacing and Sizing:

• Text Should be well spaced, not cramped
• Make Titles an adequate size of titles
• Use left-aligned or justified paragraphs

Links:

• Connect with valuable hotlinks only
• Make links visible and describe their destination
• Begin the page with an outline that links to other sections of the text (see the Hum 110Tech pages for examples of this)
• Make sure that at the end of a secondary page you have a link back to the main page
• Use embedded notes to clarify meaning
• Make pictures links
• The pictures should make you think about the visual dynamic of the text
• Make links to other students web pages in the course. (We can give standard names to your pages so this is possible: name your page YOURNAMEfinal.html)
• Give email address at the end

Introduction:

• Indicate something about the author
• Give Context and Methodology
• Be Catchy
• Clearly state the mission or titles to pages
• Use a table of contents that outlines the rest of your text

Lay-out:

• Don't put "ugly black lines" around the opening
• Make sure the page dimensions fit within normal frame (to prevent having to scroll to right)
• Use Textured and Colored Backgrounds (but make sure background isn't distracting)
• Vary the size of fonts
• Keep ornamentation to a minimum.

General:

• Insure quick down load (put pictures farther down so they don't interfere with the text)
• Comparative pictures help Humor is appreciated

Things that Detract from a Web Page:

1. Pictures not well placed
2. Good spacing

3. Not enough illustrations to make it different from a regular essay
4. Black background
5. No title or pictures

Organization:

1. Page isn't contextualized
2. Difficult to even ascertain what the focus of the paper
3. Not organized around a central theme.