TW104: Technical Documentation with XHTML and CSS
Schedule Page

Although most of the links have been removed, the following course schedule gives you an idea of what we'll cover in this course. (Remember that this is an 8-week course.) When you are ready, return to the Brooklyn College Technical Writing Certificate Program course listing.

This is your main working page for TW104: Technical Documentation with XHTML and CSS in Brooklyn College's Technical Writing Certificate program. Use this page to find out what to name your files, see when projects are due, go to the online textbook and resources for this course. See the syllabus links following the schedule for information about objectives, required and recommended books, grades, and other resources. (Exact units and sequence of units may vary slightly from instructor to instructor and semester to semester.)

On all quizzes, please select Brooklyn College as instructor.

This course starts mmddyy. Your instructor is instructor_name at instructor_email.

Click the units you've completed and then press Send at the top or bottom of this page. Remember that this tracking chart is for your convenience; the instructor uses other information to determine whether you've done adequate study to pass this course. If you mistakenly mark a unit as completed, contact your instructor (or just wait until you've actually completed it.)

Check Project (Use these links to see project details.) Due date File names/comments Completed
Background on HTML and XHTML. Read from as many sources on HTML and XHTML as you have time for, that you can get access to, and that add to your understanding of XHTML requirements. Be able to explain the problems with HTML that necessitated XHTML and how XHTML and CSS enable a separation of content and presentation of content.
mmddyy
 When you've done enough reading on these topics, go to the next unit.
Web-site setup. Find yourself a free web-hosting service (or use your current ISP) and post your HTML tutorials and projects there.
mmddyy
 Send the URL for your website to your Brooklyn College.
XHTML practice—part 1. The following activities have you create essential elements using HTML and XHTML tags. Tutorials are not included—it's your job to use your resources to learn how to do the tasks requested (or contact your instructor if you get stuck).
  1. Simple web-page practice
  2. Hypertext-links practice
  3. HTML-spacing practice
  4. Headings practice
  5. HTML fonts & colors practice
  6. Web graphics practice
mmddyy
 At the end of each of these exercises, send the URL for the exercise by e-mail to your instructor.
Project 1: Webpage-modeling project. Reformat plain text to create a web page to look exactly like model page provided by your instructor.
mmddyy
 Post this project to your website and send e-mail to your instructor with the URL.
Page design: review. Review page design for the standard design guidelines for headings, lists, notices, tables, figures, cross-references, and highlighting. (This is a quick review of material covered in depth in TW101: Technical Writing: Fundamentals. You can still access all the same study materials.)
mmddyy
 Take the quiz at the end of this unit; be sure and select Brooklyn College as instructor.
XHTML practice—part 2. The following activities have you create essential elements using HTML and XHTML tags. Tutorials are not included—it's your job to use your resources to learn how to do the tasks requested (or contact your instructor if you get stuck).
  1. Tables practice
  2. Frames practice
  3. Web-editing tools practice
  4. Web-forms practice
mmddyy
 At the end of each of these exercises, send the URL for the exercise by e-mail to your instructor.
Project 2: XHTML: Revising legacy HTML. Revise a several-page HTML document that breaks all the XHTML rules. Nuff said.
mmddyy
 Post this project to your website and send e-mail to your instructor with the URL.
CSS: An overview of concepts and terminology. Do introductory readings from as many of the sources listed in the resource page as you have time for or can get your hands on. Be able to explain essential CSS terms such as the "cascading" idea of style sheets, style sheets, selector, classes, ID selectors, pseudo-classes, elements, pseudo-elements, inheritance, block elements, inline elements, floated elements, CSS1, and CSS2.
mmddyy
 When you've done enough reading on these topics, go to the next unit.
CSS practice. The following activities have you create essential elements using CSS tags. Tutorials are not included—it's your job to use your resources to learn how to do the tasks requested (or contact your instructor if you get stuck).
  1. Font family, color, face, and size
  2. Margins, alignment, and spacing
  3. Lists
  4. Tables
  5. Borders and positioning
mmddyy
 At the end of each of these exercises, send the URL for the exercise by e-mail to your instructor.
Project 3: CSS modeling. Take what you know so far about CSS and, using a PDF model, recreate the original web page on which the PDF is based using XHTML and CSS tags.
mmddyy
 Post this project to your website and send e-mail to your instructor with the URL.
Project 4: Website formatting project. Use what you've learned about creating web pages with XHTML and CSS so far to create a several-page website. Format several pages of plain text by adding XHTML tags and including graphics.
mmddyy
 Post this project to your website and send e-mail to your instructor with the URL.
SVG introduction and Project 5. Use the resource page to get an introduction to SVG. Learn simple SVG drawing techniques and then use the project page for the simple SVG project to create simple shapes with SVG.
mmddyy
 Post this project to your website and send e-mail to your instructor with the URL.
Project 6: Final project. For the final project in this course, you can do one of the following:
  • Design a set of web pages using XHTML and CSS and based on a PDF model of the final results.
  • Redesign and enhance an existing set of legacy HTML pages.
  • Create a set of web pages all on your own using XHTML and CSS.
mmddyy
 Post this project to your website and send e-mail to your instructor with the URL.

Note: All work in this course must be complete no later than mmddyy.

Syllabus

Objectives

Textbooks

There are no required texts for this course. Enough material is available on the Web that you might be able to get by without making any book purchases at all. XHTML resources provides some suggestions.

Resources

Grades

Contact your instructor concerning credit for projects you have completed but are still not approved by the time the course is over.

Course Evaluation

Use the course evaluation form to give your opinions on the effectiveness of the study materials and organization of this course. (This evaluation is strictly optional, strictly voluntary.)

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