Welcome to our class!
I appreciate your interest in "Document Design" at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Please e-mail me if you have any questions or comments after reading over the following. Though you should read straight through the first time, the links below will enable you to skip down to specific sections. From the last page, you will also be able to follow a link to the day-by-day syllabus. As the semester continues, more information will be available from linked words in the text itself.
Best wishes,
Craig Stroupe
Office hours MW 10:45 a.m. - noon or by appointment
Humanities 424 (inside H 420)
726-6249
Purpose | Expectations | Resources Needed and Grades
Purpose
This class is intended to provide you with opportunities to explore the creative, rhetorical, technical and social possibilities of designing documents. These opportunities will take the form of four writing/design projects--each of which will include the project itself and a two-page commentary paper--as well as readings, collaborative workshops, peer critiques, etc. During this class you will gain experience and knowledge in the following:
- applying principles of rhetoric and design to your work, including the layout of pages and the combination of visual and verbal elements;
- conceiving and carrying out writing/design projects that make connections across social and geographical distances;
- participating in and contributing to a community of writer/designers;
- understanding your customary approach to creating documents in the context of the history of writing/design;
- developing successful working relationships with clients and support teams, which are especially necessary in the creation of documents for institutions, businesses, and civic organizations;
- using a variety of software to create documents both for print and delivery via the Internet.
Though you will have access to some powerful computer applications to
assist you in these projects, this is not a class primarily in the techniques
of particular software, no more than other classes in the composition
department teach typing or word-processing. You will be allowed to work
with whatever software you choose although you will be responsible for
whatever limitations you may impose on yourself by choosing inappropriate
software, or by not taking advantage of the necessary functions and features.
You will, however, have the means to draw on the expertise (and patience!)
of your classmates in workshops, in support teams, and via a class alias
(listserv), which will enable all of us to share ideas, techniques and
tips anytime and anywhere.
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Send E-mail to Craig Stroupe