Engl507

Log 7: Snapshot of Your Web-Ready Essay

For this seminar, I am asking you to submit your final essay in web-ready form. To do so, you're welcome to use one of the following: GitHub Pages [HTML], WordPress, Scrollkit, Scalar, or our private GitHub repo [Markdown]. Or you can use some other approach. Your choice. Pick what you think is best for your writing style and the argument you want to make.

The point of producing a web-ready essay for 507 is to get you thinking about what (if anything) digital scholarly communication affords that print scholarly communication may not. That said, my advice is to keep things simple. No need to overdo it, and (where possible) avoid diving into something that's completely new to you. More importantly, don't get so preoccupied with whiz bang that you forget about content. In the last instance, make sure the writing's top drawer.

You might also note that not all approaches to digital scholarly communication are identical. For instance, peruse the following, and you'll quickly get a sense of how the essay form can change from one online venue or journal to the next:

• Vectors
• Debates in the Digital Humanities
• A Companion to Digital Humanities
• The Fibreculture Journal
• Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology
• Push: Research and Applied Theory in Writing with Source
• Iowa Review Web
• In Media Res
• CTheory
• D-Lib
• Electronic Book Review
• Games Studies
• Journal of Electronic Publishing
• Digital Humanities Quarterly
• Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy
• Journal of Digital Humanities
• e-Media Studies
• Computational Culture
• Technoculture
• English Language Notes
• Enculturation
• The New Inquiry
• Triple Canopy
• Arcade
• Cabinet
• Crooked Timber

After you've given each of the above a cursory look, please submit the following as part of this log entry:

• Either a link to or a few screen grabs of your web-ready essay as it currently stands (here, you don't need a lot of content; somewhere between an abstract and a few paragraphs is perfectly fine; you can also use lorem ipsum to give you a sense of what text might look like when using a given environment/design),
• Given what you've done thus far, any concerns you have about composing and designing a scholarly essay for the web (e.g., concerns about navigation, adding notes, searching, style, scrolling, format, links, bounce rate, dynamic media, visualizations, discoverability, or metadata),
• A statement on the discoverability of your 507 essay (whether it will be open access, behind a wall, published but not discoverable, or the like),
• A statement on what, aside from your essay, you plan to render discoverable (e.g., your data, metadata, code, media, or nothing),
• A statement on how you plan (if at all) to backup and maintain your essay (e.g., via GitHub, SourceForge, or the Internet Archive), including the moderation of comments (if applicable), and
• A statement on what online journals or venues are influencing your approach to the web-based essay across its design and content (here, please also mention to what journal you would/might ultimately submit your essay, regardless of whether it's online, print, or hybrid).

Please note: you are in no way required to publish your essay online or make it publicly available. You are also not expected to spend a significant amount of time on design, markup, or programming. Again, keep it simple and within reach, and do not let whiz bang eclipse content.

Get in touch with questions or concerns. I am happy to help. Thanks!