technology autobiography peer commentary
multimedia authoring: exploring the new rhetorics
engl 355 fall 2007
You will be assigned to read a minimum of two Technology Autobiographies written by your classmates. After reading them, you will send commentary to the author and to me. This means you must make sure you have the following: the web address (URL) of the TAs you must read, the email address of the author, and my email address (ericsson@wsu.edu).Make sure to send the comments to both the author and to me, since I’ll be recording whether or not you’ve reviewed those assigned to you for comment. Your comments should provide helpful critique for the author based on the following criteria. You must write comments on each of the following. Just a "yes" or "no" is not adequate. At least a sentence or two on each point--and more if needed--is expected. The goal is to provide the author with feedback on these required elements that s/he can use to revise the TA.
- The TA is focused on one brief event.
- It tells the story (in words, sounds, graphics or a combination of media) of one technologically significant event in which the importance of the technology in the author’s life is evident.
- It is obviously geared to an audience consisting of people in this class.
- It is correctly coded and appears attractively when displayed in a browser.
- If words are used, the TA is grammatically and mechanically correct; if presented in other than words, the media implemented is effective.
- It has a background color.
- It has enough content to convey the TA's purpose.
- It has links to at least two outside sites which clearly enhance the content of the TA.
- It uses the rhetorical strategies that have been discussed in class including attention to links, typography, punctuation, and other elements that have been discussed in class.
After commenting on the criteria above, you must also give the author suggestions on how to improve the TA if s/he decides to revise it for the WebFolio final project. In order to write these suggestions, consider the following questions. Could the story itself be more interesting, more complete, more detailed, more focused? What additional links might make it better? What other elements that you know can be coded into a web page (like pictures, sound, etc.) might improve the TA?
Once you have written comments on the TA, you must send them back to the author and to the teacher (ericsson@wsu.edu). Since the teacher failed to get this information online over the weekend, today's class (Oct. 3) will be used for TA commentary. All commentary is due at the end of today's class.