Author Archives: Amy G.

WEB RESOURCES – Visual Representation of the Writing Process

(Originally posted on the blog for my section of WRTG 3035: Technical Communication and Design.) I just came across yet another infographic that’s relevant to our class. This one uses …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Confidence, Confessions, and Coming Out

A Fall 2012 student made this comic to illustrate a personal experience she had with someone who revealed his sexual orientation to the student group she participated in. Click each …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Rhetorical Analyses of Pop Culture Artifacts (by Whitney)

NOTE: Whitney originally posted these artifact analyses on the Fall 2013 class blog for WRTG 3020, based the category of the artifact. That’s why her project doesn’t have a single …

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TEACHING TIPS – A few rhetorical considerations for posting course materials online

In this post, I offer a few suggestions to help you apply rhetorical principles to the design of online course materials, whether you use D2L or an external web site. …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Stranger in My Skin

    Audio essay by Danielle (WRTG 3020 – Fall 2011) Rhetorical Rational: Target Audience: My target audience is my friends, who have helped me through many hard times in …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – My Gender Puzzle

Personal Narrative by Tori (WRTG 3020 – Fall 2011) For Tori’s discussion of the rhetorical context, view her entry on the class blog.

GUIDE – Strategies for improving the structure of your papers

Try the following strategies to help you improve the structure for your papers or other types of writing. NEW: See these tips in presentation format on this post: General Tips …

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WEB RESOURCES – Bill Cope on digital literay and the changing dynamics of learning

Some of you may already be familiar with the work of Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis with regard to multiliteracies and the changing nature of teaching and learning. (See their …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Students' Guide to Engineering at CU Boulder

Orientation Video by Matt and team (WRTG 3035 – Spring 2011) For their final project in WRTG 3035: Technical Communication and Design, these students had a great time making this …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Students' Guide to Engineering at CU Boulder

Orientation Video by Matt and team (WRTG 3035 – Spring 2011) For their final project in WRTG 3035: Technical Communication and Design, these students had a great time making this …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Trail Etiquette

Promotional Video by Joey (WRTG 2090 – Spring 2010) Joey was commissioned by the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance to make this video, which he produced as a project for WRTG …

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ASSIGNMENT – Instructions Project for Technical Communication Students

This is an archived version of an Instructions Project assignment I used for WRTG 3035 in Fall 2011. To view their final projects, browse the Final Instructions Projects category on …

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GUIDE – Recording What Appears on Your Screen (Making a Screencast)

WHAT IS A SCREEN RECORDING? When you want to record something that appears on your computer screen, you can do that with screen recording tools that work like the video …

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HOW TO – Create a Google Account

To access Google Docs, you will need a Google Account. Once you set that up, you can use it to access any of Google’s long list of free products, and …

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HOW TO – Format comments on a blog post

FORMATTING TEXT IN COMMENT BOXES When you comment on a blog post, you’ll notice that you don’t have a formatting toolbar like you do when you create a new blog …

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HOW TO – Annotate PDFs on a Mac

Being able to highlight passages and put notes on a PDF file is extremely useful, particularly for students who don’t want to have to print out lots of documents but …

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HOW TO – Annotate PDFs on Windows

Being able to put highlight passages in and put notes on a PDF file is extremely useful, particularly for students who don’t want to have to print out lots of …

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HOW TO – Password protect a blog post

If you want to restrict a blog post to only those who have a password, follow these steps: (1) On the post editing page, look in the Publish box in …

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WEB HOSTS for Publishing Your Videos

OVERVIEW To embed a video or audiovisual essay you created into a blog post, you will need to upload it to a free video hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo …

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STUDENT SAMPLE – Queer Slash Resources

Project by Emily (LGBT 2000 – Spring 2011) Emily used Tumblr to build this educational resource on Queer Slash Fiction.

GUIDE – Composing a Blog Header for the Rhetoric of Gender & Sexuality

NOTE TO WRTG 3020 STUDENTS: Follow the steps below first, to learn about appropriate content for your header. Then follow the instructions on: HOW TO – Create a Header Image …

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ASSIGNMENT – Edit an existing wikiHow article

This is an archived version of an assignment I used in WRTG 2090 that asked students to edit an existing article on wikiHow.com, as part of the process of becoming …

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BLOG EDITORS – How to add, edit, and re-order pages

NOTE: I wrote this page for my WRTG 3020 students, who have the option to customize a blog as part of one of their projects. The layout of the study …

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HOW TO – Tutorials on Windows Live Movie Maker 2 for Windows 7

I don’t have easy access to a computer with Windows 7 and screencasting software, but thankfully lots of tutorials are available online. The 7Tutorials.com site has many useful handouts, including …

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BLOG EDITORS – How to manage links in the sidebar

This screencast provides a short overview of how to manage links in the sidebar of a WordPress blog. FOR STUDY GUIDES As I noted in the first Study Guide Blog …

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BLOG EDITORS – How to customize the sidebar

You’ll need to decide what elements to include on your study guide sidebar and how to customize them, if needed. At a minimum, you should probably use the following widgets, …

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BLOG EDITORS – How to create and modify categories

As you already know, blog posts should be assigned to categories, typically only one category per post (although you might see a reason for using more than one category in …

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TEACHING TIPS – Helping students explore digital literacy

To get students talking about digital literacy, you might assign one or both of these Frontline videos: Growing Up Online and Digital Nation.

HOW TO – Make an audio recording in QuickTime X Player

This screencast shows you how to make a simple audio recording using QuickTime X Player for Mac, which comes with Macs running 10.6 or 10.7. Older versions of the free …

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HOW TO – Make a video blog entry with MovieMaker or iMovie

See: Recording into iMovie or Recording into Windows MovieMaker

GUIDE – Recommended Web Browsers & Add Ons

Free Web Browsers It’s always a good idea to have more than one web browser on your computer, so that when something doesn’t work in one, you can try it …

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HOW TO – Troubleshoot Problems Viewing Content on the Web

If you have any trouble with the media content on the class web site or class blog, or if either site doesn’t look on your screen the way it looks …

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How to create a post that "sticks" to the front page of the blog

To make a post “stick” to the top of your most recent blog entries page, even after you’ve posted newer entries, make it “sticky.” (This option is only available on …

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BLOG EDITORS – How to upload a new header for your blog

Also see:

BLOG EDITORS – How to customize the sidebar of a blog

This screencast gives you a brief overview of how to customize the sidebar on your study guide blog (applicable only to WRTG 3020 students). WRTG 3020: Study Guide Blog: Sidebars …

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BLOG EDITORS – How to choose a new theme for a blog

Short overview of choosing a theme for your study guide blog. (Mainly for WRTG 3020 students.) Study Guide: Choosing Themes

HOW TO – Create a Header Image for a Blog or Web Site

NOTE TO WRTG 3020 STUDENTS: To learn about appropriate content for your blog header, read this guide first: Composing a Blog Header for the Rhetoric of Gender & Sexuality. Then …

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HOW TO – Save a Google Docs document

You might need to save a copy of a Google Docs document for several reasons. One common reason is to save a draft that has your peer review comments on …

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HOW TO – Keep track of files on Google Docs

Having trouble keeping track of certain files on the “new and improved” Google Docs? You can always search for files by name using the “Search Docs” bar at the top …

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HOW TO – Find your own files on Google Drive

To find your own files on Google Docs, including those you’ve shared in specific collections as well as those you haven’t shared with anyone, follow these steps: (1) Click on …

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