MCLS 60009, Fall Semester 2006: Documents in Multilingual Contexts
Version: 2005-09-01
Class Time and Place:
M, 7:15 - 9:55, Satterfield 316 (Section No. 002, Call No. ??)
H, 4:30 - 6:10, Satterfield 316 (Section No. 001, Call No. 18970)
Instructor: Jill R. Sommer
Office: Satterfield 306-E Tel: 330-672-2438 Home Tel.: 440-519-0161
E-mail: bonnjill@adelphia.net jsommer1@kent.edu (Warning: I do not check this address every day!)
Visiting Lecturers: To be announced
Office Hours: M: 6:00-7:00; H 6:30-7:30
Or by appointment; note that the 7:00-7:30 Monday and 4:00 to 4:30 Thursday time slots are NOT reserved for office hours. These times are needed for class preparation and setup.
Lab Troubleshooting: By appointment
Prerequisite: Graduate standing
Preliminary Handout: Class Description and detailed syllabus
Note: The syllabus is subject to ongoing modification. Changes will be posted on a regular basis to the course site, as will PowerPoint™ presentations. It is the responsibility of students to check the site on a regular basis to keep abreast of changes. All students are cordially invited to attend any special sessions that are planned for the Monday night class, with the understanding that regular Monday night students have priority to computers on those evenings. The concept of ever-changing timelines and responsibilities mirrors the real world environment that this course is designed to reflect.
Table of Contents
Course description
Determination of Final Course Grade
Detailed Class Schedule
1. Course description
Documents in Multilingual Contexts provides an in-depth study of the role of documents in the multilingual information cycle as manifested in word-processing, desktop publishing, and Web-based environments. This course will involve detailed examination of LAN and operating system (Windows XPTM) functions, basic and advanced features of Microsoft Office XP 2003TM, and HTML/XHTML for multilingual environments, including an introduction to webpage design using programs such as HomesiteTM, FrontpageTM, etc.
2. Textbooks and supplemental materials
Griffin, Jeffrey; Morales, Carlos; Finnegan, John. 2003. Web Design and Development Using XHTML. Wilsonville OR Franklin Beedle & Associates (GCF). Amazon.com has several used copies available. You can also find used copies through Fetchbook (www.fetchbook.info).
Students are encouraged to examine guides of their own choice based on sample texts discussed in class. It is anticipated that different students will have different needs and preferences.
3. Examinations, papers and reports
Students will be asked to submit by email some assignments in parallel with other courses, notably from Research and Writing and from the Translation Practice course. The purpose of this activity is to check mastery of MS WordTM functions. Students will also collect HTML and XHTML resources from the Web.
There will be some short samples involving special word-processing and XHTML features, such as tables, etc.
Preparation of a personal web page.
Final exam.
4. Determination of Final Course Grade
Student activity % of Grade
1. Class participation, including evaluation of in-class exercises 30%
2. Evaluation of word-processing documents 15%
3. Web pages 40%
4. Final exam 15%
Curriculum Sequence
This class is the first in a four-class sequence dealing with computational environments in the language industry. These courses include:
Documents in Multilingual Contexts
Terminology and Computer Applications for Translators
Localization
Project Management
Class participation
Documents in Multilingual Contexts will involve considerable hands-on practice with various applications. There will group activities to perform, and documents or short document segments to email to the instructor or possibly to upload via ftp. Some of these activities will be included in the participation grade. The mastery of electronic communications (skill in using email functions, file transfer, etc) will also play a role in determining a portion of the participation grade. Class attendance is essential because it will be difficult to make up for missed in-class activities.
It is anticipated that students will use their terminals to work on class activities during class and that they will check Internet resources in conjunction with these activities. Working on other projects or doing non-related email during class, for instance, is counter-productive and can seriously jeopardize the participation grade.
Word-processing Activities
Students will be required to submit specified exercises prepared for their other classes (Research and Writing, Translation Practice, etc.) by email file attachment for evaluation with respect to word-processing features. In some cases, special instructions will be given on file layouts or they will be requested to revise files in exercises designed to show mastery of specific word-processing skills, such as tables, the inclusion of images, etc. Students not registered for these classes should contact the instructor in order to arrange for parallel activities.
Multilingual Web Document Design
Students will be introduced to current principles of well-formed XHTML, with an eye to instructing them in well-formedness with respect to content management processes. They will be instructed in the use of cascading style sheets for XHTML pages. XHTML training will be approached from the philosophy of best markup practices, and students will be familiarized with the concept of content and markup as components of globalization and localization environments. Focus on the information management cycle and the evolving document and content production chain will prepare the students for later expansion on these concerns in the Localization and Project Management courses.
Students will prepare a multi-part web page that will be included in or linked to the IAL pages. Typically, pages consist of a number of components, some of them in more than one language, such as:
An introductory page of some sort
A resume
A page with translation or other samples
A content page documenting special resources useful to translators or representing a special research interest of the student
Possibly a response form or the like
The class will focus on the hardcoding of pages using MS Notepad™ and Homesite™. Later students may use FrontPage™ or Dreamweaver™, but programs that produce complex markup that is not compliant with current World Wide Web recommendations for "well formed" markup are discouraged. (In other words, DO NOT produce pages using Microsoft Word™ or any version of Frontpage before Frontpage 2003! Preference will be given to the use of cascading style sheets.
Submitting Deliverables
Students will be required to use standard Internet email and email attachment procedures for the purpose of personal Internet communication. All students in the class are required to maintain some email address, either on a Kent server or elsewhere (e.g., America Online, Compuserve, Hotmail, etc.), and intra-class communications will be by email. Gmail is preferred. Ideally students should be able to access their mail either from home or at the university, but university access is the highest priority. Students who fail to comply with this stipulation cannot expect a satisfactory grade in the class. Email communication is counted as part of the class participation grade.Students will learn file compression, decompression, and transfer procedures. All class deliverables are to be submitted in the form of email file transfers or, if so specified, posted to the appropriate subdirectory on the IAL server. Neither typed nor handwritten materials are acceptable as fulfillment of class requirements.
Final Exam
There will be a final exam to be held from 5:45 to 8:00 on Thursday December 15.
Students with Disabilities
University Policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure that they obtain equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through Student Disability Services (SDS) (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sds for more information on registration procedures.
Weekly Topics and Assignments
| Introductory &
Preparatory Topics |
In-class Activities & Reading
Assignments Deliverables Due |
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| Introduction to the course | The IAL LAN & network functions |
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Labor Day: No class on Monday. Please attend Thursday's class |
Sending email attachments |
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| Deliverable: Creating small
documents; Email file transfer of file produced in class; Experimentation
with very small pages Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 6 Search the Web for HTML and XHTML resources in your languages & prepare a Word document listing these resources. |
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Intro to HTML: Inline Markup |
Deliverable: Email list of
resources |
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Deliverable: Email file transfer of xhtml
sampler |
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Hanging
indents in Word |
Continue experimenting with your web page Note: Monday night is Rosh Hashanah |
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Unicode and entities; Introduction to Homesite |
Assignment for next week: Study the IAL webpages and create a visual representation of the
file structure Deliverable:Résumé in Word & HTML (table) |
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Deliverable: Email first attempts at personal
pages |
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| Links, images, and forms; entities and Unicode Images in Word |
Deliverable: Email page
updates Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 12 |
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Web design principles |
Deliverable: Email page with stylesheet |
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11 |
11/07 & 11/10 |
ATA Conference Week: Guest Lecturer TBA or Troubleshooting Session the following week. Your choice. Please seriously consider attending the ATA Conference, and if you do be sure to attend my presentation on Internet Research Skills (time to be announced later) | ||
11/14 & 11/17 |
Using Microsoft PowerPoint | Deliverable: Email short ppt from class | ||
| Monday: Webpage Troubleshooting Session Thanksgiving vacation, no class on Thursday |
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11/28 & 12/01 |
Using Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel | Deliverable: Short Excel page | ||
XML apps and the Semantic Web |
Deliverable: Pages nearing
completion & posted on the Web Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 17 |
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12/15 |
Final Exam | Deliverables: Webpage complete and posted to the Web prior to final exam | ||