The writing assignments will include the following:
No Web Page Option.  For students who prefer to practice old skills instead of learning new ones, we are now offering a NO WEB PAGE option.  To follow this option you must:
    1.  Instead of a Home Page, type up a "Table of Contents" page for your portfolio on April 30.
    2.  For your Presentation outline on April 2, simply type in the URL's for the 10 WEB pages instead of inserting hyperlinks AND add an Annotated Bibliography of the 10 WEB pages with a 75 word summary of each.
    3.  For your essay due on April 30, add an Annotated Bibliography of 10 WEB pages (different from those used on March 26) with a 75 word summary of each.
     4.  For all support group meetings, bring sufficient photocopies of your written work (Course Journal, Presentation, Paper) to share with the members of the group.
     5.  On April 30, hand in a portfolio printed on paper, with the same assignments as the other students plus the two Annotated Bibliographies.
This alternative is not intended to be easier, it is intended to relieve some of the anxieties of the more technophobic students.

   1.  Prepare a Home Page introducing yourself to the class (and anyone else who may surf by).  On your Home Page you can tell us something about your background and interests, including your major field of study and your plans for employment and/or graduate work, or anything else you want to present.  This is your introduction to the world, so put whatever you want on it, including photographs, art works, whatever.  [If you already have a Home Page you need not do a new one].  The key function of the Home Page is as a Table of Contents or Index to your WEB site as a whole.  Its file name should be index.htm.  It will include links to the other assignments you write for this course, as well as to any other papers or files you wish to put on your WEB site.  For examples of student home pages, from another course, click here.
2.  You should begin writing a Course Journal, which should be linked from your Home Page.  This should include your thoughts, observations, notes, ruminations, and questions about the course.  It could begin with background information on yourself that you prefer not to put on the Home Page.  Then go on to discuss your thoughts about the unity of science and the theory of evolution.  Does this make sense to you?  Does it apply to your own field of interest or expertise?  As we go on, you should add your observations and thoughts on other topics in the course:  chaos, attractors, hierarchy and heterarchy, etc.  How do these concepts apply to your interests?  What questions interested you the most?  What did you learn that was useful?  What questions remain unanswered?  You should add to this journal every week and update it on your WEB site.    Links to the most valuable WEB sites you have found should be included in your Course Journal.    You should bring a printout of your homepage and Course Journal to date, printed on paper, to class on February 12.  You should have both posted on your WEB site by February 19.  Add the address of your home page to your address file on the Excite Community so others can find it.  You will revise and update both throughout the semester.
   3.  Your third written work will be either an outline for your individual paper or a proposal for a group project.  For suggestions, check out the page of suggested project topics.   This outline or proposal should be posted on your WEB site and handed in on paper on April 9.

• If you are working as an individual, prepare your outline as if it were to be presented to an audience.  It is not the text of a presentation to be read aloud, but rather a list of main points to be displayed on a screen during a talk.  It should have a limited number of points presented in large type.  There should be hyperlinks to at least ten relevant World Wide Web sites.  For an example, see the sample class presentation on the topic of Hyperlink Fiction.
•   If you are working in a group, prepare a Group Proposal.  This should include a one paragraph description of the group project, an an annotated table of contents.  Each group member should hand in a copy of the group proposal to his or her teaching assistant. The table of contents should include:
1. The name, email and WEB Site address of each participant
2. The title of each participant's contribution to the project
3. Two or three sentences or bullet points describing each participant's contribution, with three to five hyperlinks to key sites.

   4.  The fourth written work will be the individual or group project .  A sample paper on Monopoly and Competition on the Internet is available. For individuals, the paper should be 1300 words, putting the outline prepared for April 2 into prose.  For groups of two, it should be the paper described in the April 2 proposal.  Each students' contribution should be posted on her or his WEB site, together with the summary paragraph and table of contents with links to the other participants' sites.  For groups of two, each contribution should be 1100 words in length.  For groups of three, 900 each.  For groups of four, 700 each.  For groups of five or more, 500 each.   This essay should be added to your WEB site and handed in with your portfolio on April 30.
     WEB Links:  Everyone must have ten links in their paper, even if it is shorter because they are working in a group.

The Portfolio.  Your portfolio will consist of the four files described above, printed out on paper and placed in a folder. Portfolios will be due on April 30 when we meet at 2:30 p.m.   We will meet at 2:30 on April 30 because it is officially a day when monday classes meet, and I do not want to conflict with the earlier hour.  If you have a class at 2:30 that day, just drop your portfolio off before going to class.

Your Portfolio will be a folder containing:
   -  printout of your home page
   -  printout of your Course Journal
   -  printout of your Outline or Proposal
   -  printout of your 500 to 1300 word individual paper..
All of these should be printed with a WEB browser which will print the WEB address on them.

If you are working in a group, your proposal should include an introduction to the group paper and the names of the other participants and the WEB locations of their papers.  This should be placed in your portfolio just before your own paper.  You will be graded on your individual contribution, but it has to be considered as part of the group project.  Your paper should include a link to the segments of the group paper which come before it and after it in the outline.  That way, an online reader can read the whole paper.  You do not, however, have to put the other people's parts of the group paper in your portfolio.

Remember, 40% of the course grade will be based on your writing assignments - primarily based on the final versions in the portfolio.  It is very important to do a good job on the Outline or Proposal, since this will let the teaching assistants give you feedback which you can use in preparing the final project.