MCLS 50095: Documents in Multilingual Contexts

Language Professions for the 21st Century

MCLS 50095, Fall Semester 2004:
Documents in Multilingual Contexts

Version: 2004-09-29

Class Time and Place:

M, 7:30 - 9:10, Satterfield 316 (Section No. 004, Call No. ??)

H, 4:30 - 6:10, Satterfield 316 (Section No. 001, Call No. 14193)

Instructor: Sue Ellen Wright
Office: Satterfield 306-E Tel: 672-2438 Home Tel.: 678-2829

email: sewright@neo.rr.com swright@kent.edu FAX: 330-673-0738

Visiting Lecturers: Professor Gregory M. Shreve, Ed Fugikawa

Office Hours: M: 6:00-7:00; T: 2:00-4:00; H 2:00-4:00
Or by appointment; note that the 7:00-7:30 Monday and 4:00 to 4:30 Tuesday and 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.

Course URL: ResourcePages\Courseware\Documents-2004\index.htm

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 XP^TM) functions, basic and advanced features of Microsoft Office XP 2003^TM, and HTML/XHTML for multilingual environments, including an introduction to webpage design using programs such as Homesite^TM, Frontpage^TM, 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).

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 Word^TM 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. 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 16.

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

Week	Date	Introductory & Preparatory Topics	In-class Activities & Reading Assignments Deliverables Due
1	09/02	Introduction to the course	The IAL LAN & network functions Basic working procedures in the labs
2	09/09	Networks, the Internet, the World Wide Web	Sending email attachments Reading assignment: GCF, Chapters 1 & 2
3	09/16	Intro to HTML: Inline Markup Keyboard Issues	*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. Note: Rosh Hashanah
4	09/23	Intro to HTML: Inline Markup	*Deliverable:* Email list of resources Experimentation with very small pages Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 3 & 4
5	09/30	Hanging indents in Word Lists in Word Website Architecture	*Deliverable:* Email file transfer of xhtml sampler Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 5
6	10/07	Tables and layout features in Word and XHTML Images Creating your resumé in Word and in HTML/XHTML	Study the IAL webpages and create a visual representation of the file structure Deliverable: Email your IAL files structure Study HTML resources; begin planning webpage Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 7
7	10/14	Unicode and entities; Introduction to Homesite Thursday: ATA Conference Week; class for those who stay Suggestion: Attend class on Monday if you are going to the ATA conference	*Deliverable:*Résumé in Word & HTML (table) Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 8
8	10/21	Links, images, and forms; entities and Unicode Images in Word	*Deliverable:* Email first attempts at personal pages Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 10
9	10/28	Cascading Style Sheets	*Deliverable:* Email page updates Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 12
10	11/04	Web design principles	*Deliverable:* Email page with stylesheet
11	11/11	Monday night (Nov. 22) Special activity to be announced. Thursday night: Veteran's Day, No class
12	11/18	Using Microsoft Powerpoint	*Deliverable:* Email short ppt from class
13	11/25	Monday: Webpage Troubleshooting Session Thanksgiving vacation, no class on Thursday
14	12/02	Using Microsoft Access and Excel	*Deliverable:* Short Excel page
15	12/09	XML apps and the Semantic Web	Deliverable: Pages nearing completion & posted on the Web Reading assignment: GCF, Chapter 17
Finals	12/16	Final Exam	Deliverables: Webpage complete and posted to the Web prior to final exam

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