English 434
Spring 1997
The purpose of this project is two-fold: to give you the opportunity to explore some facet of the culture surrounding the plays we are studying through outside sources; and to introduce you to a verbal medium that will become increasingly important as you move towards the job market an the twenty-first century!
In constructing the web page, imagine that you are introducing a reader to some (unusual) facet of Renaissance culture that will in turn illuminate one of the plays that we have read. Although I do not want to hamper your creativity, here are some general guidelines for the project. I will help each group take their materials and put them on the web, so don't be worried if you do not know how to produce a web page. I will help you with the production. On the other hand, I'll help you with the technology if you are interested in learning.
This is a group project. That means that each group needs to figure out a way to divide up the work in a realistic way. Each person might read one item, then summarize and present the relevant information to the rest of the group. One person might take charge of compiling the final text, while another takes charge of finding pictures. A third might compile a list of relevant links to other sites. Talk about how you are going to distribute the work.
Think of yourselves as teaching other people about the Renaissance period and its drama. Think of yourselves as passing on your knowledge in a succinct form to other interested persons.
I will point you to some good starting places for your topic. Resist the temptation to think that you have to read through everything!! I will help you, if you like, find the relevant portions of different texts. Remember also in looking for general information relevant to your topic you will encounter the names of some plays and works that mean nothing to you. Ignore them!
The format will be up to you in large part. You could follow the format that I use on our class web site. You might also like to look at a few examples of literary web pages: for instance,
Although I don't want to force you to do anything you don't want to, here is a suggested list of contents:
This is a hard question to answer, but probably a total of 3-5 pages. Because people read somewhat differently on the Web, keep each unit short, no more than one page.