Teaching Web Composition

Teaching Web Composition: Pre Writing

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This page details some prewriting concepts that will help students compose HTML documents. You may also be able to use an HTML editor to handle most of the coding necessary for creating Web pages. Even if you use an HTML editor such as FrontPage or Composer, it is a good idea to know something about the underlying HTML tags so that you can troubleshoot and extend the Web pages that you create. Read on to learn more about the codes.

Mastering the HTML code often proves to be little trouble for students, so in many ways, establishing some of the underlying concepts that make the Web function is the best way to start. The page looks at four concepts: the relationship between HTML documents and browsers, the components of an HTML document, the relationship between servers, files and browsers and the process of viewing the source of HTML files.

HTML Documents and Browsers

The Web
seen from a browser You can begin with the relationship between web pages which are displayed through a browser and the underlying HTML document that controls their appearance and connections. Whether students are using a web page editor or working directly with HTML, establishing that the browser displays the information contained by the HTML pages is a good way to start.

The Components of HTML Documents

One way to explain the make up of an HTML page is by dividing it into its component parts. Each HTML document is divided into a head and a body. The coding for the document and components looks like this
<HTML>
<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY></BODY>
</HTML>

Once you've established the components you can flesh out the <START> </STOP> structure of the many HTML commands.

You can also demonstrate the distinction in roles between the head and the body. The elements which go into the head of the document (for instance, the title) are primarily used by browsers and search engines to handle information. The elements of web pages that appear in the window of a browser are specified in the body of the document.

This understanding makes it easier to explain the additional commands for controlling appearance that can be appended to the initial <BODY> command. This is where students can specify background colors and textures and text and link colors for the overall document Here's a sample

<BODY bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#222222">

The bgcolor and text specifications are followed by color information presented with a color blending code.

Web Servers, Files and Browsers

Another useful concept to establish is the relationship between web files and servers. Servers and Files

The hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) allows all servers and browsers to share files. The protocol establishes a unique web address for each file, the uniform resource locator (URL). A brief discussion of the spatial relationship between servers, files and URLs will better orient students as they begin to compose their own HTML documents

Viewing the Source

Once you've demonstrated some of these conceptual relationships, teach students the process of viewing the source of the HTML documents that they find around the web. If students know that the HTML controls the pages that they see, viewing those files not only demystifies what they see as they browse, it provides the best way of finding examples of HTML that students can feature in their own compositions.
Viewing the Source

We know that these aren't the only concerns that need to be addressed in order to teach Web composition successfully. Hopefully, however, some knowledge of the conceptual make-up and functioning of the web will at least help students focus less on what's going where and more on their writing choices.

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