Electronic Text: Writing Tips

I've just discovered a great resource for online writers, created by Dennis Jerz at Seton Hill University. Electronic Text: Writing Tips puts a lot of good links on one page.

Whether you're interested in Webwriting, email, or writing interactive fiction, you'll find something useful here.

Comments

[Darren]

Yowza. It may be a great resource, but it's got an appalling design. It's a link-fest, and gives me very little information about the relative importance of the links. Plus, it's an organizational nightmare. For example, why is there both a FAQ and a 'Tips and Guidelines' section? That's not to mention the total lack of whitespace.

Still, looks like a useful resource.

[Dennis G. Jerz]

Crawford, thanks for the plug, and Darren, thanks for your feedback -- I do feel that my strength in electronic media is in writing, so I'd much rather hear "great content, design sucks" than the reverse.

This is actually just one small section of a large website, and the FAQ isn't realted to writing e-text -- it's mostly related to my role as a teacher, and it's made up of questions that people (mostly my students) have really asked me.

By the way, Darren, I enjoyed your column on classic computer games(http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/creative_writing.htm),, and if you can give me the full citation info I will include it in my "Annotated Bibliography of Interactive Fiction"
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/bibliography/jour-lit.htm#2-2

"Adventure" was definitely available outside of MIT. I have a brief history of "Colossal Cave Adventure" online -- if you can stand the design ;) I've worked more diligently on the index page for my text adventure game section -- do you feel it does a better job organizing the material? I personally feel the links are too hard to find, but it's certainly a different layout than the e-text page.

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/index.html
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/canon/Adventure.htm
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/canon/Zork.htm

And finally, since I notice you're not only into interactive fiction but also theater, you might enjoy my review of Andrew Clarvoe's play PICK UP AX.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/clarvoe.htm

[Derek]

Also check out more web writing tips from Rachel McAlpine in New Zealand ( http://www.qwc.co.nz/ ) and Anne Pepper here in Vancouver ( http://www.pepperwriting.com/editors/editors_intro.htm ).