Why is a page like this necessary? Some of you may be able to navigate your computer's software functions easily. However, research shows that a great majority of college students need help for using anything more than simple, basic functions. Here is some basic help.

Welcome to this Web site! Using it is simple. If you are already acquainted with surfing Web pages, you are ready to return to the home page and start using this Web site. (If you want your print size or screen size larger or smaller and need help doing this, click here on "Change View/Print Size.")

Are you new to using Web sites? Usually there are at least several people in a class who need beginning instructions. If this describes you, here are some basic directions. The "home page" of this Web site is the central hub. On that page--in the long, thin, brown rectangles--you will see an underlined link, "Course Summary (Syllabus)." You may start by clicking on it. It summarizes what the course is and does.

When you are done reading this summary, you will find other links on the home page that go into much more detail than does the summary. Simply click on the links you want. In addition, still other links will lead you to several online books, a long list of Web sites for humanities research, and other Web pages.

Which should you use, the table of links at the very top of the home page, or the colored links with pictures? Both the table links and the links with pictures take you to the same places. Some people prefer a table, and others prefer pictured boxes. You may choose either one to take you to the Web pages in this Web site.

Once you are past the home page, you will find other links to help you. Look for the underlined links. (Some examples of underlined links on this page are "Return to top," immediately below, and the two blue boxes immediately above, called "Moving Around" and "Changing the View/Print Size.")

When you are ready to return to the home page, simply click on the course name and number in the upper-right corner of the page, on the course picture symbol beside it, or on this same picture symbol anywhere you see it in the Web page (for example, you can click on the picture symbol immediately below).

(1) Is the text on your page not fitting very well? The viewing size may work better if you reset it to "Large," "Medium," or "Small," depending on your own particular settings on the computer you are using. Changing the text viewing size is simple: click on "View," then "Text Size," and then the size you want. (Hint: if you have trouble reading the print on your screen, you'll probably want a text size of "Medium" to "Largest." If you like to skim or speed-read your text, you'll probably want a text size of "Smallest" to "Medium.") For detailed directions, see below or click here.

(2) You also can change the screen resolution. This Web site is made for the screen resolutions of 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. Viewing it in 1024 x 768 will make the print and graphics smaller than in 800 x 600. To change your screen resolution, click on "Start," then "Control Panel," "Display," and "Settings," and then move the "Screen resolution" lever to either "800 x 600" or "1024 x 768." For detailed directions, see below or click here.

(3) Are you using Internet Explorer? If not, you may find that pages look more correct if you switch to Explorer. If you do not have Internet Explorer, you can use Netscape, but you may have to occasionally click on "Reload" (the curved arrow) to get correct formatting or full display of all graphics.

First, some of you may wonder why such a seemingly simple page like this is necessary--one that gives directions that, you think, everyone knows. The answer is that surveys show the great majority of college students know little about how to operate word processing and Internet programs beyond simple typing, Web searching, and emailing. One of the basic commands that many people--students, instructors, or professionals--do not know is the change-print-size command.

Here are the simple details. Does the print in this Web site seem too large for you to easily use (or too small)? Changing your print size is very simple:

Some computers, especially those in labs, may have a "default" or pre-set program that always returns the print size to the old setting when you turn the computer off. If so, you may need to change the print size to the setting that you prefer each time you start.

Here is a hint. If you have trouble reading the print on your screen, you'll probably want a text size of "Medium" to "Largest." However, if you like to skim or speed-read your text, you'll probably want a text size of "Smallest" to "Medium." Much depends on your existing screen resolution, too (see immediately below).

You also can change the screen resolution. This Web site is made for two of the average screen resolutions: 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. 800 x 600 makes images and text appear larger, but you can see less of them on your screen at any one time. 1024 x 768 makes images and text smaller and shows more at one time on your screen. Here’s how to change your screen resolution:

If you are on a computer of your own, you may want to bookmark the home page of the course. To do so, simply go to the course's home page. Then click on "Favorites" or "Bookmarks." Then click on "Add." If your course has bulletin-board activities, you may also want to bookmark the course's "Bulletin Board" page--the page that has a link on it to the class bulletin board.

Detailed Directions: If you are unacquainted with the "bookmarking" process, it is simply a way to place a "bookmark" on the course site so that you can go to it much more quickly and easily. Bookmarks are not permanent--they are always removable. You can check right now to see whether your computer has any bookmarks. Simply click (in one of your window's top bars) "Favorites" or "Bookmarks." A list of bookmarks should appear. You can click on any of them to go to whatever you want on the Web.

Bookmarks are easy to install. Be sure that you start on the Web page that you want your bookmark to go to. Then click on "Favorites" or "Bookmarks." Then click on "Add" and, if necessary, "Okay." If you are interested in placing your bookmark in a particular file of bookmarks, you can do so either at the time of adding it, or by going back into your bookmarks at any later time and organizing them.

Increasingly, students and professionals find useful quality information on the Web. Quality Web readings, while they usually have a similar structure of content, often present their material in very different ways than do physical books. In addition, you can't exactly write notes on your screen. As a result, it is worth examining how Web site reading is different. As far as reading is concerned, there are four elements of Web writing structure that may be helpful.

The contents of a Web page are more likely to be factual, or at least to present themselves as quasi-factual--that is, as seeming to be factual but having an underlying argumentative message (see, above, "What is a typical factual-report structure?"). It may be very helpful to determine whether the content is factual, quasi-factual, or argumentative. Reading the written text of any Web page is in many ways like reading a standard text. A Web "page" actually can be much longer than a regular printed page: a Web "page" is not only what you can see on your screen, but also what you can reach by scrolling down or up. For example, this Web page--the one you are reading right now--is composed of several sections, from "How to Read Texts Critically" to this part, "Reading the Web." All of it is considered one Web page. To read a Web page, you use previewing skills to pick out the basic sentences and basic structure. Then you read critically.

Critical reading requires good note taking. There are several ways you can do this when reading Web pages:

The short answer is "yes!" The visual cues on a Web site are called "graphics": the pictures and to some extent the differing column widths, text boxes, and other graphic features all are meant to convey information that speaks directly to the organization of the contents. Text placed in left-hand columns or top-of-the-page boxes, for example, often is directional: it helps you move around the page itself or from one page to another. Each picture on the page (in a well-written Web page) visually represents an important idea. When information is placed in a separate column or text box within the text itself, such placement usually means the writing in it is a little "mini-section" of special information or, sometimes, a brief summary of ideas on the page. Therefore, as you prepare to read, you should examine the pictures, columns, and boxes for structural significance: they are like topic sentences and subtitles, even though in unwritten form, indicating major ideas.

Again, the short answer is "yes." A true Web site, one with Web graphics and Web arrangement--not just a text pasted from a word-processing document--is organized in groups and subgroups of Web pages. Pages in a physical book are arranged as a series of sheets of paper--one after another, in order. However, in a Web site, pages are grouped differently. The organization is roughly comparable to how a grapevine has separate bunches of grapes. In a Web site, these "bunches" are organized hierarchically--something like a tournament roster with the winner's box first:

Level 1 Main Home Page	HOME PAGE / \
Level 2 Section Home Pages	SECTION 1 SECTION 2 / \ / \
Level 3 Chapter Home Pages	Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 / \ / \ / \ / \
Level 4 Individual Web Pages	p. 1 p. 2 p. 1 p. 2 p. 1 p. 2 p. 1 p. 2

To see examples of the above from this Web site--CollegeWriting.info--simply click on each underlined title above. In a real Web site (such as CollegeWriting.info), there often are more sections, chapters, and individual pages than shown above. In fact, CollegeWriting.info is rather unusual in its size for a Web site because it has almost a dozen sections, several dozen chapters, and over one hundred individual Web pages. However, the organization is much the same in the typical Web site. Typically, there are three or four levels, and the lower the level, the more information there usually is on each Web page.

What does all of this have to do with reading a Web site? It is simply this, and a very important suggestion it is: when you read a Web site, you should preview it by getting to know its hierarchical structure. You should do so just as you would look at a book's table of contents and the first and last paragraph or page of each chapter. You should, in a Web text, browse the site by clicking on the main links and looking at the beginning of each major Web page.

It is very important to know that not all Web pages do. Another important feature of Web site development is the interconnectivity. Often there are cross links: links between sections, chapters, and pages. In this regard, any individual Web site that is thoroughly "webbed" is like a spider's web.

First, imagine the different kinds of strands or links that can connect one page to another in a single Web site with many pages. Usually there is one home page to help you go to the main part of this spider's web, but once you're in a new part of the spider's web, there may be other, smaller strands or links that take you to even smaller areas of the spider's web.

Next, imagine that this spider's web is connected by two or three strands to other spider's webs. Where does one spider's web end and another begin? You often can tell by the colors and the way pages are organized. Usually, two entirely different Web sites will have very different coloring, structure, and style, even though they may be linked by a strand.

Often, a single Web site may be linked to a number of other single Web sites. This is where the "www" comes from in Web addresses: "www" stands for "World Wide Web." It means that all the individual smaller Webs are, together, one giant Web the size of the whole world.

Trying to follow all such links can be difficult to nearly impossible, depending on the size of the Web site and your patience. Following these webbed links is unnecessary in previewing and, often, in critical reading, as well. In previewing, your job is to develop a sense of the main structure: the home page, the main second-level pages, the main third-level pages, etc. The webbed links either will pop up in the course of looking at the main structure, or they are less necessary, like footnotes, endnotes, or references to other works that might be helpful to you. As you critically read a Web site, you may wish to go to some of the webbed links in order to understand the text better; however, they are not always necessary.

To conclude, it should be apparent that not just colleges and universities but also elementary and high schools should teach such reading skills, as appropriate to each age group. Unfortunately, few schools do--or they do so only to a small number of students. Even so, most college instructors assume that if you are in college, you do know how to use many of these skills (with the exception of speed reading, about which few students or instructors know). Almost all students who are highly successful in college and graduate school know most of these skills or learn them on their own to succeed. Hopefully, this chapter has helped you discover that such skills not only exist but are available to everyone who wishes to practice and use them.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.