---- MANTEX NEWSLETTER ---- Number 77 - January 2003 Writing + Computers + Design ---- ISSN 1470-1863 ---- New Year PUB QUIZ Edition Happy New Year! There are three items in this issue to do with writing and computers. 0----- 'Electronic Writing' This is a guide to writing, computers, and the Internet. It starts by showing you how to use word processors to improve your writing skills. Easy-to-follow guidance notes cover editing and using cut-and-paste to structure your work. The later sections of the book deal with email conventions, the World Wide Web, and an introduction to hypertext. If you're interested in exploring the intimate possibilities in the relationship between writing and digital texts, this is a good place to start. Full details at - http://www.mantex.co.uk/books/electron.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #1 Which country has the shortest coastline in the world? 0----- 'Electronic Texts in the Humanities' [new-ish book] Susan Hockey is a doyenne of texts in electronic form. She is both an archivist-librarian and an expert in the complex world of encoding and protocols. This book is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of how texts can be electronically created, encoded, and analysed. The emphasis is on scholarly writing. She covers examples from literature, philosophy, and history - but the principles apply to any text-based scholarship. She describes the various software programs which have been developed to analyse and manipulate text, and whilst doing this she also makes a critical survey of all the latest research and publications dealing with these issues. There's coverage of electronic dictionaries and lexical databases, as well as textual criticism and electronic editions of classic works of literature. This is at advanced level - but it will appeal to anyone interested in what can be done with text-based materials in humanities subjects. http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/hockey.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #2 What is a davenport? 0----- 'Electronic Textuality - a Bibliographic Essay' Here's a new, free, downloadable essay on the subject of scholarly electronic texts. It's the work of regular contributor Kathryn Abram, and was created during her recent postgraduate research in literary studies at Manchester University. The essay covers all the issues of establishing scholarly, edited texts in electronic format. There's a big debate in this area of bibliography and textual studies - basically between those who have based their theories on preparing texts for publication in *print*, and those who wish to exploit the possibilities of hypertext. Kathryn follows all these arguments in her essay, and offers a critical account of the latest research. If you want a smack-up-to-date survey of the issues, start here. http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/resource/elec_txt.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #3 The Sargasso Sea is part of which ocean? 0----- 'The Elements of User Experience' [new book] Jesse James Garret is one of the new voices dealing with the issue of Web usability. That is, the theory and practice of making Web sites which are constructed for the convenience of their users, rather than their designers. He has a diagram on his Web site which shows how the users' engagement with a site needs to be constructed at five levels. These range from the from deep structure on which a site is organised, up to the surface level of buttons and navigation. This book is a full amplification of these theories. He argues very persuasively for careful planning and then intelligent information architecture and navigation. It's a concise account of the whole process - with no padding and none of the lavish illustrations which flesh out many design guides to door-stopping size. If you want a quick introduction to the essential theories of usability, this is a good place to begin. Full details and review at - http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/garrett.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #4 What is a melodeon? 0----- Web Projects - a book list We've started a new book listings page on Web projects and management. These are titles which deal with the planning and organisation of work on large web sites - as well as their structure and design. Titles include books which focus on organising workflow, information architecture, usability, and new media. http://www.mantex.co.uk/biblios/art-proj.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #5 Where are the Straits of Magellan? 0----- 'Whitaker's Almanack' [reference book] This is one of the most popular one-volume works of reference dealing with current affairs, recent history, and just about every facet of public life in the UK. It also provides basic information on all the other countries of the world, lists the current members of parliament, gives details of currencies and exchange rates, laws on births, deaths, and marriages - and you can even check the tides for the coming year. It's a famous compilation, now in its 135th edition. The 1878 edition was included in the time capsule beneath Cleopatra's needle; Sherlock Holmes used it in when deciphering a code in 'The Valley of Fear', and during World War II, Winston Churchill wrote to the editor asking that publication would not be interrupted by the Blitz. Full review at - http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/whitak-2.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #6 What can be a five card game, a wooly surface, or a sleep? 0----- Information Technology Timeline - Update We have an information technology timeline as part of our free tutorials on technology. It runs from Napier's rods in 1617, via the famous Babbage 'difference engine' of 1823, through to Alan Turing, Vannevar Bush, Douglas Englebart who invented the mouse, and up to the year 2000. http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/t171/t171-07.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #7 Who was France's first socialist president? 0----- 'Web Theory: An Introduction' [new book] Do you realise that the World Wide Web is only twelve years old? There are an estimated three billion pages now available via Google, and even they don't archive the whole Web. During the 1990s, information technology was completely transformed by this development. Robert Burnett and P. David Marshall's new book plots these developments, explains their significance, and looks at the theories which have arisen to explain the significance of it all for the individual and society. They cover all the major developments from eCommerce to copyright, file-sharing, and the Napster case, to communication theory and computer gaming. Full review at - http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/burnett.htm 0----- Pub Quiz - Question #8 Where is the Bodleian Library? 0----- New year PUB QUIZ - ANSWERS Which country has the shortest coastline in the world? ANSWER: Monaco What is a davenport? ANSWER: A sofa or desk The Sargasso Sea is part of which ocean? ANSWER: The Atlantic What is a melodeon? ANSWER: A musical instrument Where are the Straits of Magellan? ANSWER: The tip of South America What can be a five card game, a wooly surface, or a sleep? ANSWER: A nap Who was France's first socialist president? ANSWER: Mitterrand (1981) Where is the Bodleian Library? ANSWER: Oxford University 0----- Correction Subscriber David Miller sends us this correction to a quiz question in the last edition. Ketchup is not a Chinese word (well, maybe it is from some southern dialect) but rather comes from Bahasa (Indonesia), or Malay, the language that cameos in Lord Jim. The Malay word is Ketsap, and I think it means sauce. 0----- COMING SOON 'Silicon Literacies' 'Teaching Academic Writing' 'Windows XP Annoyances' 'Write in Style' 'Digital Academe' (c) Copyright 2003, MANTEX All Rights Reserved PO Box 100 Tel +44 0161 432 5811 Manchester Fax +44 0161 443 2766 M20 6GZ UK www.mantex.co.uk If you like this newsletter, PLEASE FORWARD IT to friends and colleagues. New subscribers should register at the following address -- http://www.mantex.co.uk/newslet.htm FREE BACK ISSUES featuring news items, reviews, and product details at - http://www.mantex.co.uk/news/archive.htm Please retain the copyright and list-joining information. It may be posted, in its entirety or partially, to newsgroups or mailing lists, so long as the copyright and list-joining information remains. If you have any requests, observations, or items you would like to be included in our next issues, just mail us at -- news@mantex.co.uk You receive the MANTEX newsletter because you subscribed to it. If you wish to leave the list, go to -- http://www.mantex.co.uk/newslet.htm News-77 January -2003 ISSN 1470-1863 The British Library