These days, much more academic writing is being done online. In order to keep proper conventions for writing in the liberal arts, HTML is needed.
HTML stands for “Hypertext Markup Language.” It’s a series of codes that help format the content of a web page. Anytime you visit a web site, you’re seeing the output from HTML, including this one. This is not a concern for the reader of a page. However, to write on a web site, including making comments or participating in a discussion, sometimes HTML will be necessary.
The purpose of this page is to give you the very basics that you need to know when writing on the web — particularly for your college classes.
HTML uses tags delineated by angle brackets: < > . The HTML commands go within the brackets. In most instances, a tag needs an opening and closing command. Close a tag by putting a forward slash before the code.
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<strong>The content goes between the tags.</strong>
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The HTML tag begins and ends every page on the Web. The tags affect everything included within them.
In academic writing, the titles of books should be italicized. This is easy to accomplish in HTML. Just use the <i> tag:
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<i>The Sun Also Rises</i>
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The result is The Sun Also Rises when the browser interprets the HTML. Simple tags are also used for similar text formatting.
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<b>This text will be bold.</b>
<strong>This text will usually be bolded, too.</strong>
<i>This text will be italicized.</i>
<em>This text will be emphasized, usually meaning it will be italicized.</em>
<u>This text will be underlined.</u>
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Use these codes judiciously and consistently. There is rarely a time — if ever — that codes should be combined.
The only other bit of HTML that will often be necessary is the anchor code for linking text. For short, these are called links. The <a> tag lets you link actual English words on a web site, rather than pasting an ugly URL — a practice that should be avoided whenever possible.
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<a href="http://litmuse.net/">LitMUSE</a>
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This bit of code would produce LitMUSE on the rendered web page. Notice that it’s much better than http://litmuse.net/.
When linking, be sure to link meaningful words. For example, don’t link this way:
In his article “Writing Top Ten,” Lucas writes . . .
It’s far better to link the actual name of the article, like:
In “Writing Top Ten,” Lucas writes . . .
Notice that it makes the sentence tighter, too. Certainly never link the word “here”:
Lucas’ “Writing Top Ten” may be found here.
I know we often see this last mode of linking, but consider it a major faux pas. Notice, too, that the entire sentence is like superfluous. Read more about linking in “Why Your Links Should Never Say ‘Click Here.’”
These are the basic HTML codes that you will likely need for classes in the liberal arts. Use them when posting to the discussion (Disqus) parts of this site. For additional codes, see HTML Quick List.
