🚀 go-pugleaf

Here are two free free books I am posting to the net.  The first,
_EMAIL 101_, is a fairly standard set of course notes in the "Introduction 
to the Internet" category.  It is written for the general public, unlike many
existing introductions which assume a fair knowledge of academic and 
personal computing.

The second, _Elements of E-Text Style_, treats E-Text as a communications
medium worth mastering in its own right, not merely because of its
relationship to print media.  It is aimed at the traditional "Freshman
Rhetoric" audience, as well as that part of the public that writes
Business correspondence and creates forms for others to fill out.

The second book has a very brief introduction to SGML and may interest 
readers of comp.text.sgml and the TEI list who are in search of free 
pedagogical material.  The treatment of SGML is necessarily limited, because
of the intended audience, but an effort is made to make the reader aware
of markup concepts as a necessary part of a rounded E-text education.

Comments are greatly appreciated.  The materials will be posted to FTP
archives and upgraded as necessary. 

=John Goodwin=
jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov


The Table of Contents for both books and extracts from the Preface are
appended below.

(2 enclosures)
------------------------(First Book:  E-Mail 101 Course Notes)-----------
------------------------(Header and Table of Contents Only)--------------

This file should be called EMAIL025.TXT
Version 0.2.5 (beta release)
17 July 1993

This rough version is missing 8 out of 28 chapters and 1 out of 5 
appendices.

Copyright (c) 1993 by John E. Goodwin.  All Rights Reserved.

You may make and distribute verbatim copies of these course notes for 
non-commercial purposes using any means, provided this copyright notice 
is preserved on all copies.

For information on taking the internetworking course, contact

     John Goodwin (jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov)
     P.O. Box 6022
     St. Charles, IL  60174, U.S.A.


<title> E-MAIL 101

Chapters marked with an asterisk are omitted from this edition.


COURSE CONTENTS

1 : The Past and the Future of Internetworking

2 : What Is the Internet?

3 : How Do I Connect to the Internet?

4 : Who Pays for the Internet?

5 : Internet Basics

6 : Getting on the Internet Step by Step

7 : Programs and Pictures

8 : File Compression Methods for Faster Transfer

9 : What to Do When You Only Have E-mail

10 : Employee Development:  How to Get Your Employees Internetworking


Part II  Special Concerns

11 : Special for Businesses

12 : Special for Students and their Parents

13 : Special for Writers, Journalists, Publishers, and Printers

14 : Special for Elementary and High School Teachers

15 : Special for Librarians

16 : Special for Scholars

17 : Special for Churches, Synagogues, and Mosques


Part III  Research, Organization, and Writing

18 : Research Methods I:  Basic Navigation Methods

*19 : Research Methods II:  Usenet Newsgroups

20 : Research Methods III:  Advanced Techniques

*21 : Organizing Information

*22 : Information Structures

*23 : Boolean Logic

*24 : Writing for an Internetworked World:  Basic Problems

*25 : Writing for an Internetworked World:  Getting Through to your 
Audience


Part IV  Resources

*26 : The Internet Address Book

27 : Bibliography

*28 : Glossary

Appendix A.  Computer Hints for the *Really* Green

Appendix B.  Using a Modem

*Appendix C.  Technical Details of an Internet Connection

Appendix D.  Just Enough UNIX

Appendix E.  The Ten Best Things To Get If You Only Have E-Mail

                    +     +     +

<Preface>

If you like those little machines that give you 24 hour access to your 
bank account, you'll love the Internet.  I suppose there are still 
people who, given a choice, will go to a drive-through teller just so 
they can deal with a "live person" instead of a machine.  But even those 
people will admit that it is nice to have the option of doing things for 
yourself, on your own schedule, anywhere.  Do you remember what it was 
like before automatic tellers?  Banks closed at 3 p.m. on weekdays.  
Each Saturday you had to guess how much money you would need for the 
following week.  If you were wrong you had to cash a check at a food 
store (and maybe buy something you didn't want).  And if you were out of 
town?  Well, there were always credit cards.  

We don't do that anymore.  I think many people go to the automatic 
teller because they like the privacy of handling their own business 
without having to explain it all to someone else.  And we like the 
illusion of having access to our "own" account anytime we want.
There are disadvantages to using an automatic teller card too--you may 
have to pay a fee each month or even for each transaction--and you have 
to remember to deduct those fees from your account balance or you will 
bounce checks.  But I'll bet you feel pretty competent using an 
automatic teller and don't lose much sleep worrying over the fees.  

This course is designed to give you that same sense of freedom and 
competence with the Internet that you have with an automatic teller 
machine or the telephone.  With a home computer, a modem, and 
communications software, you can connect to other computers over the 
phone line to exchange electronic mail (E-mail), trade files, or search 
for information.  Many of those computers are connected to the worldwide 
network called the Internet.  Some few of them will--for a fee--let 
*you* connect to the Internet.  From there you can dial any of 900,000 
or more computers, send E-mail to any of 25 million people, and access 
hundreds of free, informative services.  

In short, you are on the verge of a new method of communicating with 
people and machines called "internetworking."  Internetworking lets you:

  o Avoid playing phone tag;

  o Sign up to receive special interest electronic newsletters and 
journals;

  o Access hundreds of information services and document collections in 
exactly the same way--no need to have hundreds of sets of different 
instructions or hundreds of (expensive) special purpose software 
packages;

  o Find and communicate with other people who share your interests.

Internetworking is an essential skill for the '90s.  Your children will 
find it as common as viewing television or using the telephone.  It 
still has a few rough edges--but we'll explain those.  

There is actually no single network owned by one company called the 
Internet.  Instead, many medium-sized networks have grown together to 
create a "phone system" that connects together nearly a million 
computers.  Many hundreds of these computers allow some form of public 
access.  You can get the latest news or weather, download information 
about Government programs or high-tech products, search on-line library 
catalogues and databases, download free software, and do many other 
things, with little or no monetary investment beyond the cost of your 
home computer.

Using the Internet need not be expensive:  you can get on the Internet 
for as little as $10 a month if you own (1) a home computer, (2) a $50 
modem, and (3) some communications software (under $100).  There are 
more expensive ways to connect to the Internet, of course.  These ways 
make sense for businesses or organizations that make heavy use of the 
network.  But in this course we will discuss methods that cost in the 
$10-$40/month range.  These methods are suitable for exploring the net 
after hours and for casual use.  We will provide some basic information 
about more expensive methods of connecting (Appendix C) so that you can 
make informed decisions if your networking needs should increase in the 
future.

Internetworking well means mastering a whole host of skills--connecting 
two computers together using the Internet is just the beginning.  You 
have to learn methods for transferring information from the remote 
computer to your own.  This is a complex task that may involve using a 
file transfer protocol and compression techniques.  

Because the information world is so vast, your biggest problem will most 
likely not be connecting to the Internet.  It will be finding what you 
want.  Thus, this course covers not only the mechanics of making a 
connection and transferring files, but techniques for locating material 
as well.  And of course you will want to be savvy about the costs of 
different connection methods.  This means estimating whether it will 
cost you more per Megabyte to transfer the information or to have it 
faxed to you by a friendly librarian.

This course is intended for the general public--students, 
businesspersons, librarians, teachers, writers, journalists--in fact 
anyone who needs to find information and communicate with others.  
Whether you are researching a paper, writing an article, or trying to 
get technical information on a product, you will use these techniques 
over and over.


------------------------(Second Book:  Elements of E-Text Style)---------
------------------------(Header and Table of Contents Only)--------------

Elements of E-Text Style
Version 1.0
9 August 1993

This file should be named ESTYLE10.TXT or estyle10.txt.


Copyright (c) 1993 by John E. Goodwin.  All Rights Reserved.

You may make and distribute verbatim copies of this work for non-
commercial purposes using any means, provided this copyright notice is 
included in all such copies.

Contact:  John E. Goodwin
          P.O. Box 6022
          St. Charles, IL  60174
          jegoodwin@delphi.com

[John Goodwin is available to consult, write, and teach courses on E-
text issues and Internetworking]


<title>  Elements of E-Text Style

  =Preface=     An Apology for E-Text

  =Part I=      Writing for an E-Text Audience

  =Part II=     Specific Differences of Style and Mechanics

  =Part III=    A Very Brief Style Manual

  =Appendix A=  Technical Details:  Relationship to SGML and TEI

  =Table I=     Full Table of Contents  (go to very end of this file)


<Table I>  Table of Contents

=Part I=    Writing for an E-text Audience

    =Section 1.1=  Why Write for an E-text Audience?

    =Section 1.2=  Is it Possible to Write E-Text and Print at the Same 
Time?

    =Section 1.3=  Differences between E-Text and Print Media

    =Section 1.4=  Version Control


=Part II=   Specific Differences of Style and Mechanics

    =Section 2.1=   Differences Traceable to Physical Media

    =Section 2.2=   Differences in Style

    =Section 2.3=   Differences in Process

    =Section 2.4=   Differences in Repertoire

    =Section 2.5=   Differences in Layout

    =Section 2.6=   Searching and Hypertext

    =Section 2.7=   Copyright Issues

    =Section 2.8=   The Parts of a Book

    =Section 2.9=   The General Theory of Markup (SGML)

    =Section 2.10=  Summary:  Basic Tricks of the Trade


=Part III=  A Very Brief E-Text Style Manual

    =Section 3.1=  Backups and Saving Work

    =Section 3.2=  Compressed Files

    =Section 3.3=  Version Control

    =Section 3.4=  Use of Word Processing Features

    =Section 3.5=  Character Set and Font

    =Section 3.6=  Outlining and Hierarchies

    =Section 3.7=  Text Inclusions

        =Section 3.7.1=  Alternate Fonts

        =Section 3.7.2=  Quotations and Included Blocks of Text

        =Section 3.7.3=  Lists

        =Section 3.7.4=  Cross-References, Hypertext, and Embedding

        =Section 3.7.5=  Editing and Marked Sections

        =Section 3.7.6=  General Style and Conventions

    =Section 3.8=  Esoterica

        =Section 3.8.1=  Inclusions in Languages Other than English

        =Section 3.8.2=  Footnotes, Cross-References, and Bibliographic 
Citations

        =Section 3.8.3=  Formulas and Statistical Text

        =Section 3.8.4=  Verse, Drama, and Liturgy

    =Section 3.9=   Electronic Forms and Tests

    =Section 3.10=  The E-Mail Business Letter

    =Section 3.11=  The Final Rule

Abstract:  This manual discusses how to use electronic text (E-text) as 
a communications medium distinct from the print media.  The manual is 
written in a non-technical style, such as a humanist-of-little-brain 
might enjoy reading.  

  o  You can learn how to write effective E-text for personal, business, 
and scholarly communication.  

  o  It includes sections on preparing forms and texts for electronic 
response and on writing effective and business-like E-mail letters.  

  o  There is a brief section on Standard Generalized Markup Language, a 
coding standard of interest to humanists.


Just to prove how non-technical it all is, here is an exceptional lapse 
into technical jargon, in case you know what the Internet and FTP 
archives are:

    This work is a companion volume to _E-Mail 101_, available free as
    ftp://mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu:/etext/etext93/email025.txt.


                    +     +     +

<Preface>

    This work grew out of my earlier course notes published under the 
title _EMAIL 101_.  It was originally projected to be a three chapter 
section concerning the special needs of writers who wished their works 
to be transportable by the electronic networks.  The chapters were not 
included in the original release as they existed only in outline form.

Over the course of Summer 1993 I gradually came to realize that E-text 
was a communication medium in its own right, with its own needs and 
conventions, its own strengths and weaknesses, and not merely the 
bastard child of the print medium.  Consequently, many questions of 
style, long ago settled for print media and fixed into rules in style 
manuals, needed to be re-examined in light of the new medium.

Since, it seemed to me, that no one had set out to treat the stylistic 
considerations of writing E-text, at least at any length, I decided to 
expand my three chapters into the present work.  I set out to write down 
systematically some observations I had made concerning the differences 
between E-text and "ordinary" writing.  I treat E-text as a legitimate 
medium of expression, one that must be addressed on its own terms and 
without unnecessary reference to how the words might look on paper or 
how the work might be useful if printed out.

For reasons that I will discuss at length in the first part, only a 
small fraction of E-text will ever see the light of print.  While paper 
may offer a better resolution image and a more perspicuous whole, E-text 
excels at ease of production and portability.  It can be copied simply, 
transported great distances in seconds by electronic networks, and 
stored on magnetic media--floppy disks, hard drives, and CD-ROMs--that 
are less bulky and cheaper than paper.  

The extraordinary growth of E-mail in the past few years, from a medium 
used by a few scientists and government officials to one accessible to 
millions, often in a humanistic or business setting, demands that we 
give the writing of E-text the attention it deserves.  If you wish to 
communicate effectively, you will have to master this new medium.  It is 
a necessary part of education--if only we knew what to teach!

Good writing is, in many respects, the same for any medium.  And the 
first thing any writer learns is that their** writing must fit both the 
audience and the medium being used.  We cannot pretend any longer that 
we are writing for print or that our audience will be looking at 
anything other than a computer screen.

  **  I deliberately use "their" as an ambiguous pronoun throughout.

Just as the print media differ among themselves depending on the 
intended audience, expected lifetime of the text, and peculiarities of 
the medium, so E-text differs from print.  

This work is organized as follows:

  In the first part we delineate the major differences between the print 
media and E-text.  

  In the second part, we discuss specific issues such as techniques
for designing a visually appealing layout, or representing characters.

  The third and final part is a brief style manual for writing E-text.  
It is not offered as a set of prescriptions, but as an example of how 
the principles in the second part can be realized in practice.


     [... Entire book omitted ...]

                    +     +     +

<Appendix A>  Technical Details:  Relationship to SGML and TEI

Many of the concerns addressed in this manual are common to participants 
in the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and other users of the ISO 
standard, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML, see =Section 
2.9=).  I would like to emphasize, for their benefit, that this manual 
describes a *presentation format* and not an encoding format.  It is 
perfectly possible to create an SGML- or TEI-compliant file that uses 
the format discussed in this manual as a visual output format.  

There are very distinct advantages to having a visually appealing, 
informal, character-oriented format, like the one advocated here, in 
which the logical structure (i.e. markup) is still present, but not 
visually intrusive.  SGML compliant systems may well produce such a flat 
file at the request of a user, or the screen output may be cut from the 
program's display window and pasted into such a file.  This style manual 
has tried to describe design principles that will make the resulting 
flat file useful and appealing to read.

Naturally, there are many uses for such a format outside SGML systems as 
well; and a certain uniformity, or at least attention to design 
principles, can only help make the texts created more useful.  

The advantages of SGML or TEI encoding will only come about if word 
processors that hide the markup process from the casual user become 
commonplace and interoperable.  Probably, a low-end freeware editing 
system will have to be created.**  Until that time, welcome or not, flat 
ASCII is not only a visual format, but an interim interchange standard 
as well.  

  **  Such a system is being created for the LINUX operating system.

Once again:  this is not a new encoding or input format, nor is it 
primarily intended as an interchange standard; it is a suggested format 
for visual *output* that happens to be maximally transportable at the 
present moment.

                    +     +     +

------------------(end of Elements of E-Text Style)-------------------