Using the World Wide Web

Kenji Kitao and S. Kathleen Kitao

A. Why WWW?

The World Wide Web is growing very fast and covers a lot of information on an extremely wide variety of topics from all over the world. It is user-friendly--most sites are linked to other related WWW sites, and you can link to other sites just by clicking on words or images. There are many useful search engines. WWW can present letters, pictures, sounds, and even video. You can print or download files you see on WWW easily and quickly.

B. Searching

1. On-Line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication (http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors/kenji/onlin.htm) a. Taking notes
When you search for something on the WWW, open a word processing file at the same, and copy and paste useful information on your word processor text.

b. Copying WWW site addresses
You can copy and paste addresses for WWW sites, rather than typing them. Just highlight the address in the "Location" window and copy it. WWW sites often have long addresses, and it is easy to make mistakes, so we strongly suggest that you copy and paste them. Also, if you use the same computer often, you can use "bookmarks" to save the WWW sites that you are interested in.

c. Downloading files
If you find a very useful file which you think you will use a lot, download the file as an htm file and save it. Then you can use it any time, even if you are not on line. Many pages do not exist permanently, and useful pages may disappear.

d. Watching out for the same sites
Since it is very easy to link WWW sites, many sites on related subjects link to the same sites. That means that you may access the same site from more than one page.

e. Checking the date a page was updated
You need to check to see if there is an indication of how recently a page was updated. Many pages have a note that indicates when it was last updated. Sometimes a page is put on the WWW and not changed for a long time, so the information might be out of date, so in some cases, it is important to pay attention to this note.

For Advanced Users

Making Simple HTML Files

Making your own html file is very easy and useful. (An html file is a file with the commands necessary to format the file as a web page. For a browser to read a web page, it is necessary for it to have these commands.) You can make a file with any word processor, but you need to handle it as a text only file. File names have to be ?????.htm or ?????.html.

You can show your own documents on the web to the students in your class as well as to people all over the world. You can accumulate teaching materials for your classes, and make a library of your publications for your research. You can publish newsletters or journals on the web. Simple text-only web pages are very easy to make.

The html file is for a browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.) for the World Wide Web. The following is a sample.

Sample 1

<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE> Sample 1 </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
This part will be on the web.

</BODY></HTML>

You can copy and paste the sample on the word processor sheet and save it as (yourfirstname).htm. You always need to put .htm (or html) at the end of the file name for the WWW. It has to be a text-only file.

Then open that file using the Netscape. You will see the following in the upper lefthand corner.

This part will be on the web.

The file itself looks like this. If you have made a mistake, save this file as "1.htm", open it with your word processor, and compare it with your file.

These are the minimum essential commands for an html file, and you can put any message between <BODY> and </BODY>.

Now copy the following sample 2 and put it on the Netscape.

Sample 2

<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE> Sample 2 </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H2>Sample 2</H2>
<H4>Sample 2</H4>
<H6>Sample 2</H6>
<CENTER>
The words will be centered.
</CENTER>

The end of a paragraph is <P>
The line break is <BR>
<HR>You can draw a horizontal line all across.<P>
@@Of course you can just type "_" many times to draw a line.
_______________
<UL>
The words will be indented.<P>
</UL>
</BODY></HTML>

This time you will see the screen as follows.

Sample 2

Sample 2

Sample 2
The words will be centered.

The end of a paragraph is

The line break is

You can draw a horizontal line all across the screen.
_______________
If you compare the original html file and the screen, you will see what effects the commands have. If you are not sure, click here to see the correct page.

You can use H1 to H6 to vary the sizes of headings. The smaller the number, the bigger the letters.

In Sample 3, you will see how to list things.

Sample 3

<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE> Sample 1 </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H3>Listing</H3>

The words will be after a black dot for listing. <P>

<LI>aaaaa
<LI>bbbbb
</UL>

<OL>
<P>The list will be numbered.<P>
<LI> xxxxx
<LI> ooooo<P>
</OL>
<HR>

</BODY></HTML>

This time you will see the screen as follows.

Listing

The words will be after a black dot for listing.
  • aaaaa
  • bbbbb

    The list will be numbered.

    1. xxxxx
    2. ooooo

    If you compare the original html file and the screen, you will see the effects of the commands you used. If you are not sure, click here to see the correct page.

    The great advantage of a web page is the ability to link. You can make links to other pages so that you can go to that page just by clicking with the mouse. In sample 4, you will see how to do this.

    Sample 4

    <HTML><HEAD>
    <TITLE> (Title) </TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>
    <H3>Linking Other Web Page</H3>

    <a href=" http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors/kenji/teach.htm"> <I>English Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice </I></a> (1995) Eichosha<P>

    </BODY></HTML>

    This time you will see the screen as follows.

    Linking Other Web Page

    English Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice (1995) Eichosha

    If you compare the original html file and the screen, you will see the effects of the commands. If you are not sure, click here to see the correct page.

    As you can see, the last book title is in a different color and is underlined. If you click on it, you will access that site. This is the way you can link to any web page. All you have to do is just copy this part and change URL and the name for that page.

    Finally, we will show you a useful trick, which is seeing the text you have written with a word processor as it would be on the web. If you put the commands <PRE> and </PRE>before and after a section, they will look like they do on your word processor screen, without using HTML tags. See Sample 5.

    Sample 5

    <HTML><HEAD>
    <TITLE> Sample 5 </TITLE>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>
    <PRE>
    xxxxx
    yyyyy yyyyy yyyyy
    @@zzzzz zzzzz
    </PRE>
    </BODY></HTML>

    Now you see that the web page looks the same without tags, as follows.

    xxxxx
    yyyyy yyyyy yyyyy
    @@zzzzz zzzzz
    You can see the correct one here. A common mistake is to forget to put in line breaks, and the lines are continued. This can help you avoid that problem.

    You can, of course, combine the tags you have learned to make web pages. If you can use all tags we have explained, you can make basic web pages using your own texts.

    If you are interested in making better html files, you can use resources on the Internet on our web page. You can change sizes of letters, kinds of fonts, colors for the background, letters, etc. You can put pictures, sounds, tables, frames forms, etc. You can do a lot to make your web pages comprehensive and attractive. One of the useful site for making HTML files is A Beginner's Guide to HTML

    You may have already found that the easiest way to learn to make HTML files is to look for a page that is similar to what you want to do and copy it. This is the simplest and most practical way to make web pages.

    Why don't you start with this sample?

    VI. More Useful Internet Resources

    There are a great many resources on the Internet. It is the accumulation of work done by people who are working in a wide variety of academic fields. In order to make these resources more useful or valuable, your contributions are important. There are a lot of things you can do, including participating in discussions on mailing lists, contributing your work to archives or electronic publications, sending information to people who are compiling certain information. However, one of the most lasting contributions you can make is to make a good, useful web page.

    k.kitao@lancaster.ac.uk