Faculty and Staff

J.D. Applen

J.D. Applen, Ph.D.

Education

  • Ph.D. in English from the University of Arizona (1994)

Research Interests

  • Classical and Contemporary Rhetoric
  • Technical Communication for students across UCF in all majors
  • Hypertext and Writing for the Web
  • XML and Digital Archiving
  • Literature of Science and Technology
  • The Discourse of Science

Selected Publications

Books

  • Applen, J.D.  Writing for the Web: Composing, Coding, and Constructing Web Sites. New York: Routledge, June, 2013.
  • Applen, J.D., and Rudy McDaniel. The Rhetorical Nature of XML. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Awards

  • Gloria Jaffe Outstanding Technical Communicator Award of 2016.  Presented by the Orlando Central Florida Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication.   February, 2016.
  • TIP Award. (Teaching Incentive Program). UCF College of Arts and Sciences. $5000.  May, 2011.
  • UCF Competitive Sabbatical. CAH.  Fall, 2010.
  • TIP Award. (Teaching Incentive Program). UCF College of Arts and Sciences. $5000.  May, 2004.

Activities

  • Department of English Graduate Committee
  • Texts and Technology Committee
  • Future Technical Communicators Student Club Adviser
  • Professional Development Committee
  • Technical Communication Track Coordinator

Courses

No courses found for Spring 2026.

No courses found for Fall 2025.

No courses found for Summer 2025.

Course Number Course Title Mode Date and Time Syllabus
19209 ENC4414 Writing and Hypertext Mixed Mode (M) Th 01:30 PM - 02:45 PM Unavailable
No Description Available
20060 LIT6435 Rhetoric of Science Web-Based (W) 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM Unavailable
<p><span>LIT 6435 will be a general approach to&nbsp;the rhetoric&nbsp;of science–kairos, ethos, pathos, logos, and stasis theory —with specific attention to discourse and paradigm shifts in science. &nbsp;The general text for the book will be Crowley and Hawhee's <i>Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students</i>.&nbsp; Additionally, we will be reading four chapters from Elizabeth Kolbert's <i>The Sixth Extinction</i>&nbsp;with some attendant articles from traditional scientific journals such as <i>Nature</i>&nbsp;on genomic studies and the Anthropocene epoch that Kolbert bases her "popular science" or "journalistic science" work on. We will also look at position papers from the Union of Concerned Scientists on global warming and several chapters from David George Haskell's <i>The Forest Unseen</i>. &nbsp;Haskell is a biologist by training but he employs a lot of figurative language in his writing so we will examine his literary style.</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>This is both a core course and a restricted elective in the Technical Communication track, but graduate students majoring in Literary, Cultural and Textual Studies; Creative Writing; Writing and Rhetoric; and the Texts and Technology Ph.D. program are also welcome.</p> <br>
Course Number Course Title Mode Date and Time Syllabus
93655 ENC4280 Technical Writing Style Mixed Mode (M) Th 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM Unavailable
Prerequisite: ENC 3241.

Applies as:
  • Required class for Technical Communication track.
This course provides a better understanding of prose style in general and provides specific strategies for improving your own writing style, particularly for writing correspondence (e-mail, letters, and memos), reports, proposals, instructions (for example, tutorials, manuals, and reference), and policies and procedures as well as for writing various online genres—websites, blogs, e-zines, online help and more. A special attention to the rhetorical elements of style will be built in to this course.
92396 LIT4433 Literature of Science and Tech Web-Based (W) 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM Unavailable
Prerequisite: ENC 1102 with a 'C' (2.0) or higher.

LIT 4433 IS NOT A LITERARY HISTORY CLASS.

Applies as:
  • Required class for Technical Communication major track.
In the Literature of Science and Technology, we will examine the topics of science, technical communication, culture, philosophy, and the philosophy of language and texts. You will be required to write one ten-page paper on one of these three texts assigned for the course: White Noise by Don DeLillo, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, and The Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang.  This means that while you will be responsible for reading all three of our texts and doing the on-line work that is required for each book, you will only be responsible for writing a paper on one book.

No courses found for Summer 2024.

Course Number Course Title Mode Date and Time Syllabus
19415 ENC4414 Writing and Hypertext Mixed Mode (M) Th 01:30 PM - 02:45 PM Unavailable

PR: Grade of C (2.0) or better required in ENC 3211 or ENC 3241

This course is a restricted elective in the Technical Communication major and Digital Humanities minor and was designed with humanities students in mind, so if you haven't had any prior experience with hypertext technology, this is fine. All majors are welcome. In this course, we will work on our writing skills, our Web site architecture skills, and our technical coding skills based on CSS and HTML to produce 1) a personal Web site, and 2) an informational Web site that you build from a ten-page term paper you write for this course on anything to do with digital humanities or technical communication. By the end of the semester, you will be a competent Web site technician and writer and have a strong theoretical and applied sense of how traditional texts or bodies of writing can be converted into hypertext documents that you build from scratch.

There will also be some shorter assignments in the course, and we will be spending a significant amount of time studying theories about information so we can develop a more critical sensibility regarding hypertext.

The topic for your paper will be on one of the many issues associated with hypertext such as First Amendment rights, copyright law, gender, community, and the use of the World Wide Web in business and education. After we have finished our written projects, you will turn it into a web site that utilizes the rhetorical advantages of hypertext to their fullest advantage.
19420 ENC6425 Hypertext Theory and Design Web-Based (W) 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM Unavailable

Online, WWW 

This course is a restricted elective in the Technical Communication masters and was designed with humanities students in mind, so if you haven’t had any prior experience with hypertext technology, this is fine.   All majors are welcome.  In this course, we will work on our writing skills, our Web site architecture skills, and our technical coding skills based on CSS and HTML to produce 1) a personal Web site, and 2) an informational Web site that you build from a ten-page term paper you write for this course on anything to do with digital humanities or technical communication. By the end of the semester, you will be a competent Web site technician and writer and have a strong theoretical and applied sense of how traditional texts or bodies of writing can be converted into hypertext documents that you build from scratch.   

There will also be some shorter assignments in the course, and we will be spending a significant amount of time studying theories about information so we can develop a more critical sensibility regarding hypertext. 

The topic for your paper will be on one of the many issues associated with hypertext such as First Amendment rights, politics and geopolitics, copyright law, gender, race, and the use of the World Wide Web in business, education, digital humanities, and technical communication.  After we have finished our written projects, you will turn it into a web site that utilizes the rhetorical advantages of hypertext to their fullest advantage. 
Course Number Course Title Mode Date and Time Syllabus
80355 ENC3241 Honors Wr for Technical Prof In Person (P) M,W 03:00 PM - 04:15 PM Unavailable

The objective of this course is to increase your technical communication skills so you can better succeed in your chosen fields.  We will do research in specific subject matter areas and produce both print, graphic, and electronic texts.  
81636 ENC4280 Technical Writing Style Web-Based (W) 12:00 AM - 12:00 AM Unavailable
This course provides a better understanding of prose style in general and provides specific strategies for improving your own writing style, particularly for writing correspondence (e-mail, letters, and memos), reports, proposals, instructions (for example, tutorials, manuals, and reference), and policies and procedures as well as for writing various online genres—websites, blogs, e-zines, online help and more. A special attention to the rhetorical elements of style will be built in to this course

No courses found for Summer 2023.

Updated: Aug 22, 2023