Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' — a masterpiece born from a mind that saw the world differently. Just as art benefits from diverse perspectives, educators must appreciate neurodivergent students for their unique and valuable ways of interpreting the world and composing.
Van Gogh, V. (1889). Starry Night [Painting]. The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Student Voices

A new initiative at Writing Commons, begun in the fall 2023 semester, Student Voices aims to provide a public forum for outstanding undergraduate writing. We are open to works of fiction or nonfiction. We welcome traditional alphabetical texts or multimedia. Your submission must affirm the writing was produced as required coursework.

As these three students navigate their research, unexpected triggers may arise, shedding light on the intricate relationship between reading, trauma, and learning.
“Students Reading” by AUM OER, CC BY 2.0.

Reading and Disruptive Emotions

This article examines the relationship between reading and emotional response. It addresses the emotions reading can provoke, identifies potential emotional triggers, and suggests practical strategies for managing emotional responses, like mindfulness and emotional regulation. Learn to identify, manage, and strategically respond to emotions stirred by reading in both personal and academic contexts.

Student engrossed in reading on her laptop, surrounded by a stack of books
“Academic Writing” by AUM OER, CC BY 2.0

Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community

Academic writing refers to the writing style that researchers, educators, and students use in scholarly publications and school assignments. An academic writing style refers to the semantic and textual features that characterize academic writing and distinguish it from other discourses, such as professional writing, workplace writing, fiction, or creative nonfiction. Learn about the discourse conventions of the academic community so you can write with greater authority, clarity, and persuasiveness (and, in school settings, earn higher grades!).  

“Professional Writing” by Internet Freedom Fellows, CC BY-ND 2.0.

Professional Writing – How to Write for the Professional World

Professional writing is fundamentally transactional: usually if you are writing it is because you are trying to solve some kind of a problem. Your audience — the people you are writing to — probably need to do something in response to your writing. They may not be expecting your writing. They probably don’t want to read your writing. Your writing is interrupting their day. So, if you’re gonna bother them you need to make it worth their time. Learn about the style of writing that characterizes the texts of professional writers in workplace writing contexts. Master the discourse conventions of professional communities of practice.

Source: Image by OpenAI, DALL-E, 2023 (https://labs.openai.com).

Authority – How to Establish Credibility in Speech & Writing

In our modern digital era, advanced editing tools have amplified the spread of misinformation, making the quest for authority and credibility in speech and writing even more important. With countless sources available at our fingertips, discerning credible from unreliable information can be challenging. Whether you’re delivering a speech, writing an article, or simply engaging in a discussion, how can you ensure that your words carry weight and are perceived as trustworthy? Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you achieve just that.

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Corpus linguistics fuels AI innovation: Teams of computational linguists, including those at OpenAI, delve into the vast expanse of the internet, amassing an extensive corpus to predict textual patterns. Yet, when classic lines, like T.S. Eliot's 'I measure my life in coffee spoons' from 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,' are absorbed without proper acknowledgment, pressing ethical questions emerge. This illustration captures that very sentiment, as Eliot's iconic line spirals into the corpus vortex.
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Corpus Linguistic Analysis – A Bird’s Eye View of Writing

Language is vast, and when we read, we often focus on individual words, sentences, or specific texts. This narrow perspective can cause us to overlook broader patterns and trends. For instance, it’s easy to miss the recurring linguistic choices that individuals make, both fruitful and less effective, especially in academic writing. However, by taking a step back and observing language from a broader, bird’s-eye perspective, we gain a clearer understanding of the unique characteristics of different texts. Recognizing and studying these patterns helps improve your comprehension and mastery of written language.

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Contract Grading – So Your Instructor is Using Contract Grading…

Educational psychologists have shown that grades can undermine student engagement with their own work, making them more focused on grades than on learning (Kohn 29). As a result, students are often more concerned with how to get an “A” than how to write effectively for different audiences, purposes

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Rhetorical Analysis in the Real World: A Useful Thinking Tool

As a citizen and a scholar, I use rhetorical analysis to sort out questions about politics and relationships. In everyday life, rhetorical analysis is a valuable tool for understanding and preparing to engage in the world.

Since Aristotle's time, rhetoricians have posited that effective persuasion hinges on three central appeals: logos (logic), pathos (emotion), and ethos (the speaker's credibility and character). A fourth appeal, Kairos, underscores the significance of timing — emphasizing that the right message must be delivered at the opportune moment for maximum impact.
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Rhetorical Appeals: An Overview

Rhetorical appeals are strategic tools writers use to effectively persuade their audience. Comprising ethos (credibility), logos (logic), pathos (emotion), and kairos (timing), these appeals form the backbone of influential persuasive writing. By understanding and harnessing these appeals, you’ll not only recognize them in the texts you read but also enhance your own writing, making your arguments more compelling and impactful.

“2019 LAFD Merit Scholarship Awards” by LAFD is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
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Using First Person in an Academic Essay: When is It Okay?

This essay explores the circumstances under which using the first person in an academic essay is acceptable. In academic writing, the use of the first person—expressed through pronouns such as “I”, “me”, “my”, and “we”—is in a state of flux. Historically, scholars were advised to avoid the first person to maintain objectivity and a formal tone. In school settings, students were often told to set their own opinions aside and write summaries and reviews of literature. Yet recently, especially in the humanities, qualitative researchers have questioned the possibility of objectivity and this convention of avoiding the first person. Instead, these theorists argue that researchers and writers can be more authoritative by employing the first person.  

For many students, college years are a kairotic moment: they are a critical time in one’s life when one prepares for one’s future.
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Kairos – How to Strategically Time Your Messages for Impact

“Kairos” is an ancient rhetorical concept meaning “to say the right thing at the right time.” In order to say the right thing, you need a sense of audience. And, of course, you need to craft your message with clarity and brevity. Yet that by itself isn’t sufficient. It doesn’t matter how eloquent you are if you audience is not willing to listen to you on a topic at this particular moment. Thus, kairos is chiefly about timing: it’s about knowing about when to give your message.        

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This article provides a comprehensive, research-based introduction to the major steps, or strategies, that writers work through as they endeavor to communicate with audiences. Since the 1960s, the writing process has been defined to be a series of steps, stages, or strategies. Most simply, the writing process is conceptualized as four major steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing. That model works really well for many occasions. Yet sometimes you’ll face really challenging writing tasks that will force you to engage in additional steps, including, prewriting, inventing, drafting, collaborating, researching, planning, organizing, designing, rereading, revising, editing, proofreading, sharing or publishing. Expand your composing repertoire — your ability to respond with authority, clarity, and persuasiveness — by learning about the dispositions and strategies of successful, professional writers.

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Copyright

Copyright refers to intellectual property laws that grant an exclusive legal right to creators to control the copying and public exhibition of their original creative works. By default, in the United States copyright law protects the original works of authorship. Alternatively, authors may use a Creative Commons copyright to license their work. Learn about copyright and fair use (copyright exceptions) so you can avoid academic and legal penalties associated with copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Like this murky, dream-like photo of Doubtful Sound, NZ, felt sense can seem dream like. There's this feel of deep meaning and yet its prelinguistic; its embedded in our bodies.
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Felt Sense

Felt Sense is prelinguistic, murky, vague–and yet it some conveys deep meaning. Felt Sense is “the soft underbelly of thought . . . a kind of bodily awareness that . . . can be used as a tool” to help you distinguish between what you’ve said or written and what you really hope to say or write. Review scholarship on felt sense and its role during composing. Learn to work with your felt sense to realize your creative potential.

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ACRL Information Literacy Perspectives & Practices

In an era where almost anything can be digitally manipulated or “spoofed,” from audio to even making visuals that deceive, you need to discern genuine sources from misleading or false sources. Learn about information literacy dispositions, behaviors, and conventions to avoid being duped by manipulative authors.

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The Elements of Style – The DNA of Powerful Writing

Just as DNA constitutes the building blocks of life — as illustrated in the depiction below of ions and DNA gliding through a single-walled carbon nanotube — the ‘Elements of Style’ form the foundation for powerful writing. Brevity, coherence, flow, inclusivity, simplicity, and unity — these stylistic elements empower writers to enhance the clarity and power of their work. Esteemed by educators, editors, and professional writers, they serve as the essential building blocks — indeed, the DNA — of clear, compelling communication.

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Audience – Audience Awareness

If your text doesn’t appeal to your audience, then all is lost. Awareness of your audience (as well as purpose and context) is crucial to writing well. Learn how to analyze your audience so you can determine what you need to say and how you need to say it.