Collaboration

What is collaboration? How can I be a better collaborator? Review research and scholarship on collaboration. Explore the interpersonal competencies, the workforce competencies, that comprise collaboration.

Design

What is design? How can design help me communicate clearly, persuasively? Review research and scholarship on design. Learn to use design thinking to develop texts, products, and services.

Editing

What is editing? How can I avoid embarrassing copy-editing errors? Review research and scholarship on editing. Avoid embarrassing and potentially costly copy-editing errors. Earn higher grades in school and promotions at work.

Genre

What is genre? How does genre knowledge help with writing and reading? Review research and scholarship on genre. Explore how genre analysis informs interpretation and composing. Learn how to identify the appropriate genre, or remixing of genres, for a particular situation.

Information Literacy

What is information literacy? How should I identify, find, evaluate, apply, and cite information? Review research and scholarship on information literacy. Learn to think for yourself. Distinguish fake news from real news. Learn to distinguish appeals to ethos, pathos and ethos. Develop a nuanced understanding of information and literacy (e.g., critical, digital, quantitative, and visual literacy). Synonymous Terms: Data Information Literacy; Interpretation; Science Communication; STEM Literacy for Learning

Rhetoric

What is rhetoric?  How can rhetorical knowledge help me interpret information and communicate more effectively? Review research and scholarship on rhetoric. Develop your rhetorical stance by learn how to analyze your rhetorical situation.

Rhetorical Analysis of Film

Style

What is Style? How do I determine the most appropriate style to adopt when composing texts and designing apps, products, and services? How can principles of Flow, Coherence, Unity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Simplicity help me write with greater clarity? Learn to adopt different styles for different audiences and discourse communities.

Workplace Writing Studies

What is Workplace Writing? What's the difference between Workplace Writing and Professional and Technical Communication? or Business Communication? or Writing across the Curriculum? Review research and scholarship on the past and future of workplace writing. Learn the foundational concepts of writing in contemporary workplaces.

Writing Studies

What is Writing Studies? How can I learn from Writing Studies more flexible ways of composing texts? Learn about the research, theory, and scholarship that informs Writing Commons.

Conducting a Spatial Analysis through the Lens of Universal Design

The sign in this image reads, “WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE ENTRANCE AVAILABLE, PLEASE ASK INSIDE FOR ASSISTANCE.” Obviously, this picture was taken and turned into a meme because someone thought it was funny, which it is. But is it just funny, or does it reveal a deeper message about the way our society thinks about people with disabilities? What does this meme actually tell us? It tells us this building has been retrofitted with an alternative wheelchair accessible entrance, and its proprietors went so far as to post a sign with this information. However, the proprietors

So Your Instructor is Using Contract Grading…

Working Through Revision: Rethink, Revise, Reflect

 What is revision? How can it help me improve my writing? Read about what revision is and how to solicit, interpret, and implement feedback that helps you make positive changes to your work.

You want me to do what to my paper? Interpreting your professors’ feedback

Feedback is one of the major components of effective writing. Professional technical writers may get feedback from clients or members of their target audience before producing a deliverables; creative writers may ask other writers they trust or a sample of their target demographic to provide feedback; and workplace writers may receive feedback from their boss or coworkers before releasing the final version of a draft. What these writers know is that feedback provides an invaluable opportunity to understand the needs and perceptions of their audiences, so it’s important to take that information into account to produce a rhetorically sound final product. The purpose of this article is to walk you through some common comment types, and help you respond effectively to improve your writing.

Fake News: An Undergraduate Composition Course

Fake News is a themed undergraduate English composition course. This course aims to help students develop an understanding and practice of Empathetic Information Literacy.

Rhetoric & Entrepreneurship

Rhetoric & Entrepreneurship is an undergraduate course on Professional Writing (Spring 2021). This course challenges students to work collaboratively throughout a semester to develop a business thesis, engage in customer discovery, and design a prototype for a new business.