Writing CommonsSite Map

Site Map

Since 2012, Writing Commons has published original articles on matters of interest to students and writing teachers. Over time, the site map for the project has evolved. The site map below reflects the current iteration of the site. Moving forward, this Site Map will continue to evolve in response to our on-going usability research and user feedback. If you think we've sorted an article incorrectly or you have a suggestion, please use the commenting form below to get in touch with us. If you want us to prioritize revisions on a particular article, please let us know.  

About

Collaboration

  1. Co-authorship
  2. Conflict Resolution
  3. Critique
    1. Consider Feedback
    2. Navigate Feedback
    3. Provide Feedback in Group Situations
    4. Provide Feedback to Others
    5. Why Meet with a Writing Tutor?
  4. Leadership
  5. Peer Review
    1. In-class Peer Review
    2. Articles
      1. Online Forums: Responding Thoughtfully
  6. Teamwork
  7. Tools for Project Management
  1. Other articles:
    1. Distinguish Your Ideas from Your Sources
    1. How Can You Determine Whether to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize
    2. Integrate Evidence Appropriately
    3. Inserting or Altering Words in a Direct Quote
    4. Relate Sources to Thesis/Research Question
    5. Paraphrasing
    6. Quoting
      1. Block Quotations
      2. Mix Quoting with Paraphrasing
      3. Omitting Words from a Direct Quotation
    7. Summarizing
    8. Synthesis Notes: Working With Sources To Create a First Draft
    9. Synthesizing Your Research Findings

Communication

  1. Semiotics: Sign, Signifier, Signified
  2. Visual Language

Courses

  1. First-Year Composition
  2. Workplace Writing

Design

Design Elements

  1. Color
  2. Copy
  3. Line
  4. Shape
  5. Space
  6. Texture
  7. Typography

Design Principles

  1. Alignment
  2. Balance: Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, & Radial
  3. Closure
  4. Color Theory
  5. Continuity
  6. Contrast
  7. Emphasis
  8. Figure-Ground
  9. Focal Point
  10. Gestalt, Gestalt Theory
  11. Harmony
  12. Movement
  13. Pattern
  14. Proportion
  15. Proximity
  16. Repetition
  17. Rhythm
  18. Similarity
  19. Scale
  20. Unity
  21. Variety
  22. Page Design

Universal Design

Usability

Editing

Genre

  1. Argument, Argumentation
    1. Aristotelian Argument
    2. Backing
    3. Claim
      1. Connecting Evidence to Your Claim
      2. Knowledge Claim
    4. Counterargument
    5. Evidence
      1. Types of Evidence
    6. Grounds
    7. Rogerian Argument
    8. Toulmin Argument
    9. Qualifier
    10. Warrant
  2. Charts, Figures, Graphs, & Tables
    1. Gantt Charts
  3. Cluster Diagrams & Spider Maps
  4. Cover Letter, Letter of Transmittal
  5. Employment Documents
    1. Taking Control: Managing Your Online Identity for the Job Search
  6. Executive Summary
  7. Formal Reports
  8. Hierarchical maps
  9. Icons, Ideograms, Pictographs
  10. Illustrations
  11. Infographics
    1. Creating “Viral” Impressions: Composing Infographics for the Classroom and Work Space
  12. Information Visualization, Data Visualization
  13. Memos
  14. News Story (Journalism)
  15. Persuasion
  16. Photography
    1. Photographer’s Guide to Selecting Photos for Texts
  17. Playwriting
    1. Overview of Playwriting
    2. Power in the “Black Stuff”
  18. Presentations
    1. PowerPoint Presentation: Developing an Effective Design
  19. Proposal Writing Basics
  20. Research Protocol
  21. Short Story
    1. Setting in Short Stories
  22. Timeline & Flowchart Maps
  23. Title
    1. The Mysterious Incident of the Missing Title: Why Did Titular Concern Vanish from Composition Studies?
  24. Scientific Proposals
  25. Text-to-Text Remediation

Grammar

  1. Mechanics
    1. Punctuation
      1. Apostrophes
      2. Capitalization
      3. Colons
      4. Commas
        1. Phrases, Essential and Non-Essential Phrases
      5. Dashes
      6. Ellipses
      7. End Punctuation
      8. Hyphens
      9. Italics
      10. Parentheses
      11. Periods, Question Marks, Exclamation Points (End-Punctuation)
      12. Quotation Marks
      13. Semicolons
    2. Spelling
  2. Modifiers, Modification
  3. Parallelism, Parallel Structure, Parallel Construction
  4. Sentences
    1. Parts of a Sentence
      1. Independent Clauses, Dependent Clauses & Phrases
      2. Subjects, Verbs, & Objects
    2. Sentence Errors
      1. Comma Splice
      2. Run-on Sentences
      3. Sentence Fragment
      4. Subject-Verb Agreement
    3. Sentence Patterns
    4. Sentence Structure
      1. Coordination & Subordination
    5. Sentence Types
  5. The 9 Parts of Speech
    1. Articles
    2. Adjectives
    3. Adverbs
    4. Conjunctions
    5. Interjections
    6. Nouns
    7. Prepositions
    8. Pronouns
    9. Verbs

Help

Information Literacy

  1. Archive
  2. Attribution
  3. Canon
  4. Citation
  5. Citation Tools
  6. Information Architecture
  7. Information, Data
  8. Information Design
  9. Information Literacy Perspectives & Practices
    1. Authority is Constructed & Contextual
    2. Information Creation as a Process
    3. Information Has Value
      1. Guide to Using Online Images
      2. Intellectual Property
      3. What is Plagiarism?
      4. What is Academic Dishonesty?
        1. Articles
          1. Copyright and Writing
    4. Research as Inquiry
      1. Divide and Conquer: Rethinking Your Approach to Research
    5. Scholarship as a Conversation
      1. Articles
        1. Conversation between Sources
        2. Sticking Your Nose In: Positioning Yourself in Academic Writing
        3. Understanding How Conversations Change Over Time
    6. Searching as Strategic Exploration
      1. Annotated List of Open Access Resources
      2. Finding and Examining the Sources in Your Sources
      3. Preliminary Research
      4. Search Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
      5. Seek Help from Librarians
      6. Smart Searching
      7. Best Search Tools for Images
    7. Understanding Library Resources
      1. Understanding URLs
      2. Understanding URLS (Exercise Answers)
      3. Using Databases: Periodical Indexes and Abstracts
  10. Information Literacy Discourse Conventions: Reasoning with Evidence
    1. Connecting Evidence to Your Claims
    2. Distinguish Your Ideas from Your Sources
    3. How Can You Determine Whether to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize?
    4. Provide Background Information About the Researcher’s Methods
    5. Relate Sources to Thesis/Research Question
    6. Why is it important to conclude a paragraph with the writer’s voice rather than a quote or paraphrase?
  11. MLA Handbook, 9th Edition
    1. MLA Citation – MLA In Text Citation
    2. MLA Format
    3. MLA Format Example: Sample MLA Format Essay
    4. MLA Works Cited
    5. Quoting Plays and Poetry in MLA
    6. Quoting in MLA – Definition & Examples
  12. Publication Manual of the APA: 7th Edition
    1. APA Abstracts
    2. APA Body
    3. APA Citations
    4. APA Footnotes
    5. APA Format – General Formatting Guidelines
    6. APA Headings and Subheadings
    7. APA References
    8. APA Sections
    9. APA Title Page

Invention

  1. Felt Sense
  2. Freewriting
  3. Heuristics
    1. Burke’s Pentad
    2. Document Planner
    3. Journalistic Questions
    4. The Business Model Canvas
    5. Argument Template (Toulmin)
  4. Inner Speech
  5. Journaling (Writer’s Journal)
  6. Preliminary Research
  7. Prewriting
    1. Commonplaces (Topoi)
    2. Dictating
    3. Group Brainstorming & Online Conversations
  8. Visual Brainstorming
  9. Articles
    1. Snort, Snuffle, Write

Literacy

  1. Critical Literacy
    1. The CRAAP Test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose)
      1. Accuracy
      2. Authority
        1. Avoid the Use of Unsupported Opinions as Evidence
        2. Consider How Are Your Sources Using Sources?
        3. Evaluate if the Information is News or Opinion
        4. Provide Background Information About the Researcher’s Method
      3. Currency
      4. Purpose
      5. Relevance
    2. Annotating the Margins
    3. Distinguishing between Main Points and Sub-claims
  2. Digital Literacy
    1. Digital Footprints: Public Writing and Social Identities
    2. Social Media Mythbusters
  3. Quantitative Literacy
  4. Visual Literacy
    1. Animation
    2. Breaking Down an Image

Mindset

  1. Growth Mindset
    1. Adopt Effective Writing Habits
    2. Faith in the Writing Process
    3. Play the Believing Game
    4. Tips for Realizing Your Creative Potential
    5. Why Write?
  2. Intellectual Openness
    1. Demystify Writing Misconceptions
  3. Self-Regulation & Metacognition
    1. Establish a Comfortable Place to Write
    2. Overcome Discouragement
    3. Planning Professional and Technical Documents
    4. Reflect on Your Writing Processes
    5. Scheduling Writing
  4. Professionalism & Work Ethic
    1. Why Should I Keep a Writer’s Log?
  5. Resilience

Organization

  1. Organizational Schema
    1. Announcements, Signposting, Organizational Thesis
    2. Causal Order
    3. Chronological Order
    4. Deductive Order, Deductive Reasoning, Deductive Writing
    5. Given-to-New Order
    6. Global Perspective
    7. Inductive Order, Inductive Reasoning, Inductive Writing
    8. Local Perspective
    9. Metalanguage
    10. Seque
    11. Spatial Order
      1. Conducting a Spatial Analysis Through the Lens of Universal Design
    12. Transitional Language
  2. Paragraphs
    1. Flow, Transitions, Coherence @ Paragraph Level
    2. Paragraph Transitions
    3. Relate Paragraphs Logically to the Previous Paragraph(s)
    4. Sentence Order within Paragraphs
    5. Topic Sentences & Paragraph Development
    6. Unity @ Paragraph Level

Research

  1. Applied Research, Basic Research
  2. Research Ethics
    1. Human Subjects Research
    2. Informed Consent
    3. IRB (Institutional Review Board)
  3. Research Methodology
  4. Research Methods
    1. Empirical Research Methods
      1. Qualitative Research Methods
        1. Case Study
        2. Ethnography
        3. Participant Observation
      2. Quantitative Research Methods
        1. Corpus Linguistics Analysis, A Bird’s Eye View of Writing
        2. Survey Research
      3. Mixed Methods
        1. Content Analysis
        2. Customer Discovery Interviews
          1. Problem Space
          2. Problem Scenarios
        3. Venture Design
      4. Usability & User Experience Research
    2. Informal Research Methods
    3. Textual Research Methods
      1. Content Analysis
      2. Hermeneutics
      3. Linguistic Analysis
      4. Literary Criticism
      5. Rhetorical Analysis
        1. A Guide to Textual Analysis
        2. Rhetorical Analysis in the Real World: A Useful Thinking Tool
        3. Rhetorical Analysis of Film
        4. Rhetorical Analysis of Images
      6. Textuality, Intertextuality

Revision

Rhetoric

  1. Rhetorical Reasoning
    1. Rhetorical Appeals
      1. Articles
        1. Beware of “Oh, that makes sense”: Ethos in Context
        2. Diplomacy, Tone, and Emphasis in Business Writing
        3. Ethos
          1. Fallacious Ethos
        4. Intrinsic Authority
        5. Logos
          1. Fallacious Logos
        6. Netiquette (Digital Ethics)
        7. Pathos
          1. Fallacious Pathos
        8. Rhetorical Appeals: A Checklist for Writers
        9. Rhetorical Appeals: An Overview
        10. Using Pathos in Persuasive Writing
    2. Rhetorical Devices
    3. Rhetorical Modes
      1. Causes & Effects
      2. Classification
      3. Compare & Contrast
      4. Definition
      5. Description
      6. Exemplification
      7. Exposition
      8. Narration
        1. Article
          1. Employing Narrative in an Essay
  2. Rhetorical Situation
    1. Audience
      1. Discourse Communities, Communities of Practice
      2. Methodological Communities
      3. Articles
        1. Audience Analysis: Primary, Secondary, and Hidden Audiences
        2. Classification
        3. Conducting a Spatial Analysis through the Lens of Universal Design
        4. Discourse Community, Community of Practice
        5. Digital Footprints: Public Writing and Social Identities
        6. Researching Your Audience
        7. Rhetorical Analysis in the Real World: A Useful Thinking Tool
        8. Think Rhetorically
        9. What to Think about When Writing for a Particular Audience
        10. You-Centered Business Style
    2. Medium, Media
      1. Team Work Space
    3. Occasion, Exigency & Kairos
      1. Problem Space, Solution Space
    4. Purpose
      1. Thesis
        1. When is a Thesis Considered Weak?
      2. Research Question
    5. Subject, Topic
    6. Writer, Speaker, Knowledge Worker . . .
      1. Perspective
  3. Rhetorical Stance
    1. Persona
    2. Point of View
      1. First-Person Point of View
      2. Second-Person Point of View
      3. Third Person Point of View
      4. Articles
        1. A Synthesis of Professor Perspectives on Using First and Third Person in Academic Writing
        2. Exercise: “We” and “You” in Academic Writing
        3. First-Person Point of View
        4. General Guidelines for Using the First Person
        5. Second-Person Point of View
        6. The First Person
        7. Third Person Point of View
        8. Understanding Point-of-View: Wizard Activity
        9. Using First Person in an Academic Essay: When is It Okay?
    3. Tone
      1. Articles
        1. Diplomacy, Tone, and Emphasis in Business Writing
    4. Voice
      1. Active vs Passive Voice
        1. When the Active Voice is Preferable to the Passive Voice
      2. Articles
        1. Active Voice

Style

  1. Code Switching
  2. Convention
  3. Diction
    1. Abstract Language
    2. Archaism
    3. Bias-Free Language
    4. Cliché
    5. Concrete, Sensory Language
    6. Contractions
    7. Figurative Language
      1. Idiom
      2. Metaphor
      3. Personification
      4. Simile
    8. Homonyms
    9. Inclusive Language, Bias-free Language
    10. Jargon
    11. Vague Language
    12. Word Form
    13. Wrong Word
  4. The Elements of Style
    1. Brevity
      1. Articles
        1. Writing Concisely and Avoiding Redundancy
    2. Clarity
    3. Flow
      1. Avoid Unnecessary Shifts in Point of View
      2. Avoid Unnecessary Shifts in Verb Tense
      3. Choppy Writing
      4. Creating Flow via Repetition
      5. Read Your Paper Aloud to Check Cohesiveness
    4. Simplicity
  5. Register
  6. Styles of Writing
    1. Academic Prose Style
    2. Reader-Based Style
      1. Concrete & Sensory Language
      2. You-Centered Business Style
      3. What to Think about When Writing for a Particular Audience
    3. Substantive Prose Style
    4. Professional Writing
    5. Writer-Based Prose Style

Writing Process

Writing Studies

  1. Assessment, Grading, and Response to Writing
    1. So Your Instructor is Using Contract Grading…
  2. Communication Studies
  3. Composition Studies
  4. Epistemology
    1. Anecdotal Knowledge
    2. Declarative Knowledge
    3. Dialectic
    4. Empiricism
    5. Knowledge
    6. Personal Knowledge
    7. Positivism
    8. Postmodernism
    9. Postpositivism
    10. Procedural Knowledge
    11. Rhetorical Knowledge
    12. Tacit Knowledge
  5. Professional and Technical Communication
    1. What is Workplace Writing or the Discipline of Professional and Technical Communication?
    2. An Overview of Professional and Technical Communication
    3. Cognitive, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal Competencies
  6. Psychology & Writing Studies
  7. Rhetoric & Technology
    1. Why Study Rhetoric? or, What Freestyle Rap Teaches Us about Writing
    2. Research on Mindset & Intrapersonal Competencies
  8. Writers @ Work
    1. An Interview with Trent Hergenrader
    1. Interviews with Writers: Maureen Seaton
    2. An Interview with Stephanie Vanderslice