Table of Contents – Site Map

Why is citation important to academic and professional writers? What are the APA and MLA guidelines for citing sources?

Citation – Citation Conventions and Citation Styles in Academic & Professional Writing

1. APA – Publication Manual of the APA: 7th Edition
   1. APA Abstracts
   2. APA Body
   3. APA Citations
      1. APA Paraphrase
      2. APA Quotations
      3. APA Summary
      4. APA Footnotes
   4. APA Format – General Formatting Guidelines
      • APA Headings and Subheadings
   5. APA References
   6. APA Sections
   7. APA Title Page
2. Attribution — What is the Role of Attribution in Academic and Professional Writing
3. Citation Guide – Learn How to Cite Sources in Academic and Professional Writing
   1. [See Also: When and How to Cite Generative AI in Your Writing]
   2. Citation – How to Connect Evidence to Your Claims
   3. Citation & Voice – How to Distinguish Your Ideas from Your Sources
   4. Citation Conventions – What is the Role of Citation in Academic & Professional Writing?
   5. Citation Conventions – When Are Citations Required in Academic & Professional Writing?
   6. Paraphrasing – How to Paraphrase with Clarity & Concision
   7. Quotation – When & How to Use Quotes in Your Writing
      • Block Quotations
   8. Summary – Learn How To Summarize Sources in Academic & Professional Writing
4. Citation Tools
5. MLA – MLA Handbook, 9th Edition
   1. MLA Citation – MLA In Text Citation
      • Quoting in MLA – Definition & Examples
      • Quoting Plays and Poetry in MLA
   2. MLA Format
      • MLA Format Example: Sample MLA Format Essay
   3. MLA Works Cited

Collaboration – Strategies for Collaborating in Academic & Professional Writing

What is the role of collaboration in academic & professional writing?

1. Coauthorship – How to Work with Coauthors
2. Collaboration Tools – The Collaborative Tools You Need for Success on School Projects
3. Conflict Resolution – How to Manage Conflicts & Keep Projects On Track
4. Critique – A Research-Based Guide to Criticism in Academic & Professional Writing
   1. Methodological Pitfalls: Common Flaws Across Research Communities
   2. Methodological Pitfalls: Flaws Unique to Specific Research Communities
   3. Provide Feedback in Group Situations
5. Peer Review – How to Make The Most of Peer Review
   • Online Forums – Responding Thoughtfully
6. Team Leadership – How to Be the Team Leader Everyone Wishes They Had
7. Teamwork – Why Winning Teams Have It And How To Get It
   • Managing Group Projects

Design – The Visual Language That Shapes Our World

Why does “design” play such a profound role in communication, persuasion, clarity — and, especially, technical communication?

1. Design Principles – The Big Design Principles You Need to Know to Create Compelling Messages
2. Elements of Art – How to Leverage the Power of Art to Make Visually Compelling Documents
   • Color – Color Theory
   • Copy – Copy Writing
   • Line
   • Shape
   • Space
   • Typography
3. Elements of Design – Master the Fundamentals of Visual Composition
4. Information Design and Architecture
   • Information Architecture
   • Information Design
   • Data Visualization – Information Visualization – The Art of Visualizing Meaning For Better Decision-Making
5. Page Design – How to Design Messages for Maximum Impact
6. Universal Design Principles – How to Design for Everyone
   • Conducting a Spatial Analysis through the Lens of Universal Design
7. Usability & User Experience
8. Visualization Techniques
   • Charts, Figures, Graphs, Tables
   • Cluster Diagrams & Spider Maps
   • Hierarchical Maps
   • Icons, Ideograms, Pictographs
   • Illustrations
   • Timelines & Flow Charts

Discourse- What is Discourse?

What do you to understand about discourse, discourse conventions, modes of discourse, and discourse community?

1. Causes & Effects
2. Classification
3. Comparison & Contrast
4. Dialogue – The Difficulty of Speaking
5. Definition
6. Description
7. Discourse Conventions
8. Exemplification
9. Exposition
10. Narration

Related Concepts

In order to identify types of discourse, writers and readers engage in ‘Rhetorical Analysis.” To guide that analysis, they also need to understand the concepts of “Discourse Conventions and Discourse Community?”

Genre – Why Is Knowledge of Genre Important to Writers?

What are common genres of discourse in school and professional settings?

1. Annotated Bibliography
2. Argument, Argumentation
   • Aristotelian Argument
   • Backing
   • Claim
   • Counterarguments – Rebuttal – Refutation
   • Grounds
   • Overgeneralization
   • Rogerian Argument
   • Toulmin Argument
   • Warrant
3. Autobiography
4. Conclusions – How to Write Compelling Conclusions
5. Cover Letter, Letter of Transmittal
6. Executive Summary
7. Formal Reports
8. Infographics
   • Creating “Viral” Impressions: Composing Infographics for the Classroom and Work Space
9. Instructions & Processes
10. Introductions
11. Literature Reviews – How Scholars, Empiricists, Creatives & Designers Frame Scholarly Conversations
12. Pitch
13. Presentations
14. Problem Definition
15. Progress Reports
16. Proposals
17. Recommendation Reports
18. Research Proposal
19. Research Questions – How Scholars, Empiricists, Creatives & Designers Frame Inquiry
20. Research Protocol
21. Reviews and Recommendations
22. Subjects & Concepts
23. Team Charter

Grammar – What Are the Fundamentals of Grammar?

What are the conventions of standard written English that govern how sounds, words, phrases, clauses, and syntactical structures can go together?

1. Mechanics
   1. Capitalization
   2. 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
   3. 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. Common Sentence Errors and How to Avoid Them
      1. Comma Splice
      2. Run-on Sentences
      3. Sentence Fragment
      4. Subject-Verb Agreement
   3. Sentence Patterns
   4. Sentence Structure – Syntax
      1. Coordination & Subordination
      2. Primer Sentences
      3. Subject-Pronoun Agreement
   5. Sentence Types
5. The 9 Parts of Speech
   1. Articles
   2. Conjunctions
      • Coordinating Conjunctions
      • Subordinating Conjunctions
   1. Nouns
   2. Prepositions
   3. Pronoun – Guide to Writing with Pronouns
      • Pronouns and Antecedents
      • Identifying and Addressing Unclear Pronouns & Antecedents
      • Pronouns and Inclusivity
   4. Verbs
      • Strong Verbs
      • Verb-Tense Shift

Information Literacy – How to Differentiate Quality Information from Misinformation

Why is authorial agency, deep fakes, and information evaluation so important in an age of AI?

1. Authority & Credibility – How to Be Credible & Authoritative in Research, Speech & Writing
2. Evidence – The Heartbeat of Successful Communication
   • Hypothetical Evidence -Hypothetical Reasoning
   • Anecdotal Evidence
   • Types of Evidence – How To Write Clearly & Persuasively
3. Information Ethics – Will AI Alter the Future of Academic Integrity?
   1. Academic Integrity – What is Academic Dishonesty?
   2. Copyright- – A Comprehensive Guide to U.S. Copyright Law
   3. Intellectual Property – How to Protect Ideas
   4. Plagiarism – Reimagining Authorship & Citation Practices in The Age of AI
4. Information Evaluation – How to Critically Evaluate Information
   • The CRAAP Test –  Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose
   • News vs. Opinion – How to Distinguish News from Opinion
   • Facts vs. Opinion – How to Distinguish Facts from Opinion
   • SIFT – Stop, Investigate, Find, Trace Claims
5. Information Literacy Ecosystem – Core Concepts
   1. ACRL Information Literacy Framework
      • Authority is Constructed & Contextual
      • Information Creation as a Process
      • Information Has Value
      • Research as Inquiry
      • Scholarship as a Conversation
      • Searching as a Strategic Exploration
   2. Archive – What Do Writers Need to Know About the Archive?
   3. Canon – Why is the Concept of the Canon So Important to Writers?
   4. Empathetic Information Literacy
   5. Information, Data, Content – Building Blocks of The Digital Information Age

Literacy – From the Printing Press to the AI Revolution – What You Need to Know about Power and Literacy

How is literacy a commodity (a source of income) and a form of power?

1. Cognitive, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal Literacies
2. Communication
3. Critical Literacy
   • Interpretation – Interpretative Frameworks
   • Textuality – Intertextuality
4. Digital Literacy
5. Orality, Literacy, and Superintelligence: The Technologizing of the Word
6. Quantitative Literacy
7. Semiotics: Sign, Signifier, Signified
8. Symbolic Communication
9. Symbolic Systems
10. Visual Language
11. Visual Literacy
12. Writing

Related Topics

For a additional information about contemporary literacies, see Information Literacy and AI-Assisted Writing and Critical AI Literacy.

Mindset – Why Is Mindset So Important To Your Writing Process?

How can a growth mindset empower you to robustly engage in thinking and writing processes?

1. Growth Mindset
   1. Have Faith in the Writing Process
   2. Why Write?
2. Habits of Mind – How to Foster Intellectual Growth
3. Intellectual Openness
   1. Demystify Research Methods
   2. Demystify Writing Misconceptions
4. Professionalism & Work Ethic
   1. Why Does Practice Matter?
5. Resilience
6. Self-Regulation & Metacognition
   1. Balance Believing with Doubting
   2. Develop Effective Writing Habits
   3. Establish a Comfortable Place to Write
   4. Overcome Discouragement
   5. Reading and Disruptive Emotions
   6. Play the Believing Game
   7. Play the Doubting Game
   8. Reading and Disruptive Emotions
   9. Scheduling Writing
   10. Why Does Practice Matter?
   11. Why Should I Keep a Writer’s Log?

Organization – Mastering Writing Structures for Academic and Professional Success

1. Organizational Patterns
   1. Announcements, Signposting, & Organizational Theses
   2. Causal Order
   3. Chronological Order
   4. Deductive Order, Deductive Reasoning, Deductive Writing
   5. Given-to-New Order
   6. Global Perspective – Rhetorical Perspective
   7. Inductive Order, Inductive Reasoning, Inductive Writing
   8. Local Perspective
   9. Metalanguage
   10. Spatial Order
   11. Transitions – Transition Words – Transitional Phases
2. Organizational Structures
3. Paragraphs
   • Flow, Transitions, Coherence @ Paragraph Level
   • Paragraph Transitions
   • Sentence Order within Paragraphs
   • Topic Sentences & Paragraph Development
   • Unity @ the Paragraph Level
4. Sentence Schemas

Research – Introduction to Research Methods and Methodological Communities

How do investigators determine which methods to employ – textual, empirical (qualitative or quantitative), or creative?

1. Epistemology – Theories of Knowledge
   • Declarative Knowledge
   • Dialectic
   • Embodied Knowledge
   • Empirical Knowledge – Empiricism
   • Knowledge
   • Positivism
   • Post-Positivism
   • Procedural Knowledge
   • Rhetorical Knowledge
   • Tacit Knowledge
   • Epistemology – What is Truth?
2. Applied Research, Basic Research
3. Research Ethics
   1. Human Subjects Research
   2. Informed Consent
   3. IRB (Institutional Review Board)
4. Research Methodology
5. Research Methods
   1. Creative Methods
   2. Design Research Methods
      • Business Model Canvas
      • Customer Discovery
      • [ Customer Personas ]
      • Problem Space, Solution Space
      • Problem Definition
      • Problem Scenarios
      • Design Thinking
      • Venture Design
   3. Empirical Research Methods
      • Qualitative Research Methods
        • [ Case Study ]
        • [ Interviews ]
        • Ethnography
      • Quantitative Research Methods
        • Survey Research
   4. Informal Research Methods
   5. Mixed Research Methods
      1. Corpus Linguistic Analysis – A Bird’s Eye View of Writing
      2. Usability & User Experience Research
   6. Scholarly Research Methods
      1. Citation Analysis
      2. Genre Analysis
      3. Literary Criticism
         1. Critical Disability Studies
         2. Critical Race Theory – Beyond Myths: What the Debate Misses
         3. Feminist Criticism
         4. LGBTQ + Criticism
         5. Marxist Criticism
         6. New Historicist Criticism
         7. Post-Colonial Criticism
         8. Post-Structuralist, Deconstructive Criticism
         9. Psychological Criticism
         10. Reader-Response Criticism
         11. Russian Formalism and New Criticism
         12. Structuralist Criticism
      4. Rhetorical Analysis
         • Rhetorical Analysis of Film
         • Rhetorical Analysis of Images
         • Rhetorical Analysis in the Real World: A Useful Thinking Tool
      5. Textual Analysis

Rhetoric – How To Decode Rhetorical Situations And Communicate With Power

Why is rhetorical knowledge so critical to persuasion, power, and clarity in communications?

1. Medium, Media
2. Occasion, Exigency, Kairos – How to Decode Meaning-Making Practices
   • Kairos – How to Strategically Time Your Messages for Impact
   • Using Appeals to Kairos in Persuasive Writing
3. Perspective – What is the Role of Perspective in Reading & Writing?
4. Purpose – Aim of Discourse – Intention
5. Rhetorical Listening – The Importance of Breaking the Silence When It Matters
6. Rhetorical Moves and Academic Writing
7. 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. Using Pathos in Persuasive Writing
         8. Rhetorical Appeals: An Overview
   2. Rhetorical Devices
   3. Rhetorical Modes
8. Rhetorical Situation
   1. Audience Awareness – How To Boost Clarity in Communications
      • Articles
        • Audience Analysis: Primary, Secondary, and Hidden Audiences
        • Researching Your Audience
        • What to Think about When Writing for a Particular Audience
      • Discourse Community- Community of Practice
      • Research Community – Methodological Community
   2. Register
   3. Subject, Topic
   4. Text, Composition
   5. Writing Tools
   6. Writer, Speaker, Knowledge Worker
9. Rhetorical Stance
   • Code Switching
   • Persona
   • Point of View
     • First-Person Point of View
     • Second-Person Point of View
     • Third-Person Point of View
   • Tone
   • Voice
     • How to Develop an Effective Voice, Tone, and Persona
10. Rhetorical Theory – The Ultimate Tool for Effective Communication
    • Rhetoric & Apparatus Theory

Style – Why Is How You Say Something So Important?

Understand why your writing style informs your personal power and clarity of expression.

1. The Elements of Style
   • Brevity – Say More with Less
   • Clarity (in Speech and Writing)
   • Coherence – How to Achieve Coherence in Writing
   • Diction
     • Abstract Language
     • Archaism
     • Cliché
     • Concrete Language, Sensory Language
     • Contractions
     • Figurative Language
     • Metaphor
     • Personification
     • Simile
     • Homonym
     • Jargon
     • Vague Language
     • Word Form
     • Wrong Word
   • Flow – How to Create Flow in Writing
     • Avoid Unnecessary Shifts in Point of View
     • Avoid Unnecessary Shifts in Verb Tense
     • Choppy Writing
     • Creating Flow via Repetition
   • Inclusivity – Inclusive Language
     • Ableist Language – Disability Metaphors – Disability Studies
   • Simplicity
   • Unity
2. Writing Styles
   • Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community
   • Edit for AWK (Awkward Writing)
   • How to Write for the Professional World – Guide to Professional and Business Writing
   • Reader-Based Prose
   • Substantive Prose
   • Tough, Sweet, & Stuffy Prose Styles
   • Writer-Based Prose
   • You-Centered Business Style
3. Why Don’t Students Use Plain Language?

Related Concepts: Audience – Audience Awareness; Discourse Community; Rhetoricity

What does theory, research, and scholarship tell us about the creative process?

The Writing Process – Research on Composing

1. Discovering Your Unique Writing Process: A Guide to Self-Reflection
2. Drafting – Composing – Writing
3. Editing
   • Edit for Assignment Requirements
   • Edit for Diction
   • Edit for Sentence Structure
   • Edit for Strings of Prepositional Phrases
   • Edit Paragraphs
   • Proofreading
4. How to Leverage Inner Speech and Process Pedagogy with Generative AI
5. Invention
   • Commonplaces (Topoi)
   • Conversations with Others
   • Felt Sense
   • Finding the Bunny: How to Make a Personal Connection to Your Writing
   • Freewriting
   • Heuristics
     • Burke’s Pentad
     • Document Planner
     • Journalistic Questions
     • The Business Model Canvas
   • Inner Speech – How to Trust Your Writerly Voice
6. Preliminary Research
7. Visual Brainstorming
8. Planning – What Are the Dispositions and Planning Strategies of Successful Writers?
   • Career Planning
   • Planning Technical & Professional Documents
9. Prewriting
10. Problem-Solving Strategies for Writers: a Review of Research
11. Rereading
12. Revising- Revision
    • Structured Revision – How to Revise Your Work
13. Sharing – Publishing
    • Student Voices
14. The 7 Habits of Mind & The Writing Process
15. The Embodied Writing Process – How to Tap Your Creative Potential
16. The Ultimate Blueprint: A Research-Driven Deep Dive into The 13 Steps of the Writing Process

Writing Studies – Portrait of an Emerging Field

What do the Fields of Rhetoric and Composition, Technical and Professional Communication, Computers and Writing Tell Us About Creativity and Communication?

1. Communication Studies
2. Composition Studies
3. Business and Professional 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
4. Psychology & Writing Studies
5. Rhetoric & Technology
   1. Why Study Rhetoric? or, What Freestyle Rap Teaches Us about Writing
   2. Research on Mindset & Intrapersonal Competencies
6. Writers @ Work
   1. An Interview with Trent Hergenrader
   1. Interviews with Writers: Maureen Seaton
   2. An Interview with Stephanie Vanderslice