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About

• Aaron Swartz Best Webtext Award

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
6. Teamwork
7. Tools for Project Management

Courses

• Composition
  • Fake News, an Undergraduate Composition Course
• Workplace Writing
  • Schedule, Professional Writing, Spring 2021
    • Syllabus, Professional Writing, Spring 2021
  • Schedule, Professional Writing, Fall 2021
    • Syllabus, Professional Writing, Fall 2021

Design

1. Data Visualization 
2. Design Elements*
   1. Color
   2. Copy
   3. Line
   4. Pattern
   5. Shape
   6. Size
   7. Space
   8. Texture
   9. Typography
3. Design Principles
   1. Alignment
   2. Balance: Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, & Radial
   3. Closure
   4. Continuity
   5. Contrast
   6. Emphasis
   7. Figure-Ground
   8. Focal Point
   9. Gestalt, Gestalt Theory
   10. Harmony
   11. Movement
   12. Pattern
   13. Proportion
   14. Proximity
   15. Repetition
   16. Rhythm
   17. Similarity
   18. Scale
   19. Simplicity*, Visual Design
   20. Unity
   21. Variety
4. Design Tools
5. Page Design
6. Universal Design
   1. Accessibility
   2. Usability

Editing

1. Editing Exercises
   1. Edit for Brevity
2. Edit for Comma Splice
3. Edit for Unclear Modifier
4. Edit for Diction
5. Edit Paragraphs
6. Edit for Plagiarism
7. Edit for Point of View
8. Edit for Run-on Sentences
9. Edit for Flow between Paragraphs
10. Edit Primer Sentences
11. Edit for Sentence Fragments
12. Edit for Subject-Verb Agreement
13. Edit for Pronoun Agreement
14. Edit for Semicolons
15. Proofreading
    1. Read Your Paper Aloud to Check Cohesiveness 

Genre

1. Cover Letter, Letter of Transmittal
2. Executive Summary*
3. Formal Reports
4. Infographics
   1. Creating “Viral” Impressions: Composing Infographics for the Classroom and Work Space
5. Memos
6. News Story (Journalism)
7. Playwriting
   1. Overview of Playwriting
   2. Power in the “Black Stuff”
8. Presentations
   1. PowerPoint Presentation: Developing an Effective Design
9. Proposal Writing Basics
10. Research Protocol

Help

• The Writer’s Guide to Writing Commons
  • What is Communication?
• The Teacher’s Guide to Writing Commons

Interaction

• Aaron Swartz Best Webtext Award
• About
• Contribute
• Dear Past Authors
• Editorial Board/Review Editors

Information Literacy

1. Archive
2. Canon
3. Composition
4. Information
5. Information Architecture
6. Information Design
7. Information Literacy Perspectives & Practices
   1. Authority is Constructed & Contextual
   2. Information Creation as a Process
   3. Information Has Value
      1. Intellectual Property
      2. Plagiarism
      3. Attribution, Citation, & References
         1. American Psychological Association, 6th Edition
            1. Block Quotations (APA)
            1. Citing Paraphrases and Summaries (APA)
            2. Documenting Sources: APA
            3. Emphasizing Words in a Direct Quotation (APA)
            4. Formatting the Title Page (APA)
            5. Formatting the First Main Body Page (APA)
            6. Formatting Headings and Subheadings (APA)
            7. Omitting Words from a Direct Quotation (APA)
            8. References Page Template (APA)
            9. Short Quotations (APA)
            10. Using Footnotes
         2. Modern Language Association Style, 8th Edition
            1. Shorten the Title of this Source in the In-text Citation
            2. Formatting In-text Citations (ML
            3. MLA Checklist
            4. MLA Template
            5. Quoting in MLA
   4. Research as Inquiry
      1. Divide and Conquer: Rethinking Your Approach to Research
   5. Scholarship as a Conversation
      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. Understanding Library Resources
      8. Understanding URLs
         1. Understanding URLS (Exercise Answers)
      9. Using Databases: Periodical Indexes and Abstracts
8. Literacy
   2. Critical Literacy
      1. Annotating the Margins
      2. Distinguishing between Main Points and Sub-claims
      3. 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. Present Non-traditional Types of Evidence
            5. Provide Background Information About the Researcher’s Method
            6. Assess whether the Source is Popular or Scholarly
         3. Currency
         4. Purpose
         5. Relevance
   3. Digital Literacy
      1. Digital Footprints: Public Writing and Social Identities
      2. Social Media Mythbusters
   4. Quantitative Literacy
   5. Visual Literacy
      1. Animation
      2. Breaking Down an Image
   6. Why Does Literacy Matter?

Invention

1. Drafting
   1. Dictating
   1. Freewriting
      1. Snort, Snuffle, Write
2. Heuristics
   1. Commonplace
   2. Burke’s Pentad
   3. Document Planner
   4. Journalistic Questions
   5. Journaling (Writer’s Journal)
   6. Preliminary Research
   7. Visual Brainstorming
      1. Clustering/spider maps
      2. Timeline/flowchart maps
      3. Hierarchical maps

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. Plan Technical Documents
   4. Reflect on Your Writing Processes
   5. Scheduling Writing
4. Professionalism & Work Ethic
5. Resilience

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. Historiography
      4. Linguistic Analysis
      5. Literary Criticism
      6. 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
      7. Text & Intertextuality

Revision

• Revision: Questions to Consider
• Revision
• Revise for Substance

Rhetoric

1. Epistemology
   1. Declarative Knowledge
   2. Dialectic
   3. Empiricism
   4. Knowledge
   5. Knowledge Claim
   6. Positivism
   7. Postpositivism
   8. Procedural Knowledge
   9. Rhetorical Knowledge
   10. Tacit Knowledge
2. Rhetorical Context*
   1. Audience
      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. Getting Started Writing on a Wiki
      7. Methodological Communities
      8. Paragraphs Are Influenced by the Media of Writing
      9. Practicing Intercultural Communication
      10. Researching Your Audience
      11. Rhetorical Analysis in the Real World: A Useful Thinking Tool
      12. Think Rhetorically
      13. What to Think about When Writing for a Particular Audience
      14. You-Centered Business Style
   2. Medium, Media
      1. Charts, Figures, Graphs, & Tables
      2. Icons, Ideograms, Pictographs
      3. Illustrations
      4. Photography
   1. Occasion, Exigency & Kairos
      1. Fallacious Kairos
      2. Kairos
      3. Using Appeals to Kairos in Persuasive Writing
   2. Problem Space, Solution Space
   3. Purpose (Rhetoric)
   4. Subject, Topic
   5. Symbol Analyst* (aka Writer, Speaker, Author, Researcher, Investigator, Rhetor, Sender, Knowledge Worker)
3. Rhetorical Reasoning*
   1. Rhetorical Appeals
      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. Taking Control: Managing Your Online Identity for the Job Search
      11. Using Pathos in Persuasive Writing
   1. Rhetorical Devices
   2. Rhetorical Elements of Argument
      1. Backing
      2. Counterargument
      3. Claim
      4. Grounds
      5. Qualifier
      6. Warrant
   3. Rhetorical Modes
      1. Classification
      2. Definition
      3. Description
      4. Exemplification
      5. Exposition
      6. Narration
         1. Employing Narrative in an Essay
   4. Rhetorical Stance
      1. Persona
      2. Point of View
         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 Second Person Point-of-View: Wizard Activity
         9. Using First Person in an Academic Essay: When is It Okay?
      3. Tone
         1. Diplomacy, Tone, and Emphasis in Business Writing
      4. Voice

Style

1. Diction
2. Elements of Style
   1. Brevity
      1. Writing Concisely and Avoiding Redundancy
   2. Clarity
   3. Flow, Coherence, Unity
      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
      6. Vary Sentence Structure
   4. Simplicity
3. Grammar
   1. Active vs Passive Voice
      1. Active Voice
      2. Identify When the Active Voice is Preferable to the Passive Voice
   2. Modifiers
      1. Dangling Modifiers
      2. Misplaced Modifiers
      3. Avoid Misplaced Modifiers
   3. Parts of Speech
      1. Adjective
      2. Adverb
      3. Articles
      4. Conjunctions
         1. Coordinating Conjunctions
         2. Subordinating Conjunctions
         3. Interjection
      5. Noun
      6. Nominalizations
      7. Preposition
      8. Pronoun
         1. Pronouns and Antecedents
      9. Verb
         1. Action Verbs vs. Inactive Verb
         2. Subject-Verb Agreement
         3. Strong Verbs
         4. Verb-Tense Shift
   4. Sentences
      1. Awkward Sentence
      2. Comma Splice
      3. Sentence Fragment
4. Mechanics
   1. Capitalization
   2. Punctuation
      1. Apostrophe
      2. Colons
      3. Commas
         1. Phrases, Essential and Non-essential Phrases
      4. Dashes
      5. Ellipsis
      6. End Punctuation
      7. Hyphens
      8. Italics
      9. Parentheses
      10. Quotation Marks
      11. Semicolons
   3. Spelling
5. 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. Technical Writing Prose Style*
   5. Writer-Based Prose Style

Writing Studies

1. Interdisciplinary Scholarship in Writing Studies
   1. Communication Studies
   2. Composition Studies
   3. Linguistics
   4. Professional and Technical Communication
      1. An Overview of Professional and Technical Communication
   5. Psychology & Writing Studies
      1. Cognitive, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal Competencies
   6. Rhetoric & Technology
   7. Rhetorical Studies
      1. Why Study Rhetoric? or, What Freestyle Rap Teaches Us about Writing
   8. Semiotics: Sign, Signifier, Signified
2. Research & Theory in Writing Studies
   1. Assessment, Grading, and Response to Writing
   2. Research & Theory on Composing Processes
   3. Research on Mindset & Intrapersonal Competencies
3. Writers @ Work
   1. An Interview with Trent Hergenrader
   2. Interviews with Writers: Maureen Seaton
   3. An Interview with Stephanie Vanderslice

Writing with Sources

1. Flow: Integrate Textual Evidence (Quotes, Paraphrases, Summaries)
   1. Incorporating Evidence into a Research Paper
   2. Introduce Evidence
   3. Mix Quotes with Paraphrasing
   4. Relate Sources to Thesis/Research Question
2. Paraphrasing
   1. Paraphrase Accurately to Preserve the Source’s Ideas
3. Quotations
   1. Block Quotations
   2. When to Quote?
   3. How Much of this Quote is Vital to Your Point
   4. Inserting or Altering Words in a Direct Quote
   5. Omitting Words from a Direct Quotation
4. Summary, Evaluation, Synthesis
   1. Synthesizing Your Research Findings