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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

Composition

• Research & Theory on Composing

Courses

• Composition
  • Syllabus (Fake News)
• Developmental English
  • Syllabus
• Multilingual Writing
  • Syllabus (Multilingual Writers)
• Workplace Writing
  • Syllabus (Consulting Simulation)

Design

1. Charts and Graphs
2. Data Visualization
3. Page Design
4. Pictures and Photographs
5. Principles of Design
6. Typography
7. White Space

Editing

1. Edit for Brevity, Clutter, Concision
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. Eliminate “to be” Verbs
16. Proofreading
    1. Read Your Paper Aloud to Check Cohesiveness 

Genre

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

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, Canon
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. How Are Your Sources Using Sources?
         3. News or Opinion?
         4. Non-traditional Types of Evidence
         5. Provide Background Information About the Researcher’s Method
         6. Popular vs. Scholarly Source
      3. Currency
      4. Purpose
      5. Relevance
3. Information
4. 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
5. Research as Inquiry
   1. Divide and Conquer: Rethinking Your Approach to Research
6. Scholarship as a Conversation
   1. Conversation between Sources
      1. Sticking Your Nose In: Positioning Yourself in Academic Writing
      2. Understanding How Conversations Change Over Time
7. Searching as Strategic Exploration
   1. Annotated List of Useful Online 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
   1. Cognitive, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal Competencies
   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
   5. Why Does Literacy Matter?

Invention

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

Mindset

1. Growth Mindset
   1. Adopt Effective Writing Habits
   2. Avoid Misplaced Modifiers
   3. Faith in the Writing Process
   4. Play the Believing Game
   5. Tips for Realizing Your Creative Potential
   6. Why Write?
2. Intellectual Openness
   1. Demystify Writing Misconceptions
3. Metacognition & Self-Regulation
   1. Establish a Comfortable Place to Write
   2. Sample Process Questions
   3. Overcome Discouragement
   4. Reflect on Your Writing
   5. Planning Technical Documents
4. Professionalism & Work Ethic
   1. Establish a Comfortable Place to Write
   2. Scheduling Writing
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
      4. Usability & User Experience Research
   2. Informal Research Methods
   3. Textual Research Methods
      1. Content Analysis
      2. Genre Analysis
      3. Hermeneutics
      4. Historiography
      5. Linguistic Analysis
      6. Literary Criticism
      7. Rhetorical Analysis
         1. A Guide to Textual Analysis
         2. Rhetorical Analysis in the Real World: A Useful Thinking Tool
         3. Rhetorical Analysis of Images
         4. Rhetorical Genre Analysis
      8. 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. Discourse Community, Community 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. Digital Footprints: Public Writing and Social Identities
         5. Fallacious Kairos
         6. Getting Started Writing on a Wiki
         7. Kairos
         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. Social Media Mythbusters
         13. Think Rhetorically
         14. What to Think about When Writing for a Particular Audience
         15. You-Centered Business Style
   2. Medium, Media
   3. Occasion, Exigency & Kairos
      1. Fallacious Kairos
      2. Kairos
      3. Using Appeals to Kairos in Persuasive Writing
   4. Purpose (Rhetoric)
   5. Subject, Topic
   6. Symbol Analyst: 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
      4. Fallacious Ethos
      5. Fallacious Logos
      6. Fallacious Pathos
      7. Intrinsic Authority
      8. Logos
      9. Netiquette (Digital Ethics)
      10. Pathos
      11. Rhetorical Appeals: A Checklist for Writers
      12. Rhetorical Appeals: An Overview
      13. Taking Control: Managing Your Online Identity for the Job Search
      14. Using Pathos in Persuasive Writing
   2. Rhetorical Devices
   3. Rhetorical Elements of Argument
      1. Backing
      2. Counterargument
      3. Claim
      4. Grounds
      5. Qualifier
      6. Warrant
   4. Rhetorical Modes
      1. Classification
      2. Definition
      3. Description
      4. Exemplification
      5. Exposition
      6. Narration
         1. Employing Narrative in an Essay
   5. 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, Clutter, Concision
      1. Writing Concisely and Avoiding Redundancy
   2. Clarity, Simplicity
   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. Strategic Sentence Structure
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. 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. Strong Verbs
         3. 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. Assessment, Grading
2. Discourse Community/Community of Practice
   1. Communication Studies
   2. Composition Studies
      2. Writers @ Work
         1. An Interview with Trent Hergenrader
         2. Interviews with Writers: Maureen Seaton
         3. An Interview with Stephanie Vanderslice
   3. Professional and Technical Communication
      1. An Overview of Professional and Technical Communication
   4. Psychology
   5. Rhetoric
      1. Why Study Rhetoric? or, What Freestyle Rap Teaches Us about Writing
      2. Rhetorical Genre Studies
   6. Semiotics: Sign, Signifier, Signified

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 is Quoting Preferable to Paraphrasing?
   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