Writing CommonsSite Map

Site Map

Writing Commons publishes original articles on matters of interest to students and writing teachers. The site map below reflects the current iteration of the site. 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

Citation

  1. Attribution
  2. How to Cite
    1. Connecting Evidence to Your Claims
    2. Distinguish Your Ideas from Your Sources
    3. Provide Background Information about the Researcher’s Methods
    4. Relate Sources to Thesis/Research Question
    5. Why is it important to conclude a paragraph with the writer’s voice rather than a quote or paraphrase?
  3. Citation Tools
  4. 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
  5. 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

Collaboration

  1. Co-authorship
  2. Conflict Resolution
  3. Counterargument
  4. 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?
  5. Leadership
  6. Peer Review
    1. In-class Peer Review
    2. Articles
      1. Online Forums: Responding Thoughtfully
  7. Teamwork
  8. Tools for Project Management

Courses

  1. First-Year Composition
  2. Workplace Writing

Design

  1. Elements of Art
    1. Color – Color Theory
    2. Copy – Copy Writing
    3. Line
    4. Shape
    5. Space
    6. Typography
  2. How to Design
  3. Page Design & Scannability
  4. Principles of Design
    1. Alignment
    2. Balance: Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, & Radial
    3. Color Theory
    4. Contrast
    5. Emphasis
    6. Gestalt, Gestalt Theory
    7. Proximity
    8. Repetition
  5. Universal Design
  6. Usability

Discourse

  1. Causes & Effects
  2. Classification
  3. Comparison & Contrast
  4. Definition
  5. Description
  6. Exemplification
  7. Exposition
  8. Narration
  9. Paraphrase
  10. Quotation
  11. Summary

Editing

  1. Edit for Assignment Requirements
  2. Edit for Diction
  3. Edit for Sentence Structure
  4. Edit for Strings of Prepositional Phrases
  5. Edit Paragraphs
  6. Proofreading

Genre

  1. Academic Writing
  2. Annotated Bibliography
  3. Argument, Argumentation
  4. Autobiography
  5. Cover Letter, Letter of Transmittal
  6. Creative Writing
  7. Dialogue: The Difficulty of Speaking
  8. Executive Summary
  9. Formal Reports
  10. Hierarchical Maps
  11. Illustrations
  12. Infographics
  13. Instructions & Processes
  14. Introductions
  15. Paraphrase
  16. Photography
  17. Pitch
  18. Presentations
  19. Problem Definition
  20. Professional Writing
  21. Progress Reports
  22. Proposals
  23. Qualifiers
  24. Quotation
  25. Research Proposal
  26. Research Protocol
  27. Reviews and Recommendations
  28. Subjects & Concepts
  29. Summary
  30. Syllabus
  31. Team Charter
  32. Timelines & Flow Charts

Grammar

  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. 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. ACRL 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. Research as Inquiry
      1. Divide and Conquer: Rethinking Your Approach to Research
    2. 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
    3. 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
    4. Understanding Library Resources
      1. Understanding URLs
      2. Understanding URLS (Exercise Answers)
      3. Using Databases: Periodical Indexes and Abstracts
  2. Archive
  3. Authority (in Speech & Writing)
  4. Copyright
  5. Empathetic Information Literacy
  6. Evidence
    1. Anecdotal Evidence
    2. Circumstantial Evidence
    3. Empirical Evidence
    4. Hypothetical Evidence
    5. Opinion
    6. Types of Evidence
    7. Visual Representation
      1. Charts, Figures, Graphs, Tables
      2. Data Visualization
      3. Hierarchical maps
      4. Icons, Ideograms, Pictographs
      5. Illustration
      6. Timelines & Flow Charts
  7. Information Architecture
  8. Information, Data
  9. Information Design
  10. Interpretation – Interpretative Frameworks
  11. The CRAAP Test

Invention

  1. Canon
  2. Commonplaces (Topoi)
  3. Cluster Diagrams & Spider Maps
  4. Composing, Writing, Drafting
  5. Conversations with Others
  6. Felt Sense
  7. Freewriting
  8. Heuristics
  9. Journaling: Writer’s Journal
  10. Preliminary Research
  11. Prewriting
  12. Visual Brainstorming

Literacy

  1. Communication
  2. 21st Century Literacies & Writing Studies
  3. Cognitive, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal Competencies
  4. Critical Literacy
  5. Digital Literacy
  6. Quantitative Literacy
  7. Semiotics: Sign, Signifier, Signified
  8. 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. Guide – How to Cite Sources
  3. Research Ethics
    1. Human Subjects Research
    2. Informed Consent
    3. IRB (Institutional Review Board)
  4. Research Methodology
  5. 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
  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. Text, Composition
    7. Writer, Speaker, Knowledge Worker . . .
  3. Rhetorical Stance
  4. When the Active Voice is Preferable to the Passive Voice
    1. Articles
      1. Active Voice

Style

  1. Code Switching
  2. Diction
  3. 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
  4. Register
  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. 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. Declarative Knowledge
    2. Dialectic
    3. Empiricism
    4. Knowledge
    5. Personal Knowledge
    6. Positivism
    7. Postmodernism
    8. Postpositivism
    9. Procedural Knowledge
    10. Rhetorical Knowledge
    11. 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