Writing Skills and Assignments

Think you're a good writer? You may very well be, but writing for successful online communication requires a few slight adjustments to your approach. Here are some suggestions for enhanced communication through online formats like email and discussion forums.

Keep it simple. Readers often sort through email quickly, so keep your messages simple. Try not to include more than one major subject per email. If you have several topics to discuss, break them up into several messages. Otherwise, the last part of your message may get lost between the scrollbars.

Write descriptive subject lines. Some people receive so much email that they begin to delete some messages without viewing them. To avoid this fate, make sure your subject lines are descriptive. Messages with titles like "Hello" or "Need Information" will get lost. If you can't think of a good subject line, a good trick for drawing people in is to start your message in the title: "I was thinking about you today, and ..." Then continue your sentence in the body of the message.

Give the reader some context to avoid misunderstandings. Email is infamous for causing misunderstandings. The receiver may not understand that the sender is joking, serious, or just tired. Advice can sound preachy and minor frustration can sound like major anger. This is because all of the context of body language, tone, and setting are lost in online messages. Add them back in to avoid problems. Briefly describe your mood at the start of a message. State directly what result you hope to get from the communication.

Use writing tricks like "emoticons," acronyms, and extra punctuation judiciously Online communication has spawned a whole school of trick you can use to look extra clever ;-) (an "emoticon") and get your message across to listeners. IMHO (in my humble opinion) is a typical acronym. However, the best advice is to use plain English unless you are certain your reader knows emoticons and understands your acronyms.

Don't use all caps. There are better ways to emphasize. ONLINE, THIS IS SHOUTING. DON'T SEND MESSAGES THIS WAY UNLESS YOU ARE ANGRY. Instead, if you want to emphasize, *try something like this*. You can make the Big Point in more (pssst... over here) subtle ways.

Reread your message before you send it. This is especially true if you are sending any sensitive content. Try to read the message from the point of view of your intended receiver and see if there is anything they won't understand. Or even better...

Compose your message in a word processor, save it, then copy and paste it into the message box. This will give you a chance to review the content carefully and even better, spell check! If the message is important, or if you think you might not be able to remember what you wrote, save it or print it as well. You'll have an archive of messages that you can scan for reminders or re-use as the basis of other messages.

Use pronouns effectively. Have you ever received a message such as "I will check it out and let you know before we respond." Who is I? What is it? Is "you" one person or many? Are you included in "we" or is this somebody else? That was an extreme example, but pronouns which don't refer clearly are a big problem in online communication. Weed them out of your writing.

You may be asked to complete more complex assignments than responses to discussion forums. These assignments could include electronic worksheets, journal entries, essays, in-depth reports, etc. To be successful with these assignments, please consider the following tips to write and format your documents:

Use a reliable word processing program. A few of the most popular are Microsoft Word®, WordPerfect®, and Microsoft Works®.
Ask your instructor what word processing program(s) s/he has access to. If both of you use the same program, great. If you do not use the same program, however, you will need to save your work as a "text only" (.txt) file or a "rich text format" (.rtf) file so your instructor will be able to open your work upon submission. The "text only" file is useful for documents that are single spaced without boldfacing or numbered or bulleted lists. The "rich text format" is best for documents that have double spaced paragraphs with boldfacing, bullets, and other design features. Please scroll down this page and read "Saving Your Document" for further instructions.
Plan your document to have a quality introduction, insightful body paragraphs, and an effective conclusion.
Ensure that you have citation information for any materials you are using as references in your document. (Note that plagiarism can be grounds for disciplinary action. Check your college catalog for more information.)
If your instructor requires American Psychological Association Style (APA) or Modern Language Association Style (MLA), please refer to the following links for more direction:

If you are writing in psychology, sociology, or other behavioral science courses or science-related courses use the APA Style unless directed otherwise by your instructor. See also "A Guide for Writing Research Papers - APA."
If you are writing in humanities or English, use the MLA Style (Modern Language Association) unless directed otherwise by your instructor. See also "A Guide for Writing Research Papers - MLA."
See also Documenting Your Sources. This excellent guide on what to document and why, from the Paradigm Online Writing Assistant, contains a version that you can download and save on your own computer so that you will not have to connect to the website.

If your instructor does not require one of the above mentioned formats or another special format, please create your documents with the following specifications:

Set your margins at 1" top and bottom.
Set your margins at 1.25" left and right.
Set your font size to 12-point Arial or 12-point Times New Roman.
Set your spacing to double space.
Left justify, or align, your text.
Starting at the very top line of your first page, type in your full name, then press "Enter."
On the next line, key in the course number and module number (i.e., ENG 111, Module #2), then press "Enter."
On the next line, key in the date, then press "Enter."
On the next line, key in and center justify the title you give this paper. Then, press "Enter."
On the next line, begin keying in the content of your document. From this point on, your text will return to left justification or alignment.
If your document contains research, cite any references in your paper and develop a works cited or bibliography page, following the guidelines listed above, depending upon the field in which you are writing.

Contact your instructor if you have any questions whatsoever on formatting document for this course.
To send your writing assignment to your instructor, click "Back" at the end of this document and read "Submitting Writing Assignments."

If you are using a program other than Microsoft Word or if you are writing with Microsoft Word 97® or Word 2000® but you will later be editing your document on another computer that uses an earlier version of Microsoft Word® or some other word processing program, then you should save your document as a file type other than "Word," as explained below. First, click on File on the menu bar and then click on Save As on the File Menu: After you click on "Save As," the Save As dialog box will appear, as shown below. If you are saving your work on your own computer, go to the next step. If you want to save your work on a floppy disk, click on the button to the right of the "Save in" box and change to the floppy drive, as shown below: Look at the bottom of the Save As dialog box and you will see two rectangles, the first labeled "File name" and the second "Save as type." Click in the File name box, press your backspace key to delete the words in the box, and type the file name you wish to use. Then click on the button to the right of the Save as type box and choose the file type that you will use on your home computer. If you want to preserve your formatting (boldfacing, italics, bulleted lists, double spacing, etc.), click on the "Rich Text Format" option, as shown below. Once the document file name has been changed to a "rich text format" document, as shown below, click on the Save button on the right side of the dialog box. If you are single spacing a document and not using boldfacing, bullets, etc., you can save your document as "Text Only." To do so, click on the "Text document" option, shown below: Once the document file name has been changed to a text only document, as shown below, click on the Save button on the right side of the dialog box. Either of the formats, Rich Text Format or Text Only, can be read by any word processing program.

Copying and Pasting Text in Discussions

If you have a long message for the Discussion Board, you may want to write it first in your word processing program, then revise and edit your document so that your ideas are clearly stated and free from errors. Then you can copy the contents of that document and paste them into the message box of the discussion forum. To copy from a word processing document and paste what you have copied into a discussion thread, follow these steps:

Connect to your course. Open your connection to Internet course and then enter the discussion forum. If you are responding to a person's message, click on the title of the person's message and then click the "Reply" button. Then click in the message box. If you are starting a new message, click the "New Thread" button and then click in the message box.
Open your word processing program. With your Internet connection to the message box remaining open, click on the Start button in the lower left corner of the screen and click on Programs and then Microsoft Word or the icon that connects to your word processing program). Then open your document with the text you want to copy and paste into the discussion forum message box. Then while holding down the control key (Ctrl, just below the shift key), press the "A" key. All your text should be selected (highlighted). Then hold down the control key and press "C." (If you prefer, you can click with the right mouse button and then click on "Select All" or click on "Edit" on the Menu bar at the top of your screen and click on "Select All." Then use a similar process with either the right mouse button or the Edit Menu to copy your document.)
Enter the discussion forum. Then switch to the discussion forum. Make sure you cursor is still blinking in the message box or click in the message box again. Then hold down the control key and while holding it down, press the "V" key. (You can also use your mouse to click in the message box and then click your right mouse button and then click "Paste," or you can click on the "Edit" link at the top of your browser and then click on "Paste.") This will insert the contents of your word processing document into the message box. Then click the "Submit" button at the end of the message box. If you spot any mistakes, click on the "Edit" button at the top of your message, make changes, and then click the "Submit" button.

Modified Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Provided by CEI - The North Carolina Conference of English Instructors