Composing as Action, Expression, and Reflection:
Rhetorical Factors

Donna Reiss
Active Learning Online

• Most occupations and employers as well as teachers value critical and creative thinking. Communication-intensive classes teach and reinforce critical and creative thinking along with effective communication by providing guidance, practice, and feedback.
• Writing ability is one of the best predictors of academic success, better than standardized tests. You can improve your writing and thereby your success in college and in your career: good writers can become better writers; fair writers can become good writers.
• Standard written and spoken usages can be learned and can co-exist with regional and cultural dialects. You don't need to abandon your native language or dialect to write well in standard English. Joseph Conrad, born in Poland, wrote in English, and his works are regarded as classics in English-language literature, for example, the novel Heart of Darkness.
• Effective electronic communication means learning and using protocols for email, digital files, Web pages, and the Internet—and adapting to the changing environment of electronic communication.
  • For word processing, use Word or WordPerfect or other software that has all the basic format features of Word or WordPerfect, including automatic header settings, automatic page numbering, tab settings to signal the start of a paragraph, temporary margin indents for long quotations, bulleted and numbered lists, hanging indent settings for bibliographies and Works Cited listings, and forced start of a new page. Check the Help files of your software to learn the features you do not already know.
    • Use the space bar only to insert a space between sentences or after a semicolon or colon. To show a new paragraph, use the tab key.
    • To indent for temporary margins and long quotations, use the indent feature.
    • To indent the second and subsequent lines for bibliography and Works Cited listings, use the hanging indent feature.
    • Use automatic page numbering not typed-in page numbers.
    • Learn how to save word processed documents as various filetypes, including Rich Text Format and html (Web page).
  • Most email and Web pages will not allow first-line paragraph indents, hanging indents, italic type, or bold type. Therefore, when you compose for or transfer to email and the Web, use these variations:
    • for email and Web pages, instead of double spacing text with 1/2-inch new-paragraph indents of the first line, single space text and add a blank line between paragraphs
    • for email and Web pages, instead of double spacing and hanging indents for bibliography and Works Cited listings, single space text and add a blank line between entries
    • for bold type in email, place an asterisk *before and after* the text you want to emphasize
    • for italics and underline in email, place an underscore mark _before and after_ the text you want to emphasize
• Visual communication enhances learning and is especially important in digital environments.
• Effective oral communication enhances personal and professional relationships as well as academic knowledge. Our online environment will use verbal text and visual communication but we have a few opportunities for speaking as well.
• Effective communication increases our understanding of ourselves and others. Effective communication broadens our minds and hearts.

• Finding the right information to answer questions and solve problems will be helpful in your work and in your personal life as well as in college. For example, if your supervisor asks your advice about purchasing a new copier for the office, you can research the market. If you are looking for work or a holiday in another city or country, research will provide helpful information.
• Evaluating information resources for accuracy, credibility, currency, and relevance will help you avoid mistakes. Internet resources need special attention because anybody can publish to the World Wide Web. Academic scholarship requires peer-reviewed (juried) sources and recognized expertise. See Resources for Academic Research.
• Consulting more than one appropriate source helps ensure completeness, balance, corroboration, and confidence in the information.
• Communicating effectively about the results of your research demonstrates your ability to think about a topic critically and creatively as well as your learning. See Writing Guides and Resources.
• Documenting sources according to academic conventions is both a courtesy to the source and a required convention of higher education. See Documentation Guide.