English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

* These examples--each illustrating the "student-generated guidelines for online discussion"--are hypothetical examples and aren't the words of real people. (Re-posting an online faux pas would just be even more embarrassing. . . .) They have been adapted with permission from The Thomson Handbook for the purposes of class testing. The authors are David Blakesley and Jeff Hoogeveen.

1. “No Phaedrus Responses”: Phaedrus was one of Socrates’s students and appears in the dialogue named after him, Phaedrus. Throughout the dialogue, Socrates does most of the talking, on such subjects as the nature of love, madness, and writing. When he chimes in, Phaedrus will say things like, “How true. Tell me more!” These kinds of responses don’t add anything new to the discussion (an important goal for most posts in online communities) and should be avoided. While they register agreement, these posts might better explain the basis for agreement. When you feel a Phaedrus response coming on, feel compelled to explain “Why” when you post it.

*** Example: “No Phaedrus Responses”***

Original Post:

Armand: . . . for these reasons, I think it’s important that we begin our project by first coming up with a good list of questions to ask our client.

Melissa:

Ineffective Response: Exactly!

Effective Response: Exactly! I have an idea for the first question we should ask: “What is the most important goal of your organization?” Do any others have some recommendations for possible questions?

Caption: Melissa’s first reaction was to agree, which she announced. However, that sort of response doesn’t add anything new to the thread except to register a vote—as if the original post were a poll. In her effective response, She develops the thread by coming up with a question and then asking others to do the same.

*** End of Example ***

2. No sniper shots”: The students thought they should avoid hit-and-run commentary, posts that offer a brief critique of someone else’s message but don’t bother to explain or justify the response, making it seem like a personal attack carried out in front of all participants.

***Example: “No Sniper Shots” ***

Original Post:

Andrew: Here’s another question that I think we should ask and that may tell us the motivation behind the client’s success: “Aside from earning a profit, what do you find most rewarding about your business?”

Toni:

Ineffective Response: That’s ridiculous!

Effective Response: Maybe not all of the people are in it for the profit in the first place. This question presumes that it’s a major “reward.” That doesn’t apply to nonprofit organizations, of course. Perhaps we could just leave off the “Aside from earning a profit” part and ask a series of questions. “What’s most rewarding . . . ?” “What else do you find rewarding?” Etc.

Caption: Toni’s first reaction was to disagree, and as with Melissa’s Phaedrus response, she simply registers her opinion without explanation. In her more reasoned response, she states her disagreement but then explains why she feels that way. Future posters will be more likely to react to here reasons than simply the fact of her disagreement, which can stimulate further discussion.

***End of Example***

3. “Keep discussion relevant”: Nothing can be more aggravating for participants than reading personal messages exchanged between two people in a public forum. (It feels like overhearing someone talking to a friend on a cell phone in a dentist’s waiting room on Monday morning.) Sometimes, of course, people accidentally send a reply to everyone on an email discussion list, much to their own horror. (If you ever do this, it’s common practice to send a quick, very short reply to the list expressing your apologies to everyone.)

*** Example: “Keep Discussion Relevant***

Original Post:

Nedra:

Our client is really busy, so it’s important that we are well prepared with our interview questions and thus don’t have to ask too many follow-up questions later.

Tom:

Ineffective Response: I was really busy this weekend, I can tell you that! I went to a great tailgater on Saturday . . .

Effective Response: Maybe we should also anticipate what our client’s responses will be so that we can ask follow-up questions on the spot. If, for example, the client says that she enjoys the work “because she likes helping people,” we should ask her to share a memorable example of when she made a difference in someone’s life and how it felt.

Can you explain how Tom’s response shifts the course of the conversation? What kind of posts do you think might follow his?

***End of Example***

4. “Be a Responsible Reader”: It is sometimes tempting to respond immediately to a particular post in a thread, but you should take the time to read ahead so that you understand the trajectory of the discussion. It’s likely, for example, that someone else may have already responded as you intended to, and so your response will not only interrupt the flow but may also show everyone else that you haven’t read very carefully (This same principle should be applied when you’re posting to an email discussion list; before replying to a particular message, make sure that you don’t have other messages in the thread already in your Inbox.) Naturally, you should also read the posts of others carefully so that you understand their meaning. In cases where you want to respond to a particular point in a previous message, it can be helpful to quote it in your own message.

***Example: “Be a Responsible Reader”***

Original Post:

Jose:

During our online interview in the “Field Research Thread,”, the client said that she saw community outreach as a major goal of the organization, but also that it posed a serious difficulty given her severely limited budget and time to devote to PR.

Allan:

Ineffective Response: I agree that community outreach is important for these kinds of organizations. Maybe we should recommend that she hire a PR firm to help?

Effective Response: Do you think, then, that we should bother tracking down information about how much it would cost to hire a PR firm or should we rather spend our time researching lower-cost alternatives?

In his ineffective response Allan seems to only respond to the first part of Jose’s message without noticing what Jose says at the end. What point does Allan miss? How does he incorporate his better understanding into his effective response?

***End of Example***

5. “Aim for brevity”: Keep your messages reasonably short. Excessively long messages are sometimes, even if they are very well written and introduce important distinctions or complexity. In the give-and-take of online communication, it can be difficult for people to respond to such messages because they usually make several points that could be picked up in the thread. It also makes it difficult for readers to indicate what part of a message they have responded to (they want to preserve the thread, but it already has unraveled in too many directions). Even in face-to-face (F2F) communication, most people know how it feels to try to have a conversation with someone who speaks in long monologues. When you write too much in an online forum, you pose the same difficulties for your readers.

Context can help you decide how long your messages should be. In asynchronous communication, when there is usually more time to read posts, messages are typically longer (or can get away with being longer) because readers have more time to read carefully. In synchronous situations—when people read on the fly—messages need to be very short so that others can follow the conversation. In our examples in this section, the students have composed short responses so that the give-and-take can help them reach concrete solutions in a hurry.

***Example: “Aim for Brevity”***

Original Post:

Angelica:

Our client has told us that the major aim of the organization is to assist people who have suffered discrimination because of unfair housing practices.

Mark:

Ineffective Response: Unfair housing practices fall under the purview of the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) branch of the federal government, specifically the code that legislates “Fair Housing Practices.” Those laws arose in the twentieth century to address widespread discriminatory practices that made it easy for wealthy landlords to exploit poor people who not only couldn’t pay high rent but also had unequal access to legal options because of the high cost of hiring a lawyer. In the 1960s, fair housing laws became a flashpoint for civil rights action, and the term “slumlord” became a popular term for people who charged high rent without fulfilling their obligations to maintain their rental property in livable conditions. In the 1990s, we saw the emergence of films like The Super, which starred Joe Pesci as a slumlord sentenced to live in his own housing as the penalty for not maintaining the property. Other films, like The Tenant and Duplex, show [. . . etc.]

Effective Response: I imagine that the client works with the local human relations organizations because they are usually the ones who intervene in claims of housing discrimination. Our local commission has a Website that contains information about the process of filing a claim. Maybe we should talk to someone who can share some ideas for how our client can help make this information more widely available to landlords, too, so that they don’t all end up like Joe Pesci in The Super!

Mark’s first response provides some good information, but the danger is that the thread will get lost if he also delves into films that show the consequences of unfair housing practices. If you feel compelled to share a long response, what could you do so that you don’t interrupt the current thread? Start a new thread? Upload a file attachment with “more details for those interested”?

***End of Example***

6. “Stay on topic to preserve the threads”: You should always try to preserve the thread of a discussion by staying on topic. Threads are topical subject matter identified in the subject line (either of an email message or in a bulletin board posting). One of the main benefits of online discussion is that it enables us to follow and develop a train of thought with others so that, in pooling our ideas, we arrive at new and deeper insights, or a more precise plan of action. If you intervene in such threads with posts that radically shift the topic, then you may seriously hurt that effort. In cases where you find it necessary to take the conversation in a new direction, you can always post a new message, with a new subject line (i.e., start a new thread).

***Example: “Stay on Topic to Preserve the Threads”***

Subject Line of Thread: Using visuals in our client report

Original Post by Quentin: Like Ann, I think we need to include visuals as more than fancy decoration in our report to our client. It would be helpful, for example, to give a screen shot of the parent organization’s Website so that the client can see what the catalog looks like, especially since they will have to develop their own.

Ineffective Response:

Subject Line: Using visuals in our client report

Kelly:

I think our report should use APA style because that’s what the client said she used in school and so she’ll be familiar with it. What are we supposed to do?

Effective Response:

Subject Line: Using visuals in our client report

Kelly:

How about a screenshot also, of a catalog produced by another local organization with similar goals? I’ve found a Website for an organization in Florida that provides people with a catalog of services that looks very nice and could be an excellent model. See http://fchr.state.fl.us/

How does Kelly’s effective response both preserve the thread and create opportunities for others to respond?

***End of Example***

7. “Sign your messages”: When you post messages to blogs, bulletin boards, and threaded discussion lists, they will often automatically contain information about the person posting the message, usually identifying him or her by “User Name.” Very often, a person’s user name is not his or her real name but a single word, sometimes with small and capital letters or numbers intermixed, for purposes of uniquely identifying the user on the system. (For example, on the WWWThreads forums, David Blakesley has a user name of “DaveB.” On the Moveable Type Weblog, he’s also “DaveB”) Signing off on a post also indicates to others that you’ve finished your message and haven’t, for example, accidentally clicked on “Post” or “Send” before you intended. Many bulletin board programs (and even MOO clients) will allow you to provide additional profile information so that people can click on your name to get further information about you or, if they choose, to send you a private message. You usually have options about how much information you’re allowed to provide. Sometimes, it’s acceptable for people to use “Screen Names” that keep their real identity private, especially in social forums where privacy concerns may be important.