English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

1. No “Phaedrus” responses, such as “How true!” Elaborate on your responses, quote from a previous response, an dquote from a text (with explication) to help the discussion along.
2. No “sniper” shots. Avoid overly contentious posts that take a jab but don’t explain or elaborate.
3. Keep the discussion relevant to the whole class and, if a post refers to privately shared knowledge, give some context for other readers who may not know what you’re writing about.
4. Be a responsible reader of others’ posts, and don’t respond in a thread until you’ve caught the drift of the discussion.
5. Be concise, keeping your post to about 200 words or fewer. Longer posts are sometimes necessary, especially when quoting a text.
6. Stay on topic. Watch and follow the thread (in the subject line) of a discussion. If your topic is a new one, start a new discussion thread and see if you can get others to join you.
7. Sign your messages. (Drupal allows you to create a “signature” in your profile settings that will be automatically appended to your forum messages.)

If you would like to read some examples of these guidelines in action, read on to see how some students use them to create lively discussion: Examples: Keeping Online Discussions Lively and Focused.