Your Online "Voice"

The nature of an online course requires that professors often communicate through writing. This entails paying more attention to one’s voice so as to not convey the wrong tone. This is no different than cultivating tone when writing for any other medium: a blog, book, or journal article.

Tone is dependent on style, which is highly idiosyncratic. But it is also dependent on clarity, which anyone can employ.

Clarity entails making specific references to support general assertions. If you wrote in an announcement, “Everyone in the class did great. Bravo!” students might not know exactly what you meant. But if you instead wrote, “Overall the class did a great job analyzing Smith-Bonez’s article on hyperactive happiness. I especially like how John Gunvo and Sarah Smith pointed out the inductive fallacy Smith-Bonez makes in paragraph four of her article.”

The more clear you can be in your announcements and feedback, the fewer questions students will have about the course content. A good rule to remember is every subjective statement should be supported by an objective justification.