GETTING STARTED
These links connect to compilations of useful handouts and explanations that can aid both writers and tutors alike. Have a grammar question? Need a brainstorming strategy? These pages provide guidelines for writers in any stage of the writing process, and suggest approaches that can help tutors shape a productive writing conversation.
- The OWL at Purdue:The Purdue University Online Writing Lab is an excellent all around resource for a variety of writing needs concerning all stages of the writing process.
- UNC: The UNC Writing Center site offers a menu of helpful handouts, including general strategies for academic writing, explanations of writing in different disciplines and styles, and tips on common grammar pitfalls.
- University of Toronto: This website offers readable instructions on each stage of the writing process – from planning and organizing to style and editing.
- Marquette: The Marquette University Writing Center offers expectations for writing in various arts and sciences.
- Brown: The Brown Writing Center provides resources in five areas, including general resources, academic writing guides, non-academic writing links, tools on references, and links to other university’s writing centers.
While the Writing Center is not an editing or proofreading service, we will work with you to improve your own editing and proofreading skills. We don’t simply correct errors for you because we want you to become your own best proofreader.
Andrea Lunsford, an English professor at Stanford University, conducted a study to determine the 20 most common mistakes college students make in their writing. Her list provides a succinct review of the rules and helpful examples of these common mistakes.
For in depth online assistance with grammar and punctuation questions, we recommend the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue.
ESL RESOURCES
We recommend the following resources for non-native speakers of English:
- Dave’s ESL Cafe, maintained by Dave Sperling, offers many instructional and helpful pages, including an idiom page.
- Purdue’s OWL provides a comprehensive list of online second language resources
STYLE MANUALS
- Official APA Guide to Online Resources.
- APA documentation style.
- Official Guide to the MLA Documentation Style.
- Purdue’s MLA Guide.
- MLA documentation style.
- Chicago
RESOURCES FOR SPECIFIC WRITING PROJECTS
- Cover Letter
- Ethnography
- General Statement of Purpose guidelines (NOTE: While these are helpful places to start, above all else, ask your academic and/or professional mentors to review your statement with you)
- Law school statement of purpose
- Medical school statement of purpose
- Graduate school in humanities statement of purpose: This and this
- General memo
- Policy memo
- Resume
- Speeches
A NOTE TO WRITERS AND TUTORS ON USING RESOURCES
These pages, and others listed in this site, are part of the hundreds of new and innovative materials available on the challenges of academic wriitng, peer editing and review. You may find it helpful to read and discuss a handout in response to a grammar concern, or to use a general questionairre sheet to help with revision. But in the end, they are your tools, not the essence of your work. Above all, cultivate critical reading, and let these pages serve in support of that end.