For Students

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.

 
 
Writing In The Disciplines

Click above for guidelines about writing in particular subject areas, including the humanities, sciences and social sciences.

Grammar, Mechanics, and Style
 

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.
Chicago

 
Resources For Specific Writing Projects

Cover Letter and Resume
Job Search Documents
General memo
Personal Statements (in the humanities)
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 writing, 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 questionnaire 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.