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Writing guides, how-to's, documentation, and much more! Visit I-SOURCE now!

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Writing Resources

Transition to College Writing Series

Better Reading Strategies See those thick textbooks? Yep. You've gotta read 'em. Might as well make it a little bit easier on yourself. Here's how.
Note Taking Taking notes is the easiest way (other than simply showing up) of remembering what goes on in class. Be sure to take notes on this mini-course.
What Makes College Different from High School? Beer is not the only distinction between high school and college. Find out what else is new here.
Writing as a Process While it's tempting to turn in your first draft, it's not always the wisest idea. This isource addresseswriting as a process.

Special Types of Writing

Answering Essay Questions Helping you answer essay questions on tests.
Article Summary Strategies for summarizing articles.
Avoiding Plagiarism How to stay in college while using research materials.
Blueprint for Any Paper Try building a house without a blueprint; the same concept applies to writing papers. A great intro to composing papers.
Book Reviews A great look into the most popular writing assignment.
Film Reviews Effectively preparing and organizing your film review.
Lab Report "Any new information that is generated though scientific research must be communicated or it is all for naught." -Dr. Jim Costa
Literature Papers Be sure to check out this mini-course before writing your analytical paper on a lit piece.
Note Taking Taking notes is the easiest way (other than simply showing up) of remembering what goes on in class. Be sure to take notes on this mini-course.
Outlining Papers are generally easy to flesh out, but finding the bare-bones outline form is sometimes harder.
Praxis So you're gearing up to take the mighty Praxis. No, Praxis is not an evil dragon or an 80's Metal band, but it is, perhaps, just as frightening. But, no fear; the University Writing Center (UWC) is here to guide you in your quest.
Research Paper Yay. Fun. Research paper. Let us help.
Theatre Critiques How to develop those nutty things the theater department wants.

Research and Documentation

Annotated Bibliography It's more than just works cited; find out how to annotate your sources.
APA How to adhere to the APA oppressors' rules.
Avoiding Plagiarism How to stay in college while using research materials.
Chicago How to adhere to the Chicago oppressors' rules.
Citation Rules Paraphrasing and citation tips.
MLA How to adhere to the MLA oppressors' rules.
Research Help and Reference (Hunter Library) Helpful resources for research and reference from Hunter Library.
Research Paper Yay. Fun. Research paper. Let us help.
Turabian How to adhere to the Turabian oppressors' rules.

Sentence Level Concerns

Commas, Semicolons, and Colons--But Mostly Commas This mini-course won't fix the "awk." comments on your paper, but it will help you take care of all those commas your professor circles for elimination.
Editing to Eliminate Fragments, Run-ons, and Comma Splices Fragments, run-ons, and comma splices should be edited from your paper once you have a complete draft.
Finishing Touches You've worked hard, and now you're almost ready to turn in your paper. Great! Before you do, however, your reader will appreciate it greatly if you check your work to eliminate poor word choices and other grammatical errors that distract intelligent readers from a text's larger meaning. This mini-course will help you polish your paper before your reader evaluates it.
Quotation Marks Using quotation marks extends beyond conveying the brilliance of others. . .here are the many uses of quotation marks.
Thesis Statements Common approaches that will help focus your papers.
Transitions How to make one paragraph flow into another.

Evaluating Your Own Writing

Evaluate and Revise Your Academic Writing Assignments Academic writing demonstrates your competence as a reader, researcher, writer, and thinker. ...here is a list of questions to help you analyze your own draft.
Evaluate and Revise Your Technical Writing Assignments Effective technical writing is concise, accurate, and formatted for readers who need trustworthy information quickly.

Career Writing

Action Verbs for Resumes A list of verbs to help spruce up your resumes and cover letters.
Cover Letters Cover letters are another opportunity to be aggressive in the demanding job market. Use these hints to develop an effective cover letter.
Management Portfolio So you want to be a manager - you want to be a leader - you want your portfolio to be accepted. We can help!
Resume Template MS Word provides you with templates to produce professional résumés. Here's how to use them toyour advantage.
Resume Writing These tips won't make you better, but it can help you look better.

Faculty & Graduate Student Resources

Everyone Can Help Teach Writing Written by Dr. Terry Nienhuis, 2002 recipient of the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award, this resource concerns how faculty can help teach writing across the curriculum. "My purpose is not to make your job harder but to make it easier. Most faculty should be able to distinguish good writing from bad as surely as English teachers can."
Help Your Students Stop Plagiarizing Every semester instructors who assume their students are following standard research guidelines are unpleasantly surprised. To help offset your end-of-semester blues, the University Writing Center offers a tested strategy for teaching your students what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
To learn to think in college, write--a lot Christina McCarrol writes this article for The Christian Science Monitor : "As head of the expository writing program at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Dr. Sommers had always wanted to track students once they moved beyond their first college writing class. 'I saw students making progress within the semester,' she says. 'But I always wondered what happened to them--and to their writing--after they left my course.'"(opens a new window)

What Makes Good Writing Series

Anthropology Get advice on writing in Anthropology from Dr. Ted Coyle .
Biology Get advice on writing in Biology from Dr. Jim Costa .
Communication Get advice on writing in Communication from Dr. John Slater .
English Get advice on writing in English from Dr. Catherine Carter .
Music Get advice on writing in Music from Dr. Will Peebles .
Nursing Get advice on writing in Nursing from Dr. Sharon Jacques .
Political Science The Political Science faculty places a premium on training students to think and communicate clearly and intelligently.