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Writing Resources

This page links to various college and university websites that provide information about core writing issues.

All links open in a new window.

Three of the sites most commonly used on this page are:

• The Guide to Grammar and Writing at the Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut.
• The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
• The Kansas University Writing Center.

Another website with some very good pointers on specific writing issues is A Writer's Reference, a companion website to the well-known handbook by Diana Hacker.

It is worth spending some time reading around in all of these sites.

1. Sentence Boundaries
2. Paragraph Structure
3. Thesis Statements
4. Transitions, including Introductions and Conclusions
5. Concision
6. Sentence Variety
7. Quotations
8. Research

Sentence Boundaries

Sentence boundary error refers to any of the different errors that are caused by not correctly marking the beginnings and ends of sentences-their boundaries. These are some of the most common errors in college level writing. They include three main types:

• Fragment (part of a sentence, lacking one or more required ingredient to make a complete sentence)
• Comma splice (two complete sentences joined by a comma, which is incorrect)
• Run-on (two complete sentences joined without any punctuation or conjunction, which is also incorrect)

The readings below will help you understand what these errors are, why they are errors, how to spot them and how to fix them.

Capital Community College: Sentence Fragments

Defines fragments, discusses the different types and explains what is wrong with each.

Capital Community College: Run-on Sentences, Comma Splices

Defines these common errors and shows how to fix them.

Capital Community College: Things that can happen between two independent clauses.

Discusses permissible ways to connect independent.clauses-in other words, how to prevent fragments, run-ons and comma splices.

Writer's Reference: A Writer's ReferenceComma Splices (click on "Language Debates" and then on "Comma Splices").

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Paragraph Structure

Paragraph structure is key to good writing. A paragraph is like a mini-essay, with its own thesis, and everything in the paragraph relates to that thesis-its controlling idea. The links below provide some good basic information on how to construct a coherent, unified paragraph.

Capital Community College: Paragraph Development and Topic Sentences

This page discusses focus, topic sentences and transitions (by way of topic sentences).

Purdue OWL: On Paragraphs

This page defines the paragraph, presents the basic rule of paragraphs, and discusses the qualities of a good paragraph, how to develop a paragraph that is short or underdeveloped, when to start a new paragraph, and transitions within and between paragraphs.

Purdue OWL: Body Paragraphs

This page discusses body paragraphs: structure, four elements of a good paragraph, and types of evidence (this is in fact a detailed discussion of induction and deduction, so lots of good tips on evidence, logic and argument here!).

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Thesis Statements

Kansas University Writing Center: Thesis Statements

Capital Community College: The Thesis Statement

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Transitions

I include introductions and conclusions under transitions because they both help the reader make very important transitions: into and out of your paper.

Introductions

Capital Community College: Introductory Paragraphs

Purdue OWL: Introductions

Eleven Ways to Begin (PDF) This is an old handout I got from a writing instructor at the UW years ago. It has a lot of useful suggestions, with good examples.

Conclusions

Capital Community College: Concluding Paragraphs

Purdue OWL: Conclusions

Internal Transitions

This refers to transitions within the paper, both between paragraphs and within individual paragraphs.

Capital Community College Coherence: Transitions between ideas

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Concision

Purdue OWL (Four related handouts)

1. Conciseness
2. Eliminating Words
3. Changing Phrases
4. Things to Avoid

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Sentence Variety

Capital Community College: Sentence Variety

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Quotations

Quotations present several different challenges:

• Purpose and function: When to use them? What are they for?
• Punctuation: How to mark them off from your own words?
• Grammar: How to incorporate them into larger sentences?
• Style: How to introduce them?

The Writers Workshop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Writing Tip: Quotations

This page focuses on punctuation, but also has good advice on the purpose and function of quotations at the start and some good pointers on style and incorporating the quotation correctly at the bottom of the page.

Kansas University Writing Center: Incorporating References

Good advice on incorporating quotations, mixed with other material on writing research.

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Research

The readings in this section relate to different aspects of research, including finding topics and documenting sources (avoiding plagiarism).

The University of Washington has an excellent Research Tutorial that walks you through all the steps of the research process, from identifying a topic to evaluating your sources.

Topics, Questions and Finding Sources

• UW’s Research 101: Topics
• University of Kansas Writing Center: Prewriting Strategies
• Cornell University’s Library Research Guide: Critically Analyzing Information Sources
• Cornell University’s Library Research Guide: Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools

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Taking Notes

Doing research requires recording lots of information in a concise, organized way. These links give suggestions for how to make your note taking work for you.

• Research Guidelines: Notetaking, from Hunter College Reading and Writing Center, City University of New York
• Taking Notes from Research Reading, from University of Toronto Writing web pages
• Taking Purposeful Research Notes from the Landmark School in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts. A good system for keeping your notes organized. I think they make some unsupportable claims for their method, when they say that they've eliminated the problem of having to (re-)organize after taking notes. You often don't know what the subtopics are until you've taken your notes and played around with various possible ways of organizing information and ideas. Also, this seems geared toward a shorter and simpler sort of paper than students write in 102--more a report than a persuasive argument based on research. That said, however, I think the method is a good one.
• Learning to Do Historical Research: A Primer The Pleasures of Note-Taking, from the web site of William Cronon, a well-known history professor. Although focused on note-taking in history, this is also a very extensive and in-depth discussion of the process, and much of the advice applies to any subject you might research.

Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources

• Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It, one of the Writing Tutorial Services Pamphlets at Indiana University.
• Plagiarism Pages at the Purdue Online Writing Lab
• Plagiarism, eh? How to recognize it and get it out of your life. A Power-Point-style video: text plus a voice reading the text. You can click through the slides at your own pace with the fast-forward button.
• Diana Hacker: Documenting Sources: MLA Style: English and Other Humanities. The two pages below, also from the Hacker website, give the details on how to format citations. Use them as a reference work to consult when taking notes, writing a research paper and formatting the works cited list.
• MLA In–Text Citations and
• MLA List of Works Cited (both required).

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Outlines

• University of Kansas Writing Center: Outlines
• Purdue OWL: Developing an Outline

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Argument

“Argument” is used here in the academic sense. It includes claims, evidence, counter-argument, audience and critical reading.

• University of North Carolina Writing Center: Argument