Resources
Writing Resources
Writing Center assistants have produced many handouts for use by students and faculty. Paper copies of these handouts are always available in the Writing Center, but they are also available to be downloaded here in Portable Document Format (PDF).*
*If you do not have a PDF viewer, you can download Adobe Acrobat Reader© from Adobe Systems©.
Find all the guidance you need at your fingertips, then come into the Writing Center for individual help.
Global Concerns
| Generating Ideas | Introductions | Writing a Thesis | Body Paragraphs |
| Writing Conclusions | Improving Papers | Writing a Critical Analysis | Expository Essay Checklist |
Sentence-Level Concerns
Using Outside Sources
The Writing Center's guide to acknowledging sources and avoiding plagiarism, now including a section on Chicago documentation style in addition to the sections on the MLA and APA styles.
Model Papers - Whitesell Prize
Are you trying to write the perfect paper, but just don't know what your professors expect of you? Look at these model papers to get an idea of what kind of work first-year students and students in Foundations classes are producing! If you think you are model paper material, check out the Writing Center's Whitesell Prize information page!
"Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague."
-- William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing"
"Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination."
-- Louise Brooks
"I have written -- often several times -- every word I have ever published."
-- Vladimir Nabokov
