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Critical Writing Links
General Links - OWL Links - Strengthening Arguments - Alternative Writing Styles - Writing in the Disciplines - Other Links
- MLA-Citing Electronic Sources -Univ of Wisc-Madison
- MLA-Citing Nonprint sources (interviews, photos, etc.)
- MLA Citation Generators and Machines: Automatic Assistance
- Working with sources: an easy to navigate guide from Duke University.
- Evaluating the Credibility of Sources, including the internet.Virtual Salt
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
Chicago Manual of Style Online: The Chicago Manual of Style is considered the "bible" of the research and publishing communities.
50 Years of Research on Writing: What Have We Learned: Three of the world's leading scholars in the field of writing instruction and research examine the state of knowledge in the field and its relevance to questions about teaching and learning writing.
Writing Matters: This site at West Texas A&M University provides resources for online handbooks, online writing centers, libraries, approaches to teaching composition, writing theory, and electronic texts. They provide a helpful rating system for their links. Worthwhile for teachers and students.
Copyright Clearance Center: Get Permission
Note: It may seem redundant to have so many links for a single type of information, as is often the case on this page. But not all words speak equally well to everyone. Browse. Find the words that best speak to you what you want to know.
General Links
- Argument, Rhetoric and Writing (in brief)
- Avoiding Common Mistakes: George Mason University
- Basic MLA Paper Format - What it looks like
- BIG DOG'S GRAMMAR - and MLA Quick Guide
- Grammar Girl
- MLA Documentation - How to do it.
- MLA-Everything. How it looks. Citing sources (scroll to bottom)
- MLA-Citing Electronic Sources -Univ of Wisc-Madison
- MLA-Citing Nonprint sources (interviews, photos, etc.)
- Using MLA style to cite sources: Bedford/St.Martin’s Guide
- Citing references in your paper ( Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources / APSA / APA, Chicago/Turabian / CBE / MLA / Numbered References.
- Documenting Electronic Sources on the Internet
- THESIS STATMEMENTS
- Creating an Arguable Thesis
- The Thesis Statement: A concise look at avoiding 5 frequent problems. UPENN
- Thesis Statement Basics
- What is a thesis?
- Evaluating Web Sites
- Fat Free Writing - Get the lard out.
- Guide to Critical Thinking
- Guide to Writing a Basic Essay
- How do I write a strong paper for any course - Pittsburg State University
- How to Write a College Paper - VIDEO
- Keables / The Keebles Guide: A refresher for what you got--or didn't get--in High School English. The Keables Guide is designed for your convenience. It gives you short answers, not long chapters. It concentrates on common errors, not abstract rules. It will help you to identify errors, to understand why they are wrong, and to correct them. There are several things you should do to make the best use of it:
- Lousy Writer - If you're a lousy writer, you might find help at this free online source.
- Mission: Critical - basic concepts of critical thinking in a self-paced, interactive environment.
- Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
- Organizing an Argument
- Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
- Proofreader's and Editor's Marks: Standard symbols for the Univerist of Colorado
- Proofreader's and Editor's Marks: Good pdf illustrating how symbols are used.
- Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources
- Read, Write, Think: NCTE. K-12, but helpful for many who haven't gotten or retained some basics. Persuasion Map
- Summary: Using it Wisely. Help distinguishin summary from analysis.
- Tip Sheets
- Twenty Most Common Errors: New St. Martin's Handbook
- Virtual Salt - Research tools.
- What is an Academic Paper - Darmouth Writing Center. Excellent introduction.
- Writing a Research Paper
Helpful Links: Purdue Online Writing Lab
- Active Voice/Passive Voice: 1. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx 2.http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html
- Coherence
- Comma Usage - A Powerpoint presentation on the proper use of the comma.
- Conciseness: Eliminating Wordiness
- Cross-referencing MLA Format
- Fallacies at Owl – Argumentative Writing
- Finding Your Focus: The Writing Process - A Powerpoint presentation by the Purdue University Writing Lab.
- General Writing Concerns
- Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling
- Metaphors
- The Paragraph
- Paragraphing
- Parallel Structure
- Passive Voice
- Passive Voice - what the passive voice is, why it is often frowned upon, and how to fix it.
- Active Voice and Passive Voice - choosing active voice for clarity and concision. How to avoid passive voice
- Use the Active Voice - how a good sentence relies on a strong, active verb.
- Planning
- Proofreading strategies
- Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
- Research and Documenting Sources
- Research and the Internet
- Sentence Clarity - A Powerpoint presentation on how to effectively create your sentences.
- Sentence Variety
- Strategies for Improving Sentence Clarity
- Transitional Devices
- Writing a Thesis Statement
- Writing Persuasively - A Powerpoint presentation on creating a persuasive argument.
Strengthening Arguments
- What is an argument?
- A List of Fallacious Arguments
- Fallacies
- LEO Logic
- Logical Fallacies
- Logical Fallacies Handlist
- APA style (American Psychological Association)
- APSA style (American Political Science Association)
- Chicago/Turabian style
- Web Style Guide - HTML and Web design.
- Art History - discusses several common types of art history assigments; strategies and resources for art history papers
- Writing the Art History paper
- Strategies for Looking at, Talking and Writing About Art
- ArtLex - art dictionary
- Art Glossary
- Poets on Visual Art
- Resources - The Web Museum - The National Gallery of Art - Palmer Museum - World Wide Art Resources - Philadelphia Museum - The Metropolitan Museum -
- Art Theory and Criticism
- Anthropology Resources on the Internet: Gordon Rakita's terrific site offers the following:
- Biology
- Council of Biology Editors/Scientific style and format
- Guide to Writing in the Biological Sciences: George Mason University
- Guide to Writing Biology Laboratory Reports: University of Richmond
- Literature Reviews: insights into the form and construction of a literature review in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- NCBI: National Center For Biotechnology Information: searches several biology indexes and links to some journal articles.
- Writing in Biology Courses: Marquette University
- Engineering - writing guidelines for engineering and science students
- Film
- History - Reading, Writing and Researching
- American Memory Project: Library of Congress
- History Writing Resource Center at William and Mary - all the basics for writing a paper.
- Primary Sources and Secondary Sources
- Finding Primary Sources on the Web: Guide by University of Washington Libraries
- How to Write an Arguable Thesis Statment/History
- Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Paul Halsall, Editor.
- Internet Medieval Sourcebook: located at Fordham University Center for Medeival Studies / Halsall, Editor.
- Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Thousands of sources from Fordham University.
- Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Halsall, Editor) / Other History Sourcebooks: African | East Asian | Indian | Islamic | Jewish | LGBT | Women's | Global | Science
- National Museum of American History
- Reading, Writing, and Researching for History- Bowdoin College's excelleng guide.
- Web Resources: Univeristy of Minnesota
- Lab Report Guidelines
- Guide to Writing Biology Laboratory Reports: University of Richmond
- Writing Physics Lab Reports
- Literature:
- Avoiding Common Mistakes: George Mason University
- Avoiding Plot Summary in a Literature Essay
- Basic Rules for Writing About Literature
- Critical Analysis of a Short Story
- Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms
- Guide to Literary Theory - can help you find important sources about major schools of Literary Theory
- Introductory Guide to Literary Theory
- Introduction to Modern Literary Theory - a basic survey like this can't present its subjects in all their complexity. Still, a good overview.
- Literary Devices /http://mrbraiman.home.att.net/lit.htm
- Literary Elements
- Literary Resources
- Literary Terms
- Outline on Literary Elements
- Poetry Explications
- Project Gutenberg
- The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White - this classic grammar guide asserts that one most know the rules to break them. Simple and authoritative.
- Terminology for Writing about Literature
- Virtual Salt Glossary of Literary Terms
- Writing About Fiction - The OWL at Purdue
- Writing About Literature - The OWL at Purdue
- Writing About Literature in 9 steps
- Writing Literary Analysis
- Music - Writing the Music Paper
- Writing About Music is Like Dancing About Architecture - a brief guide to discipline-specific aspects of writing about music.
- Essentials of Music - online glossary
- Glossary of Popular Music Terms - Austin Symphony
- Professional Writing -various aspects of business, technical and professional writing.
- Business Writng Help
- Business Letters
- Business Writers Free Library
- Editing Resources
- Professional Writing - What is it? Lists programs.
- Techincal Writing - What is it?
- Writing a Business Plan
- Psychology: A Guide to Writing in Psychology
- Scientic / Journal Style Paper: Structure, Format, Content
- http://www.mun.ca/writingcentre/scientific.shtml
Other Useful Links
- Academic Prose
- Academic Phrase Book
- Developing a Formal Academic Prose Style
- Language Crimes: A Lesson in How Not to Write, Courtesy of the Professoriate
- Practical Tips for Reading Critically Academic Prose
- Rethinking Academic Discourse: A Poetic Approach to Intellectual Endeavor
- Two-and-a-Half Easy Tricks for Writing Better Academic Prose
- Berkely - University of CA/Berkely on YouTube
- Checklist for Research Essay
- CIA World Fact Book - has info (maps, statistics, etc.) on numerous countries
- Humanities: Voice of the Shuttle - website for humanities research.
- Language Crimes: A Lesson in How Not to Write, Courtesy of the Professoriate
- MITOPENCOURSEWARE - MIT classes for the world-at-large.
- Repositories of Primary Sources
- Scholarly Research and Academic Writing - Includes resources for various academic fields
- Scholarly Writing/Worksheet - The Three "P's" of Writing: Paragraph, Point and Precision
- The Internet Public Library - organized by subject category.
- Writing Guidelines for Graduate Papers
- assignment design: view tried and true assignments from various colleges and universities and articles on including writing in your curriculum. Coe College.
- Word Shop: a series of information sheets on WAC theories and practices. These word shop files should help faculty integrate a variety of writing tasks into courses across all disciplines. Coe College.
- Aunt Pammie Blogspot: Blog for writing teachers
- Communication Theory