Writing Resources

Generating Ideas and Topics

• Invention — This link from the Purdue On-line Writing Lab contains many helpful strategies that can be used to generate topics or start the writing process.
  
  
• Picking a Topic — This page from Purdue’s On-line Writing Lab (OWL) offers advice for beginning researchers about selecting an appropriate topic.
  
  
• Understanding Essay Topics: A Checklist — "Before you plunge into research or writing, think through the specific topic you are dealing with. Remember, you are not being asked just to collect facts, but to develop and display your powers of reasoning. You can save yourself time and frustration by beginning this reasoning early in the process" ( Dr. Margaret Procter Coordinator, Writing Support, University of Toronto)

Grammar

• 11 Rules of Writing — A concise guide to some of the most frequently violated rules of writing, punctuation, and grammar.
  
  
• Grammar and Style Notes — This site provides grammar rules and style guidelines to help you write more clearly. The sections are arranged alphabetically by topic or word and you have the option of downloading or printing the entire guide for your own use.
  

Organizing Your Work

• Organization Strategies — This page from the Paradigm Online Writing Assistant offers a variety of suggestions for organizing writing.
  
  
• Organize Your Ideas — This page from the Guide to Writing a Basic Essay site offers strategies for both diagramming and outlining as modes of organizing information.

Punctuation

• Punctuation Made Simple — hosted by The College of Arts & Sciences at Illinois State University, this site doesn't list a bunch of rules, like many grammar books do; instead, there is a discussion of these various punctuation marks in general so writers can get a sense of how to use them in their own prose.
  
  
• Purdue OWL — handout with links to resources about various kinds of punctuation issues.

Revision

• Editing and Proofreading — Purdue University Owl revision handout
  
  
• Editing and Proofreading — University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Writing Center handout focusing on strategies to editing and proofread effectively
  
• Paramedic Method — Paramedic Method for Revising Prose adapted from Richard Lanham's Revising Prose, 3rd edition
  
  
• Revising and editing — Purdue University Owl revision discussion
  
  
• Revision Strategies — University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Writing Center handout focusing on strategies to revise effectively

Writing and Research

• Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) — This link pretty much has it all: links for ideas, writing, revising, editing, and MLA tips-a MUST see site!
  
  
• University of Dartmouth — This page from the University of Dartmouth's Witing Program offers advice about doing research and writing in the humanities.
  
  
• The Writing Center — This is another fantastic site from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill that's practically an on-line course in itself. Click on "Handouts & Links."
  
  
• Writing a Research Paper: The First Draft — Another of Purdue’s OWL handouts, this page offers strategies fordrafting that include evaluating the thesis and working with introductions and conclusions.
  
  
• Writing a Research Paper: Revision — Another of Purdue’s OWL handouts offering key tips on revising research-based essays.