Resources for Undergraduates
Beat Writer's Block With Some of These Great Resources
How to be Original
http://www.english.upenn.edu/Grad/Teachweb/mborig.html
Some thoughts on how to become truly engaged in a paper. Excellent for prewriting
writer’s block.
World Wide Words
http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
A running column of colorful articles about the origin of specific words and phrases
in the English language. Great for people who are either endlessly curious about English
words or enjoy impressing members of the opposite sex at cocktail parties. A large
index of past articles touches upon the origins of everyday terms like “duct tape”
and “jazz” to rarer terms like “loblolly boy” and “mumpsimus”.
General Writing
The Forest of Rhetoric
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/
It’s easy to forget that how you say something is just as important as what you actually
say. This website offers a variety of surprisingly practical tips covering any type
of paper you’d want to write, along with guidelines for figures of speech and methods
of persuasion.
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Contains comprehensive up-to-date advice about MLA Style, APA Style, and writing in
general. Also covers every stage of the writing process (from choosing an idea and
creating a thesis to finalizing your paper) and grammar.
Paradigm: Online Writing Assistant
http://www.powa.org/
A well-organized review of the entire writing process. Covers everything from choosing
a topic and outlining to sentence-structure and tone. Also includes tips for genre-specific
writing (thesis, argumentative, informal, exploratory).
The Elements of Style
http://orwell.ru/library/others/style/english/
A classic and concise manual about American English writing, full of little “rich
deposits of gold.”
Guide to Grammar and Style
https://rlc.rutgers.edu/student-services/writing-tutoring/writing-resources
A near perfect conceptualization of various basic writing techniques, which should
help writers not only follow grammatical rules, but also use them for their advantage.
Topics range from split-infinitives to “bugbears”, which are “Pedantic and vicious
debates over knotty matters.” Readers are encouraged to “Think of grammar and style
as analogous to, say, table manners.”
Research: Documentation
Loyola Notre Dame Library’s APA Style Guide
http://guides.lndlibrary.org/apa
APA Style rules for citing from various types of sources.
The University of Auckland Student Learning Centre
http://www.cite.auckland.ac.nz
A fun and informative refresher on how to find and cite credible resources. Check
out the 10-minute interactive tutorials.
Writing: Reference
Merriam Webster Online
http://m-w.com/
A reliable online dictionary and thesaurus. Also see their free email word of the
day service.
Your Dictionary, “The Last Word in Words”
http://www.yourdictionary.com/
Provides an online dictionary service, along with helpful links for grammatical lessons
of other languages, glossaries in specific academic disciplines, and other references
for writing style.
ESL
ESL Desk
A large reference site by and for ESL students, complete with lists of irregular verbs and common English mistakes.
The Internet TESL Journal
http://iteslj.org/
Monthly internet journal consisting of lessons for students, teaching techniques for
professors, and miscellaneous articles on multicultural topics.