Academic Writing
The materials below have been curated from a range of sources to help students and faculty with the elements of academic writing. Faculty should feel free to direct students to these resources and/or to adapt them for their own use.
Generating ideas
- Articulating your research project
- Brainstorming
- College writing and the five-paragraph essay
- Identifying your audience
- Key questions for research
- Motivating the argument
- Prewriting strategies
- Tips for thesis analysis
- Writing a research proposal
Sources and Evidence
- Analyzing evidence
- Annotated bibliography
- Checklist for analyzing materials
- Choosing and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research
- Function of sources across disciplines
- How to identify scholarly sources
- Integrating quotations
- Skimming for relevance (articles)
- Skimming for relevance (books)
- Strategies for using sources
Drafting and Revision
- Agreeing, disagreeing, standing your ground
- Conclusions (avoiding repetition)
- Conclusions in the humanities
- Conclusions (quick tips)
- Editing and proofreading
- Elements of an academic argument
- Introductions in the humanities
- Is your essay focused?
- Tips for editing
- Transitions
Style and Grammar
- American Medical Association citation
- American Psychological Association citation
- Chicago Manual of Style citation
- Modern Language Association citation
- Comma rules
- General rules of style (humanities)
- Grammar and punctuation
- Passive voice
- Qualifiers
- Semicolon rules
- Semicolons, colons and dashes
- Sentence patterns
- Three style suggestions
- What style does each discipline use?
- Word choice