Resources for Writers

See also information on other academic skills

AT UCSC

Writing 22A offers instruction on selected topics in grammar and conventions of written English as needed to strengthen the writing skills of students whose primary language is not standard English. The course provides students practice in applying these concepts to editing their own writing. Designed for entering first-year students, enrollment limited to 22. Instructors are D. Scripture (College Eight faculty), and N. Krusoe. You can check the Schedule of Classes, but since there's many people adding and dropping, it may not be reliable. You can go to any section; if there's not room, they can tell you if another section has any. These fill up quickly, so don't delay.

Tutoring Free tutoring (if funding permits) is offered by the Academic Resource Center just over the hill from College 8.

General Advice on the Writing Process

Writers Reference on " prewriting and drafts and on "re-vision, editing and coherence/"flow"

Lunsford on the writing process

Handy Flowcharts that map out how to write, read and edit.

Anne Lamott's " "Shitty First Drafts" from Bird By Bird. (Longer version, pasword protected: "Perfectionism" and "Shitty First Drafts" from Bird by Bird (select view menu tab, then rotate).

Peter Elbow, author of the classic Writing Without Teachers on writing (video).

Daily routines of writers. John Cleese of Monty Python on creativity (video).

Purdue's OWL on the writing process including pre-writing and writer's block as well as revision (also a reverse outline is good for getting organized).

How to Write With Style by Kurt Vonnegut

Politics and the English Language by George Orwell.

Joan Didion "On Keeping a Motebook".

Nine books on how to read and write better.

Doing research for a paper? Check out "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

The Pen Is Mightier Than The Phone: A Case For Writing Things Out.

How to Find and Use Sources

Several handy guides, including this one with some time management tips and how to avoid plagiarism.

MLA research paper format and a more extensive site at Purdue OWL.

McHenry MLA guide

Short APA style guide

More extensive APA Guide

Software that generates citations (some research tools at our library can do this as well).

What is plagiarism and how to avoid it. Video on the subject with Andrea Lunsford.

Scholarly vs. popular: rough guide a bit more detail here. A short video on the rigors of peer-review (warning: language).

Online

Writing help, as well as other academic skills **** A great cite with info on all aspects of doing well at university, including writing (for example essay exams and Liberal Arts exams -- pdf or Word docs).

Purdue's great writing site including pre-writing and writer's block as well as revision (also a reverse outline is good for getting organized).

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is an excellent resource for multilingual writers, since it's the only one that explains what different verb plus particle (preposition) combinations mean.

Online resources and tutorials from Diana Hacker.

Spelling Errors Send Red Flags To Employers (List of common errors).

Why Silicon Valley CEO won't hire anyone with bad grammar 9/12.

Online resources to accompany Easywriter (but are free and can be used without; includes self-diagnostic tests and tutorials).

Short videos on many aspects of the the writing and research process.

Overcoming Writer's Block ***

On commas

More on commas

Humor[?] Commas save lives. Typo costs man three years in prison. Loss of half million dollar spacecraft.

Love is a Fallacy by Max Schulman illustrates typical thinking traps people fall into. (video version). A different downloadable video version).

On semicolons versus commas

ESL help (for people lucky enough who speak multiple languages)

Another site with ESL excercises

ESL resources and exercises from Hacker

How to Improve your Vocabulary

Oxford English Dictionary (Prof. Rajan fav)