Site Contents

About Us

• Who We Are
  • Mission Statement: A Message From Our Director
• Where We Are
• Hours of Operation
• How to Contact Us
• What People say About the Writing Center
• Copyright Information
• FAQ

What We Can Do for You

• Services for Undergraduates
• Services for Graduate Students
• Services for Dissertators
• Services for Returning Students
• Services for Faculty, Staff, and TAs
• Services for Speakers of English as a Second Language
• If You’re Writing a Group Paper
• If You’ve Been Referred to the Writing Center

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Individual Instruction

• How to Make an Appointment
• What to Expect at Your First Appointment
• How to Prepare for Your First Appointment
• What We Can’t Do
• About Proofreading and Editing
• Online Instruction
  • Online Conferences
  • Instruction by Email
    • Samples
    • How Long Will It Take? (see timetable)
  • Ask the Writing Consultant
    • Samples
  • The Writer's Handbook
  • Other Internet Resources

Writer’s Handbook

• Stages of the Writing Process
  • Planning to Write
    • Preparing to Write a Play Review
    • Reading Poetry to Write About It
    • Reading a Nonfiction Book to Review It
  • Creating an Argument
    • Thesis vs. Purpose Statements
    • Developing a Thesis Statement
    • Planning and Writing a Research Paper
  • Working with Sources
    • Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources
    • Using Literary Quotations
    • Citing Sources in Your Paper
  • Drafting and Revising Your Paper
    • Peer Reviews
  • Finishing Your Paper
    • Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist
    • How to Proofread your Paper
• Common Types of Writing Assignments
  • Letters and Application Essays
    • Application Essays (and Personal Statements)
    • Cover Letters
    • Business Letters
  • Literary Analysis Papers
    • Reading Poetry
    • Using Literary Quotations
    • Play Reviews
  • Proposals and Dissertations
    • Resources for Proposal Writers
    • Resources for Dissertators
  • Research Papers
    • Planning and Writing Research Papers
    • Quoting and Paraphrasing
    • Writing Annotated Bibliographies
  • Reviews
    • Reading for a Review
    • Critical Reviews
    • Writing a Review of Literature
  • Scientific Reports
    • Scientific Report format
    • Sample Lab Assignment
• Grammar and Punctuation
  • Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist
  • Sentence fragments
  • Sentence sprawl
  • Misplaced and dangling modifiers
  • Best Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers of All Time
  • Faulty parallelism
  • Unclear pronoun reference
  • Incorrect pronoun case
  • Omitted commas
  • Superfluous commas
  • Comma splices
  • Apostrophe errors
  • Words easily confused
  • Misspellings
  • How to Proofread
  • Subject-Verb Agreement
  • Using Conjunctive Adverbs
  • Using Coordinating Conjunctions
  • Using Semicolons
  • Using Commas
  • Using Dashes
• Improving Your Writing Style
  • Clear, Concise Sentences
  • Use the active voice
  • Put the action in the verb
  • Put wordy phrases on a diet
  • Reduce wordy verbs
  • Reduce prepositional phrases
  • Reduce expletive constructions
  • Avoid using vague nouns
  • Avoid unneccessarily inflated words
  • Avoid noun strings
  • Using Transitions
• Citing References in Your Paper
  • Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources
  • How to avoid plagiarism
  • Should I paraphrase or quote?
  • Successful vs. unsuccessful paraphrases
  • How to paraphrase a source
  • How to quote a source
  • Additional resources
  • APSA (American Political Science Association)
  • Create APSA Parenthetical Citations
  • Create an APSA Reference List
  • Create APSA Notes
  • Format APSA Headings
  • APA (American Psychological Association)
  • A Quick Orientation to APA
  • Create APA Parenthetical Citations
  • Create an APA Reference List
  • Format a Paper Using APA Guidelines
  • Format APA Headings
  • APA Usage and Style Guidelines
  • Chicago/Turabian
  • A Quick Orientation to Note Systems
  • Chicago/Turabian First References
  • Chicago/Turabian Subsequent References
  • Chicago/Turabian Works Cited Page
  • CBE (Council of Biology Editors)
  • CBE Citation-Sequence System
  • CBE Name-Year System
  • MLA (Modern Language Association)
  • MLA Parenthetical Citations
  • MLA Works Cited Page
  • Numbered References
  • In-Text Citations
  • Reference List

Writing Center Classes

• About Our Classes
• How to Cancel Class Registration
• Can’t Find the Class You Need?
• Classes Listed Alphabetically
• Classes Listed by Topic

Writing Fellows Program

Writing Across the Curriculum

Computer Classroom