Learning Commons Writing/Reading Resources: Learning Commons Writing/Reading Resources

Use this method to help grasp, absorb, and retain the content of textbook chapters and
other long, dense reading passages.

Use this note taking system for dense reading material, like textbook chapters.

Use this table to plan points of comparison between two things.

This outline will help you plan an essay about literature for classes like ENGL 1020.

Use this outline to build body paragraphs for your essay.

Use this traditional structure to plan an essay for any class.

Use this traditional structure to plan an essay for any class.

Do none of these outlines fit your assignment perfectly? Here are instructions for creating your own outline.

Use these lists for word variation when writing a research-based, analytical, or argumentative paper.

Use this list of transition words to help the reader follow along smoothly with your thoughts. Transitions create coherent writing by linking topics, sentences, and paragraphs.

Use this for help recognizing and repairing dependent-word fragments. A dependent-word fragment begins with a dependent word and offers what feels like a complete thought, but it isn’t complete because dependent-word fragments need to connect to an independent sentence.

Use this for help recognizing and repairing added-detail fragments. An added-detail fragment happens when a writer wants to make an additional point or offer an example to clarify an idea. They fall into three main types: -ing, to, and examples. All three
can leave out a subject, verb, or both.

Use this for help recognizing and repairing fragments that are missing a subject (who?) or verb (does what?).

Use this worksheet to practice repairing all types of fragments.

Use this to help recognize and repair comma splices, which result when two or more independent clauses are linked by a comma. They are spliced together as if they are one sentence.

Not sure when to use a comma? This sheet explains seven occasions to use them.

Did you ever wonder what a preposition is? Use this to brush up on the parts of sentences.

Using different sentence structures is more interesting for readers. Here are five different ways to write a complex sentence.

A homophone is a word pronounced the same as another but is different in meaning and spelling
(sometimes called a “homonym”). This sheet explains a few commons ones.

Use this for help writing an introduction paragraph to any essay.

Use this to help write body paragraphs for any essay.

Use this to help write a conclusion paragraph for any essay.

This Modern Language Association style guide contains instructions and examples to help you format and cite written work for humanities classes like English.

Use this Turabian style guide, containing instructions and examples, to help you format and cite papers for history classes.

This American Psychological Association style guide contains instructions and examples to help you format and cite papers. Disciplines that use APA style include psychology, nursing, and many sciences.

Use these terms when analyzing a poem.

Use these terms when analyzing literature.

Use this guide for help writing literature reviews for science courses

All sorts of tips to help write chemistry lab reports, including instruction on using passive voice and how to create graphs

Follow this link to the library's home page, which provides research help.