Online Writing, Reading, and Study Skills Resources

Online Writing Centers and Writing Guides

• Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

• Purdue’s OWL is considered one of the best academic online writing labs. It offers grammar and punctuation tutorials, as well as exercises. Especially helpful is the use of multiple font colors to illustrate complex grammatical forms.


• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Writing Center Handouts

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/index.html

• Especially helpful are the handouts under “Specific Writing Assignments” and “Writing for Specific Fields.”


• University of Richmond Writer’s Web

http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb.html

• A comprehensive guide to writing across the disciplines: how to get started on a paper (including specifics on strategies such as brainstorming, clustering, cubing, freewriting, and journaling), writing the first draft, focusing and connecting ideas, improving analysis and argument, editing a draft for clarity and style, sentence structure, mechanics and punctuation, citation and documentation of sources, and using sources effectively.


• The University of Victoria Hypertext Writer’s Guide

http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/

• Useful when you want concise information on an uncluttered screen.


• University of Wisconsin at Madison Writer’s Handbook

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/index.html

• Stages of the writing process, common types of writing assignments, grammar and punctuation, improving your writing style, and MLA, APA, and Chicago style guides.


• The Writer’s Workshop at the University of Illinois

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/index.htm

• See the “Writer Resources” menu for a grammar handbook, citation styles, writing tips, and ESL strategies.

Grammar and Mechanics

• Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm

• A thorough and easy-to-navigate site. It allows the reader to move from sentence-level issues to paragraph development to essay and research paper completion. Also available are grammar quizzes.

Citation

• MLA Style from the Capital Community College Guide to Research Paper Writing

http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/index.shtml

• An extension of the CCC Guide to Grammar and Writing, this guide demystifies the research paper writing process.


• MLA Style through the Purdue OWL

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/


• APA Style through the Purdue OWL

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/


• Chicago or Turabian Style through the UW-Madison Writing Center

http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChicago.html


• Citation Machine

http://citationmachine.net/

• Choose your citation format (MLA, APA, or Chicago), enter source information into the online form, and the citation builder will compile a reference list/works cited page for you. Please read the disclaimer regarding the accuracy of citations generated by this tool.

Dictionaries

• Webster’s Dictionary

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm

Thesaurus

• Thesauruses.com

http://thesaurus.reference.com/

ESL

• Dave’s ESL Café

http://www.eslcafe.com/

• The premier online site for ESL resources.

Study Skills

• How to Study.Org from Chemeketa Community College

www.howtostudy.org

• This is one of the most popular sites among learning center professionals. It provides general study tips, as well as detailed explanations of skills students need to develop for specific disciplines. (Click on “Resources,” and then scroll down the page to find discipline-specific study strategies throughout the web.)