Writing Resources

This interactive model displays "elements of thought" in a wheel--hover over any element and a circle will tell more about how to clarify your thinking--how you construct and organize your ideas. The rectangle above the wheel helps you think about and improve the quality of your thinking. The wheel demonstrates how elements of your thinking integrate with other parts of thought.

This SUPERB animation demonstrates the process of writing. Indeed, writing is a complex activity, but this entertaining and beautifully designed animation summarizes writing in a fun and interesting animation.

This site displays a one-page, simplified depiction of the four stages of writing: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, and Editing. An excellent brief overview and description of the recursive nature of writing.

This handout will define what an argument is and explain why you need one in most of your academic essays. It offers instructions for making a claim, using evidence, establishing a counterargument, considering audience in constructing your argument, and critical reading. There are links for more detail on these topics.

This site offers an extensive archive of handouts and links to videos and other resources to support writing.

Phrases, and the headings under which they are listed, can assist with thinking about content and organization of your writing, or the phrases can be incorporated into your writing where this is appropriate. Items in the Academic Phrasebank are mostly content neutral and generic in nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people’s ideas and this does not constitute plagiarism. For some of the entries, specific content words have been included for illustrative purposes, and these should be substituted when the phrases are used. Excellent resource for organization and construction of academic writing.

In writing, the pattern we present our ideas in is called organization. Writers need to know about organizational patterns because readers expect what they read to make sense logically. Choosing an organizational pattern for your writing means knowing what patterns are acceptable for your topic and within your discipline. Some types of organization work better than others, depending on the information you need to convey. This site provides links to define organization, describe types of organization, and offers guidance on how to organize writing.

These slides offer tips for composing and organizing thesis/purpose statements, introductions, and conclusions. Also, building strong paragraphs and using transitions for logical "flow."

This Writing Commons site describes the process and purpose of developing an outline as part of the drafting/composition process. Discusses the role of assembling and organizing relevant research and date to compose a document that solves a writing problem.

These tips from Southwestern Illinois College describe the differences between summarizing, paraphrasing, and synthesizing sources and gives clear strategies for these writing processes.

Ten Tips for Providing Feedback in Group Situations.
Moxley, J. M. (n.d.). Provide feedback in group situations.
This essay describes a process for a collaborative team to provide helpful feedback to an author. The process described can also guide an individual review, explaining the importance of prior review by each reviewer in preparation to offer specific comments on content, and good practices for communication between reviewers and an author to improve the writing and support the author.