ENGLISH COMPOSITION
A Selection of Web Resources
The
Writing Process
Colorado State University Writing Center
This page provides advice about
how to define and address an audience.
Indiana University’s Writing Tutorial Services
This page from Indiana
University’s writing center offers advice about how to generate a thesis with
or without an assigned topic and provides examples of strong and weak thesis
statements.
Purdue University
A well-respected online resource,
this site features handouts with examples of the writing process, from planning
and drafting to proofreading.
Professor Chuck Guilford, Boise State University
This site contains an interactive,
online writer’s guide and handbook, with topics such as discovering ideas for
an essay and planning an essay’s organization.
The Writing Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
This page provides eighteen quick
reference tips and examples for editing prose.
Roy Peter Clark
This is a one-page compendium of
useful writing maxims by a Senior Scholar at the Poynter Institute and director
of the National Writer’s Workshop.
Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
This site offers a writer’s
handbook with handouts on topics important to academic writing; it also
includes links to other writing centers and writing resources.
University of Richmond Writing Center
Designed and maintained by
students and faculty, this site covers a range of topics related to the writing
process, from peer editing to writing essays for variety of disciplines.
Word Place, Inc.
On this site, you can sign up to
receive free grammar lessons for five days with a quiz on the sixth day.
Lessons are also archived here.
Charles Darling
Maintained by Professor Charles
Darling of Capital Community College, this interactive site provides guidance
at the level of individual words, sentences, paragraphs, essays, and research
papers.
Evan Jenkins, Columbia Journalism Review
This page features a language
rules watchdog column patrolling usage offenses committed by professional
writers and editors. Prior columns archived on this page can be a helpful
resource for students investigating their own usage questions.
Mark Olsen, University of Chicago
This site allows you to search an
online version of Roget’s Thesaurus.
Study Technologies
This site offers word searches
linked to various online dictionaries in English and other major languages.
Merriam-Webster
This site offers an online,
searchable version of the Collegiate Dictionary and Collegiate Thesaurus.
A comprehensive site of world
language and linguistic resources available on the Web, including specialty and
world language dictionary searches.
Online version of WordWeb, a free
(downloadable) dictionary for Windows. Site has no ads (many other dictionary
sites do).
Dr. Frank Edler, Metropolitan Community College
This site offers an interactive
tutorial designed to help students identify the argument of an essay.
Stephen Downes, University of Alberta
This site provides an index of
logical fallacies with definitions and thorough examples.
Internet Public Library
This site offers advice about how
to find sources and a step-by-step guide to writing a research paper.
Purdue University Library
This site contains a tutorial to
help students plan and carry out research projects.
Duke University Libraries
This site offers a step-by-step
tutorial on conducting research; the tutorial can also be searched by topic.
Purdue University Online Writing Lab
This section of the Purdue
University OWL offers guidelines for finding, evaluating, and documenting
sources, as well as advice about writing research papers.
Cornell University Libraries
This site offers a step-by-step
guide to conducting effective research, from identifying a topic to documenting
sources.
University at Albany Libraries
This page contains a checklist to
consider when evaluating Web sources.
Hope N. Tillman, Director of Libraries, Babson College
This page provides an article on
how to evaluate Web sources, with links to library and research resources.
Ohio State University Libraries
This site offers a tutorial to
help you evaluate Web sites for research; it includes thorough explanations and
examples.
Betsy Richmond, McIntyre Library, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
This page provides a checklist for
evaluating Web sources based on the author’s criteria.
Original list compiled by David Izzo (American Public University System); version above edited by Peter Nemes (Ivy Tech Community College/American Public University System)