Writing and researching at the college level? These sites will definitely help!
UNC Writing Center: great resource on thesis development, organization, grammar, and lots more.
Harvard Writing Center: another great resource. Check out their sections on outlining as well as topic sentences & signposting if you aren’t sure how to use these essential tools in your essays.
Purdue OWL MLA Resources: for MLA style and citation information
Is that source reliable?: a handy guide to evaluating sources. A great place to start as you begin working with sources for any research project.
How to Critically Analyze Sources: from Cornell U. Very useful when working on an annotated bibliography.
Grammar A-Z: not sure what your prof means when she talks about “passive” verbs? Can’t tell what the main clause of your sentence is? The helpful folks at Oxford Dictionaries can help.
Purdue OWL Grammar Resources: helpful articles and exercises to test your knowledge. Check out some of the other helpful areas on this site, such as mechanics and academic writing, too!
literary terminology
Not sure about the difference between an image and a metaphor? What makes something “prose” instead of “poetry”? What is a “novel,” anyway? Here are resources to help you with literary terms:
CyberEnglish’s Literary Terms Site
Glossary by The Poetry Foundation
Literary Vocabulary by Dr. L. Kip Wheeler
Literary Terms by Lilia Melani
literary theory
Anyone who’s taken a course on literary theory knows that understanding the basics of different schools of theory can be a challenge. My spring 2016 “Approaches to Literature” course compiled some very helpful notes on different theories. We used Padlet to make our notes simple to read and easy to understand. Some of these padlets were created by me, but many of them were created by my students.
Marxist criticism (uh-oh, something happened to the link; please stay tuned!)
Identity Theories (Race theory, queer theory, disability studies)
Looking for a good grammar or writing reference book?
Here are a few of my favorites. Many of them are quite funny, and all are available in inexpensive editions. Browse through the Amazon previews and find one that suits your personality.
Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English
Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose
Spunk and Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style
