Online Writing Lab

 Explore the steps needed to create effective essays

• Learn about rhetorical concepts, such as voice, audience, and purpose.
• Brainstorm for ideas.
• Develop effective thesis statements.
• Write strong paragraphs.
• Improve your revision and editing strategies.

 Find, evaluate, and integrate sources for a research paper

• Review the research process.
• Narrow your argument and write effectively for your audience.
• Learn effective research strategies to find and evaluate sources.
• Take notes and create an outline.
• Integrate sources into your writing.
• Produce a literature review or an annotated bibliography.

 Learn how to cite and document sources for research papers

• Locate reference information.
• Avoid plagiarism when citing and documenting.
• Cite and document sources according to APA, MLA, or Chicago guidelines.

 Understand the different essay structures common to college writing assignments

• Find support for argumentative, classification and division, cause and effect, compare and contrast, definition, descriptive, illustration, narration, and process essays.
• Engage in interactive outlines for each style of essay.
• See sample essays from writing classes and from across the disciplines.

 Learn how to think critically about argumentative writing

• Learn how to adjust your argument to be most persuasive to your audience.
• See different organizational strategies for argumentative essays.
• Understand the logical fallacies and how you can avoid them.
• Practice with both argumentative analysis and writing.
• Apply argumentative strategies to multimodal assignments.

 Write for the web and create digital presentations

• Learn about making strong discussion posts in online classes.
• See differences between effective and ineffective emails.
• Understand writing practices for common social media platforms.
• Create stronger presentations using PowerPoint and Prezi.
• Become aware of your online footprint.

 Practice your grammar and punctuation skills to help you write clearly

• Understand parts of speech and how they work together.
• Learn the “rules” for all types of punctuation.
• Practice your skills with interactive quizzes.
• Review the 20 most common errors college writers make.

 Learn to avoid plagiarism when you write with sources

• Understand what different kinds of plagiarism are.
• Learn about the potential consequences of plagiarism.
• Practice avoiding plagiarism and providing proper documentation for borrowed information.
• Take pre and post tests to test your knowledge.
  

 Learn about the writing process starting with the basics

• Understand how to start an assignment and gather ideas.
• Develop thesis statements to guide your writing.
• Organize your ideas and present them logically.
• Improve your writing through drafting and revising.
• Learn effective editing strategies.

 Learn about writing in graduate courses

• Take a self-paced writing tutorial.
• Preview graduate-level writing assignments.
• See exemplars of good student work.

 Learn how to write real-world genres for different disciplines and careers

• View instructional videos on real-world writing genres.
• Complete activities to practice what you learned.
• Download tip sheets and examples

 Explore the different types of writing used in a job search

• Learn about elements, types, and sections of a resume.
• View different types of resumes.
• Understand the benefits of requesting an informational interview.
• Master proper cover letter formatting.
• Examine a sample cover letter.