Help with Writing Papers

My strongest recommendation is that you purchase a good writing handbook asap -- any class you are in in college will require writing of some kind, and there are very good ones available.  I require my ENG 101 and 102 students to purchase Diana Hacker's Pocket Style Manual, and I recommend that my other students purchase either the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or Michael Milam's A Practical Handbook for Writing in the Humanities.  Links to all three handbooks are below.   

Besides these books, there are a number of links which can be of use in writing papers.  My style sheet, for example, includes a number of suggestions with regard to grammar and format, as well as a sample lit of Works Cited which includes examples of many of the databases available through the UCC library.  At the Library's site, there is also help with documentation using the M LA Style.

Another very good site is Diana Hacker's support site for the Bedford handbooks.  This site includes the e tire MLA style and everything you might need for citing al types of sources.  Another useful link on the Hacker site is the support site for A Pocket Style Manual which includes more help with documentation, as well as quizzes that you can take on your own to help you with various writing issues including grammar and format. Bedford also has an additional site for help with electronic sources, called Online!

I have also compiled a set of samples for my classes to show you how the various assignments should look.  Please look at these samples for help with format and style.

  Sample Literary Research Paper   

Sample ENG 102 Response Paper

Sample ENG 101 Response Paper

Sample Annotated Bibliography

Additional links that are useful to College Writing:

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL)

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant (POWA)

The Library of Congress' Citing Online Sources page