Online Handouts
Faculty Handouts
Teachers and faculty can also click here for handouts to support writing instruction.
The following is a list of handouts which we offer in the center as resources. Students can take them as guides to help answer those elusive writing questions. While we are always working on more and more handouts, we hope that these will be of some help.
Please note that these are "PDF" (Portable Document Format) or Adobe Acrobat documents. We find that this is an effective method of distribution. At the end of the handout list, you will find technical notes on how to handle Acrobat files.
Grammar and Syntax- Articles (the, a, an)
- Fragments, Run-Ons, and Comma Splices: A Few Strategies for Identifying and Fixing Them
- Amuse Your Teachers with Misplaced Modifiers
- Usage Demons: Some Commonly Misused Words
- Apostrophes: Piece o' Cake
- Commas: The Basic Rules
- The Mechanics of Quoting
- Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes
- Basic Rules for All Good Writers
- Ten Cardinal Rules for Taking Essay Exams
- Writing Great Introductions
- "Backwards" or Descriptive Outlines
- Writing Strong Conclusions
- Editing for Concision and Clarity
- Some Basic Steps in Writing Your MA Thesis
- Cover Letters, Resumes and Proposals
Technical notes: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 2.1 or higher to read these files. Acrobat Reader is available for free for Macintosh, Windows, Unix, and most other OS's. To download the latest version of Acrobat Reader, click here.