These files answer the kinds of questions that University of Toronto students ask about their written assignments. Most were created by writing instructors here--people who are familiar with U of T expectations. But you will also find links to good advice from writing instructors at other institutions.
Planning and Organizing
- Some General Advice on Academic Essay Writing
- Understanding Essay Topics: A Checklist
- Organizing an Essay
- Using Thesis Statements
- Developing Coherent Paragraphs
- Using Topic Sentences
- Arts and Science Statement on What Grades Mean
Reading and Researching
- Critical Reading Toward Critical Writing
- How to Get the Most out of Reading
- Taking Notes from Research Reading
- Content Analysis as a Research Method (Colorado State University)
- Research Using the Internet
- A System for Dealing with New Words while Reading
- How to Read a Philosophy Paper (Princeton Universtity)
Using Sources
- How Not to Plagiarize
- Standard Documentation Formats
- Documenting Electronic Sources
- Using Quotations
- How to Paraphrase and Summarize
Specific Types of Writing
- The Book Review and Article Critique
- Writing an Annotated Bibliography
- The Literature Review
- The Academic Proposal
- The Abstract
- The Lab Report
- The Short Report
- Oral Presentations
- The Exam Essay (University of Victoria)
- Writing about History
- Writing about Physics
- Some tips on Writing about Poetry (East Carolina University)
- Analysis of Literature: Interpretation through Close Reading
- Writing about Art History (Dartmouth College)
- Writing an Effective Admissions Letter
- Application Letters and Résumés
Style and Editing
- Revising and Editing
- Using the Computer to Improve your Writing
- Wordiness: Danger Signals and Ways to React
- Unbiased Language
- Spelling Correctly (University of Ottawa)
- Fixing Comma Splices
- new Faulty Parallelism
Grammar and Punctuation
These files will give you places to start in finding advisory material about correct language use. The first one was developed specifically to remind University of Toronto students of the points that bother U of T instructors. The rest come from other institutions. Browse to see what suits your needs; then you can use individual files to look up questions or review points.
- Hit Parade of Errors in Style, Grammar, and Punctuation
From Dena Taylor of the Health Sciences Writing Centre, a quick overview of the thirteen most common and bothersome errors. Using student examples, she defines the problems and shows revisions. - Grammar and Style Notes (Jack Lynch, University of Pennsylvania)
This set of comments on various problems of usage and grammar is witty as well as sensible. Worth browsing. - Purdue University Online Writing Lab handouts
This is the best and most inclusive set of online handouts on writing. Start with the indexes and browse through the sections that are most useful to you. - HyperGrammar at the University of Ottawa
This impressive set of files helps you build an understanding of grammatical terms and standard usage. Start by reviewing terminology, then go on to look at specific items and try out online quizzes. - The UVic Writer's Guide
This attractively-designed and well-written set of advisory files is especially useful for literary essays. - NASA on Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization
You might not think that astronauts care about details of language use, but apparently scientists on the ground do. This online handbook gives careful explanations and well-chosen examples for stylistic questions faced by science writers. The chapters on punctuation and capitalization are especially helpful.
Some Answers for Writers of English as a Second Language
- Expressions of Quantity: Special Cases of Subject-Verb Agreement
- new Using Articles
- Special Cases in the Use of the Definite Article
- When to Use Gerunds
- Reporting Verbs for Referring to Sources
- Self-Help Books for Learning English as a Second Language
- How to Use Prepositions: Tips and Exercises (Helsinki University)
- Everything You Need to Know about Verb Forms (Helsinki University)
- Further Online Resources
Further Writing Resources
- Courses in Writing
- Writing Centres in the Colleges and the Professional Faculties
- Books on Writing