Academic Writing Blog

How to Use Wikipedia to Find Sources

Wikipedia is an open access program that allows just about anyone to update a page with whatever information they want. And no one checks to make sure that it is correct. So how can you use Wikipedia to write an academic paper?

Perfecting the Personal Essay

The true art of a personal essay is capturing something special about yourself and then communicating it to everyone who reads the piece. It's definitely a lot harder than the initial assignment ever seems to be.

Example Essay: Comparison/Contrast Paper

Example essays are excellent for helping students to compare and contrast differences in the appropriate styles, format and tone required for essays. Example essays are relevant for all types of essays including Expository Essays, Cause/Effect Essays, Definition Essays, Comparison/Contrast, Argumentative and Pro/Con Essays. Example essays also help students to identify visually and emotively, the essential differences in each essay type.

eLearning Education Environment

The driving idea behind the disciplinary literacy framework is the premise that knowledge and thinking must go hand in hand. For students to competently develop literacy in a particular discipline, they must grow on these two dimensions (knowledge and thinking) simultaneously. In today’s increasingly utilized eLearning environments disciplinary literacy is fundamental.

eLearning and Disciplinary Literacy

The driving idea behind the disciplinary literacy framework is the premise that knowledge and thinking must go hand in hand. For students to competently develop literacy in a particular discipline, they must grow on these two dimensions (knowledge and thinking) simultaneously. In today’s increasingly utilized eLearning environments disciplinary literacy is fundamental.

7 Tips for How to Write Research Papers

Pick a topic that is fun and interesting. Give yourself plenty of time to read and think about what you would like to do. Trying to answer questions about a particular subject may lead you to a good paper idea. What subject(s) are you interested in? What interests you most about a particular subject? Is there anything you wonder about or are puzzled about with regard to that subject?

College Essay Tips

Yes, the college essay is a step up from high school and yes, it can be stressful but like most things it isn’t as hard once you come out the other end as you undoubtedly thought it would be going in. Three pieces of advice will help you to go from high school level essays to proficient college essay writing.

Help me Write an Essay!

So many students struggle with essay writing and yet once they begin the process they find it was nearly as difficult as they thought. Oftentimes the greatest obstacle is a mental block and once that block is discovered and resolved, the rest is easy. Different people experience different kinds of mental block. Some can’t begin the writing process, some are stumped when it comes to research, some can’t find the right topic and some struggle with spelling, grammar and syntax. All of these problems are easily overcome.

Writing Papers Writing Styles

The style and tone for writing papers is largely dependent on the guidelines you are instructed to use. As such, the occasional timely reminder of what the various academic writing styles are is important. Here is a brief refresher overview of the main style guidelines used by most academics. This covers the main three writing paper styles; there are others used less frequently, such as Harvard and Chicago.

When to Write an Essay

A lot of research and commentary has gone into helping people to know ‘how’ to write an essay but equally important and much less talked about is ‘when’ to write an essay. When to write an essay is important from several perspectives. One is purely logistical and involves planning sufficiently in advance to give yourself time to research, write, edit, re-write and then finally to proofread the essay. There are rules of thumb here that can help. The other perspective is more psychological. When to write an essay is as much about being in the right state of mind as it is about the content you produce. The right mindset naturally lends itself to better flow, syntax and articulation.