ESL 302, ESL 91, English 1A:  WRITING ESSAYS

Tips on Writing Essays

Way to Write  An interactive writing guide from Calgary University.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant   The links for POWA are at the top of the page and take you through the entire writing process. Links also include argumentative essays, exploratory essays, and documentation.
Techniques for Writing   Twelve lessons on techniques for writing paragraphs and essays.
Composition Handouts for Essay Writing  The Stone Writing Center covers types of essays and parts of essays.
Parts of the Essay  Review Parts of an Essay, How to Write an Essay, and Kinds of Essays.
The Academic Writer  Notes on the main body of an essay, argument, paragraphs, style, tone, evidence and quizzes available.
How to Write a Five-Paragraph Essay  This page contains additional links on essay writing.
How to Study for an Essay Test
Adding Sensory Details  Good examples of how to use reasons, examples, names, numbers, and senses [RENNS model of details].
Academic Writing Tips  A complete guide on Academic Writing and Research from the University of Toronto. Topics include Planning and Organizing, Reading and Researching, Using Sources, Specific Types of Writing, Style and Editing , Grammar and Punctuation, and some Tips for ESL Students. See the links at the top or scroll the page.
Developing an Outline  OWL Purdue's four tips on writing effective outlines. Other navigation links covering writing are to the right.
Writing for an Audience  OWL Purdue
University of Victoria's Writer's Guide  An introduction to planning and writing essays,  types of essays, getting started, organizing, proofreading, common problems, etc.
Bedford / St. Martin's Writing Guide  Free registration at this site gives you entry into great resources for Writing and Rhetoric, Research Resources and Citing Sources, and Grammar and Style Exercises and Diagnostics.
Strunk's Elementary Principles of Composition  Making the paragraph the unit of writing: one paragraph for each topic (subdivision of an essay).
Avoiding Plagiarism  Ways to avoid Plagiarism in your writing
An Exercise on Plagiarism  From McGraw-Hill's Online Learning Center

Types of Essays

All Types of Essays and Student Samples  Argumentative, Cause and Effect, Comparison and Contrast, Definition, Descriptive, Division and Classification, and Evaluation Essays.
Argumentative Essay  A lesson on organization and techniques for writing an argumentative essay.
Argumentative Essay Topics  Find meaningful topics on current social, constitutional, educational, and ethical issues.
Advanced Composition  Lessons on writing different types of academic essays and students' essays.
More Types of Essays  Check the links under Steps to Writing the Essay and Types of Essays.
Classification Essays   A Power Point presentation.
The Definition Essay
This I Believe  Select a theme and browse many essays written by ordinary writers on that theme. The site is from thisIbelieve.org.

Summaries and Other Types of  Writing

A Learning Activity on Summary Writing Here you can learn the process of summary writing, evaluate good and bad summaries and practice writing your own.
Summary Writing  A complete guide on how to write summaries from Colorado State University.
Summary Writing  From McGraw-Hill Online Learning Center, Click Interactive Exercises in the left hand column for How to Summarize an Article. Next, click Visuals for a powerpoint review of summary writing.
Bedford St. Martin's Writing Guide
Technical Writing  Scroll to Applications of Technical Writing.
Writing Memos, E-mails, Letters, Essays A good site for personal business writing.
From Personal to Public Writing - Examine the differences between personal and public modes of writing and learn to write for a wider public (Commnet site).

Edit / Revise

The Edit Grid from San Jose Writes  Explanations and exercises to learn to avoid common errors.
Twelve Common Errors   Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist from University of Wisconsin, Madison
Revision and Editing Strategies  Guides to proofreading and editing.
MLA Style Sheet  A concise guide to using the style of the Modern Language Association in research papers.
Citing Sources  UC Berkeley's page to APA and MLA style guides and a statement on plagiarism.
Citing Sources   University of Wisconsin Writing Center
Assembling a List of Works Cited   Duke University Guide on how to cite from various sources.
Punctuation  Scroll to List and Examples of Punctuation and Capitalization Rules.

Online Writing Labs

Stone Writing Center  Del Mar College Writing Center provides handouts on Grammar and Punctuation, composition, Literature, and Business Writing.
Purdue OWL  and The Purdue Online Writing lab Check workshop handouts on the right.
MLA Power Point Presentation  Learn MLA format from OWL Purdue.
Characteristics of an Academic Paper   From Dartmouth College, "What is an Academic Paper? " The links on the right side give extensive tips on how to write an academic paper. This site is for very advanced students.
Dartmouth Writing Center   The Dartmouth Writing Program - Online Writing Materials for Students
Materials for Writing Tutors   Materials for Writing Tutors - Dartmouth
The Writing Center University of Wisconsin  The Writing Center - University of Wisconsin-Madison
Virtual Writing Center at Rensselaer  E-handouts from the Writing center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Introduction to Information Literacy  Modules on Information Literacy - Click the red arrow to start.
Additional Online Writing Labs  Provided by Gonzaga University

SPELLING LINKS

Interlink Language Center   Five Levels of spelling practice.
Spelling of Irregular Plural Nouns
Spelling Rules for Nouns and Verbs 
Spelling of Irregular Verbs 

ESL Station           ESL 302/91