College Writing & Professor Expectations
For many new college students, the thought of taking a writing course is greeted with the same kind of enthusiasm you would have for visiting the dentist for a root canal: something that needs...
Category: Academic Writing
The It’s/Its/Its’ Conundrum
Lately, I’ve been seeing more and more errors in two sound-alike words: the possessive pronoun “its” and the contraction for “it is.” Writers seem confused (or perhaps just too rushed?) about whether or not...
Patchwriting
We all know that plagiarism is wrong, and that in the academic world, it is akin to stealing. Document content that doesn’t belong to you is the proverbial rule of thumb professors offer. If...
Understanding the Assignment
Before my first child was born (almost twenty-two years ago at this point!), I recall the major stress I felt trying to assemble the new-in-the-box crib. Admittedly, I am not a handy guy when...
Red Ink and Correction Marks
In the twenty-seven plus years that I have dutifully taught some version of college writing, one of my standard first-day get-to-know-each-other icebreaker questions has been “What do you remember most about high school English?”...
APA Style 2020 Posts You Don’t Want to Miss
Now that 2020 is in our rearview mirror (thank goodness!), I thought it appropriate to usher in the New Year with a recap of not-to-miss Writing Center blogcasts that concern APA Style as we...
A “We” Problem
In informal writing, the use of the first-person plural pronoun “we” is commonplace, as in, We tend to use language willy-nilly when writing informally. Some of you might not think twice about my use...
Formal vs. Informal Writing
Writing to many is about dos and don’ts, especially don’ts–don’t use first person, don’t use second person, don’t use slang, don’t use contractions, don’t use hyperbole. Don’t, don’t, don’t. And of course these “don’ts”...
Documenting Sources Made Easy
Many who are not familiar with the basics of APA Style documentation become confused, frustrated, and sometimes even stressed when they need to document a source that may not be typical or contains missing...