Subdisciplinary & program specific resources

If you ever write any sort of research paper, you are likely to need an abstract. But what is an abstract for? What should go into one? What makes one effective? This resource will provide a brief guide.

Abstracts

Writing as a science student can seem like the most arduous and boring task on the planet. Whether you don’t understand where to start or just don’t have the motivation, this resource will hopefully make the whole process a little more interesting and clear for those of us who live and breathe science.

A cell-based guide to writing

Often, we’re tasked with citing common sources that are nevertheless receive no mention in our chosen style manuals. For College of Business students, accounting standards are one such example. The following resource offers guidance on how to cite these standards in your writing based on Lee’s (2017) APA Style Blog post.

Accounting standards in APA

Biology 192 focuses on writing in the sciences, and creating approachable, readable lab reports, so it’s important to learn some key aspects of what makes a successful piece of science writing.

BIOL 192 general tips

The ability to write a clear, concise laboratory report is an important skill that must be learned to succeed in this course. Moreover, report writing is a standard skill for many different fields. To acquire these skills will require time, hard work, and practice. You are encouraged to get help from as many different sources as you can. Here are several strong suggestions.

BIOL 395: writing laboratory reports

Get information about writing a personal statement, with specific steps to take at every stage of the process.

Checklist: writing a personal statement

A literature review is a comprehensive study and interpretation of the literature (articles, studies, journals) for a specific topic (Aveyard 2014).

The primary role of the researcher when conducting a literature review is to try and make sense of all the research. Imagine that a journal article is a single puzzle piece; when you are writing a literature review you are taking all of these different puzzle pieces, trying to get them to fit together to ultimately answer your research question.

CHS 211 literature review

When it comes to essays for Core Humanities, even the most literature-inclined students may struggle to write one of the many papers assigned in CH 201, 202, and 203. The two main issues that students face in Core Humanities classes are writing a thesis and meeting a word count. Here, we will address these issues in depth, and hopefully guide you towards success in Core Humanities.

Core Humanities: a survival guide

Your cover letter should accomplish the following:

1. Clearly route your cover letter and resume to the right person for the right job opening.
2. Show you can communicate professionally in writing.
3. Reinforce qualifications presented in your resume and show that you are a good fit for the company by using short narrative examples of how your experience and skills match the needs of the employer.
4. Reflect your positive attitude, personality, motivation and enthusiasm.

Cover letter format

When analyzing a song there are words that, if understood, can help with development of listening charts. The listening charts throughout American Popular Music give examples of what to look for in specific songs, but not an overview of general concepts that can be applied to any song.

Creating listening charts in American Popular Music

Creating a resource for students can be somewhat intimidating, whether you have been on staff for one semester or five. Finding that balance between thorough information and accessible format is complicated and may be a source of stress or uncertainty for may UWC staff members. But stress no more; following are some tips and tricks for turning your abundance of knowledge into an effective resource for student use.

Creating a resource

Creative writing is unique for a few reasons. This guide addresses things unique to writing fiction.

Creative writing

Learn more about writing a statement of purpose and a personal statement and understand the key differences between the two genres. 

Differences between statements of purpose and personal statements

A summary table allows you to compare common research methods, findings, limitations, etc. You can order the entries in any way that you find useful; consider ordering your research alphabetically, by timeliness, or even by grouping similar study aims, models, or results.

Drafting a summary table

The Education Application Essay is part of the application process for acceptance into the teacher preparation program at the College of Education. Typically, applicants are in their sophomore or junior year. In the past this essay has prompted students to write about their experiences in education, how they will face issues in the field, and their education philosophy.

Education application essay

Your personal statement is an opportunity for an admissions or review committee to get to know you, the “you” that cannot be captured in a CV or resume. For that reason, it is important to be confident, be honest, and be yourself. Below are four common writing mistakes that “hide” your individual voice and undermine the effectiveness of your essay.

Finding your voice in personal statements

When you're an undergraduate, writing at the graduate level may seem intimidating. Maybe your upper-level course professors say they expect graduate-level writing, or maybe you're planning to go to grad school, and you want to know what to expect. Ultimately, however, learning to write at the graduate level, no matter where you are in your academic career, will help you improve your writing skills.

Graduate-level writing

The HESI A2 examination stands for Heath Education Systems Incorporated Admissions Assessment and acts as a way to test a student’s potential success in an intense nursing program. The Orvis School of Nursing uses the scores from the exam in their selection process; while your GPA earns you an interview spot, ultimately, the result of your interview and your HESI score determine whether or not you get into the nursing program.

HESI A2: grammar

The HESI A2 examination stands for Heath Education Systems Incorporated Admissions Assessment and acts as a way to test a student’s potential success in an intense nursing program. Orvis School of Nursing uses the scores from the exam toward the end of the selection process; while your GPA earns you an interview spot, ultimately, the result of your interview and your HESI score determine whether or not you get into the nursing program. Half of the points in the exam focus on English skills based around your ability to read critically and to correct grammar mistakes. 

HESI A2: reading comprehension

Primary sources are direct, first-hand accounts that describe a particular time period or event. Learn what to look for when reading a primary source to make sure you are interpreting the document appropriately.

How to read primary sources

What is a diversity statement?

Diversity statements are becoming common as part of graduate school applications and even for some professional positions. A diversity statement is typically a one-page statement and is similar in structure to a personal statement but focuses on the candidate’s skills, experiences, and/or willingness to engage in diversity and equity initiatives.

How to approach the diversity statement

One’s tense will vary depending on what one is trying to convey within their paper or section of their paper. For example, the tense may change between the methods section and the discussion section.

How to use tenses within scientific writing

A business report is a collection of data and analyses that helps make relevant information easily accessible to a company. There are many different types of business reports, but this guide will show you the basic outline.

How to write a business report

MUS 121 typically uses concert reviews as a primary medium of writing. Concert reviews are structured as follows.

How to write a concert review

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According to the Royal Literary Fund, a literature review has four main objectives:

• Survey the research in a given field
• Synthesize that information
• Extract the key components
• Critically analyze the information presented.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, so linguistics papers follow the APA Publication Manual, with a few key adjustments that reflect the priorities of the field. These are guidelines for a references page and technical formatting in a research paper, literature review, or report for linguistics.

Linguistics references in APA

According to the Royal Literary Fund, a literature review has four main objectives:

• Survey the research in a given field
• Synthesize that information
• Extract the key components
• Critically analyze the information presented.

This is done by: looking at gaps in the research, limitations placed upon the researchers, finding new relationships among the data and discusses areas where further research could be conducted.

Literature reviews 101

A literature review synthesizes and analyzes previous research in a field to inform an audience and establish background knowledge. Literature reviews are most often part of a larger work, like a research article, but may also be written as their own piece to demonstrate a student’s understanding of a concept. In addition to providing the reader with background information relevant to the topic or research question, a literature review may help to identify gaps in the current body of knowledge or criticize previous research practices as a way to present potential for future research.

Literature review basics

In creative writing, how involved the reader feels with a story can strengthen the clarity, pacing, suspense and drama of a story or alternatively draw a reader out of a scene that is critical to understanding a narrative. Often, stories depend on the perspectives of particular characters to lend meaning and detail throughout the story’s structure, plot and other ambitions.

Psychic distance in creative writing

Ever read a restaurant review or movie review? These types of reviews are evaluations of the business, products, and/or services. When evaluating, writers should consider the following components . . .

Quick guide to an evaluation essay

Quote integration is arguably one of the most difficult parts of essay writing; however, it does not need to be. Here are some tips to make quote integration easier. 

Quote integration

A resume is a personal document highlighting someone’s qualifications for a job, scholarship, internship, or another opportunity. Resumes are meant to be streamlined and concise, in order to give the reviewer a quick overview of experience, with optional details. Unless otherwise noted, most resumes should only be one full page.

Resume guidelines

Get guidance on writing for science classes, including formality, objectivity, voice and formatting tips, and see examples of how to make your writing better. 

Tips for science writing

Passive and active voice simply refer to the relationship of the subject to the verb.

Stylistic considerations for engineers

Sometimes it is difficult to know how to best approach writing about television, film or web media. Much of this process begins with understanding your assignment: this will have an impact on your purpose, audience, opinion, analysis and research.

Understanding film writing assignments

For many college papers, a prompt will ask questions related to readings and class discussion, asking you to demonstrate analysis and discussion of the topic. Decoding what a prompt is asking can sometimes be overwhelming. The sooner you understand a prompt, the sooner you can start writing. Here are some useful tips to understand writing prompts ...

Understanding writing prompts

Using an interview can be an effective primary source for some papers and research projects. Finding an expert in the field or some other person who has knowledge of your topic can allow for you to gather unique information not available elsewhere.

Using an interview in a research paper

Learn how to effectively use writing and speaking consultations to maximize your time and improve your writing.

Ways to effectively use Writing & Speaking Center consultations

Get tips, including do's and don'ts, for writing papers for your psychology classes

Writing psychology papers

Read an overview of various kind of social work papers and their requirements.

Writing social work papers