The Writing Zone at Benedictine is for everyone! There are many resources available to you for writing help at every stage of the writing process: choosing a topic, brainstorming ideas, researching, drafting, revisions, editing, and finalizing.
The Writing Zone at Benedictine is for everyone! There are many resources available to you for writing help at every stage of the writing process: choosing a topic, brainstorming ideas, researching, drafting, revisions, editing, and finalizing.
Tips to Help Us Help You
Video Recordings Available in the ACE D2L Group
Stand Out to Future Employers with Strong Writing Skills
You CAN Learn to Write Well… Yes, you can!
Writing is required in most jobs. However, if you are a particularly good writer and enjoy the writing process, you may want to consider a career in the writing field. Many positions link writing to another field. Explore the links below.
General Information:
Medical Writing:
Science Writing:
Technical Writing:
When Citation is Necessary:
Generally speaking, if you are using an idea generated or developed by someone else, you must give them credit to avoid plagiarism. This applies whether you summarize, paraphrase, or quote a source. Plagiarism is a form of cheating and can result in extreme consequences for a student ranging from a zero on the plagiarized assignment to loss of scholarships, recommendations, and NCAA eligibility. In extreme cases, a student could be expelled from the university. See the Academic Honesty Policy for details. Take a plagiarism quiz to test your understanding.
How to Cite – the Basics:
Make it clear where in your paper another author’s ideas begin and end. This is true for summaries, paraphrasing and word-for-word quotes.
St. Martin’s Handbook as a Resource
Many students own a copy of The St. Martin’s Handbook – 9th edition because it is required for WRIT 1101, 1102, and 1104. This book has a great deal of information about four of the major styles:
Online resources on the Benedictine University Library website:
Other resources:
APA Practice Worksheet
Maryville University – College Guide to Preventing Plagiarism
University of Wisconsin-Madison – Quoting and Paraphrasing
Students are often confused about the differences between summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. Chapter 15 of The St. Martin’s Handbook – 9th edition (Integrating Sources) provides detailed information about the differences and how to cite each.
ALL THREE MUST BE CITED TO AVOID PLAGIARISM
Summarizing: This is when you use the ideas from another source, but the text is far shorter than the outside source. For example, you can summarize an entire book in one or two sentences. This is a good option when the main ideas of a source are helpful but the details are not.
Paraphrasing:
This is when you use the ideas from another source, and the text is about the same length as the outside source. This is a good option when details are important but exact words are not.
Do this paraphrasing activity for practice.
Quoting:
This is using exact words from an outside source. This is a good option when you can’t improve on the exact wording.
Click Here to Access the Essay Exams PDF
Grammar and punctuation are writing skills that every good writer is constantly seeking to improve.
Many students own a copy of The St. Martin’s Handbook – 9th edition because it is required for WRIT 1101, 1102, and 1104. This book has a great deal of information about grammar and mechanics and is worth owning.
Here are several electronic sources to help you:
There are many reasons to write a personal statement: scholarships, graduate school, medical school, Health Professions Recommendation Committee, and more. Even if you’re an excellent writer, you may need some coaching in how to write an effective personal statement. Here’s a list of resources available to you:
In-Person Support:
The Peer Writing Tutors and Learning Specialist, are available to help students with every step of writing a personal statement. We can help you get started and support you through the final draft. Check the latest schedule for details).
Related Books:
Online Resources (General):
Online Resources (Dental):
Online Resources (Medical):
Online Resources (Optometry):
Many students struggle with starting to write. They open a Word document on their computer and try to write the first sentence of their introduction expecting that to lead to the next and the next until the last sentence of their conclusion. The writing process is much more complex than that. Here are some strategies that you may want to try the next time you sit down to start writing.
Develop a thesis and an outline:
Many students distrust outlines, yet an outline can be your best friend when trying to start writing. An outline is simply a list of your topic sentences with a sentence at the top that is supported by all the topic sentences. Try to generate a list of topic sentences; you may be surprised how helpful it is!
Start in the middle of the paper:
Often students aren’t sure what they want to write exactly, and that makes writing an outline or thesis statement essentially impossible. However, if you’re clear on one topic that you want to write, try to start by writing the paragraph about that one idea. Then at least you have a paragraph you can fit into the paper later on.
Temporarily lower your standards:
Students often get stuck trying to write perfect sentences, paragraphs, and thesis statements in their first draft. Even professional writers aren’t able to do this. EVERYONE WRITES DRAFTS. Expect that bad writing will come before good writing. To try to skip over bad writing only wastes time and holds you back. Just write the bad stuff and get it over with!
Freewriting:
Freewriting involves setting a timer at 20 minutes and then forcing yourself to write continuously until the time runs out – no exceptions. It doesn’t matter what you write. Just write whatever comes to mind, even if it’s sentences like “This is crazy, how can this freewriting help?” If forced to write, your thesis may appear on your computer screen seemingly by magic. Write about any ideas, no matter how unrelated to the assignment they may seem. By writing them down, your mind becomes free to think about ideas that are related.
Remove distractions:
Many students try to write with music or tv on in the background. Try removing these distractions and allowing your brain to focus on one task: writing.
Many students struggle with establishing flow in their papers. These students jump around from topic to topic within each of their paragraphs. Flow comes from a clear thesis statement that is supported by all the paragraphs, and each paragraph covers only one main idea. For example, an idea shouldn’t appear in paragraphs 3 and be restated in paragraph 5. Cover the idea fully in either 3 or 5. Then make sure you have strong transitions between each paragraph, and your flow will appear!
On Writing Thesis Statements
Paragraphing
Flow requires multiple drafts to establish. Overtime, the main idea of each paragraph becomes clear and then you can decide how well it supports your thesis statement. If it doesn’t effectively support it, consider deleting the paragraph. Also consider reordering your paragraphs in your drafts. See which order most effectively supports your thesis.
Many students own a copy of The St. Martin’s Handbook – 9th edition because it is required for WRIT 1101, 1102, and 1104. This book has a great deal of information about organizing ideas and developing an effective structure. Look up “thesis” in the index in the back of the book.
To be an effective writer, a person must have a strong vocabulary to make his or her ideas clear to the reader. Students often try to fake a strong vocabulary and end up making fools of themselves by misusing a word. You don’t need to fake it. Below are some tips to build your vocabulary.
Read, read, read!
The best way to build a vocabulary is to read as much as possible. It doesn’t have to be a 17th century novel, though that kind of reading will effectively build your vocabulary. It can be any kind of reading. When you come across a word you don’t know, look it up right then and there. To help you remember it, pay attention to how it’s used in the sentence and make up a couple sentences of your own using it. Although this may seem troublesome, you won’t have to do it forever. Eventually, your vocabulary will be built up and you will know the words when you’re reading.
Avoid vague language in your writing
Learn roots, prefixes, and suffixes
Words in English often have a root, a prefix, and/or a suffix. If you know the meanings of these parts, you will know more words when you’re reading. For example words starting with bio- have something to do with life, and words ending with -ology mean the study of something. Therefore, the word biology means the study of life. This is a simple example, but this trick can help you know the meaning of words such as misanthrope, bibliophile, and veracity without having to look them up.
Pages 389-393 of The St. Martin’s Handbook – 8th edition provide a list of common roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
Stop swearing
If you stop swearing, you’ll find that the number of words you use will greatly increase. It’s easy to say “&*#$ mad.” It takes a strong vocabulary to use words such as furious and enraged. It will be difficult at first, but like anything else, you’ll improve with practice. A fifth grader can swear; an adult goes beyond that. Once you build up your vocabulary, you’ll be able to swear better than you thought possible.
Every career requires writing, however the form of writing varies from one career to another. In Writing 1102 (Research Writing), students gain some experience in writing within their major. The list below provides information specific to writing for your major (or discipline). It will benefit you to learn as much as you can about writing in your major before you graduate. You’ll have enough new information to learn when you start your first job!
Computer Science
Criminal Justice
Pre-Med
Science
Unsure of how to format a business letter? a business memo? a professional e-mail? Yes, a professional e-mail is different from a casual e-mail you send to a friend. A professional e-mail uses more formal language. A business text is also very different from a text you may send to a friend. For example, “text-speak” is not acceptable in the business world. The word “I” must be capitalized and apostrophes should be used. The word “you” is not spelled “u.”
Not convinced? Think you’ll never have to write again after you graduate? Watch these videos and find out the truth:
Many current students are not aware of professional writing standards in general. Therefore, this list of resources has been assembled to provide much-needed information.
The St. Martin’s Handbook as a Professional Writing Resource:
Many students own a copy of The St. Martin’s Handbook – 9th edition because it’s required for WRIT 1101, 1102, and 1104. There is a full chapter which is particularly helpful in terms of business writing:
Related Books Available through the Benedictine University Library:
Visit the Library page and browse their holdings to find dozens of sources including:
Career and Professional Development Resources:
They have many resources available as handouts and online:
Online Resources:
Other universities also have information about business writing that may be helpful:
In person and online opportunities are available. Email [email protected] for more information.
Whether you are struggling with WRIT 1101, completing a term paper assigned in a course for your major, or finishing your application to medical school, we can read what you have and offer you feedback. Come to us for assistance with any stage of the writing process:
We can also help you learn to avoid plagiarism and document according to MLA, APA, Chicago, or CSE guidelines.
If you’re interested in becoming a peer writing tutor, please contact Ms. Susan Roach.
Connect with a Peer Tutor VirtuallyOur Learning Specialists are willing to work with you and develop any kind of workshop presentation you need to help your students write better. Past instructors have asked for a variety of topics, including:
This useful student information page was provided by Dr. Christine Fletcher. She uses it to gain information about her students at the start of each semester.
Upcoming WAC seminar topics are to be determined – watch your email. Handouts from past WAC seminars are available in the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellent group in D2L. Look in your “ongoing” tab in the “My Courses” section.
A Catholic University in the Benedictine Tradition, founded in 1887.
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5700 College Rd. Lisle, IL 60532
(630) 829-6000
Mesa Campus
225 E. Main St. Mesa, AZ 85201
(602) 888-5500