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Writing Resources
Grammar
This website is a resource to learn and practice English grammar and writing. Specifically practice sentence structure, paragraph formation, and how to write an essay and research paper.
Grammar Challenge is a program which helps language learners use tricky grammatical structures. Every program is downloadable as an mp3 and features an expert commentary. The website contains fun interactive quizzes, grammar tables and an area for you to practice your written English.
Grammar Activities for ESL Students
This website hosts several grammar quizzes for extra grammar practice.
Learn about English grammar! This website informs the readers about adjectives, adverbs, articles, irregular verbs, gerunds, participles, infinitives, numbers, prepositions, relative pronouns, sentence punctuation patterns, subject/verb agreement, and verb tenses.
Are phrasial verbs confusing to you? This is a great help.
Helpful Dictionaries
A great American Dictionary that features an audio dictionary! Just click on the speaker button to hear the proper pronunciation. This dictionary also gives a thorough definition of the words, parts of speech, and even has a “word of the day” section. You may also find their thesaurus helpful when looking for English synonyms.
Multilingual online dictionary that is available online with translations into French, German, Italian, and Spanish. It is regarded by some as the most authoritative dictionary of the English language. The dictionary features detailed definitions, parts of speech, sentence examples, as well as common phrases that include the word. Also features spelling games and grammar tips.
Multilingual online dictionary that is available in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Roman, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish! It includes not only the definition and parts of speech but also provides examples in different contexts. Another unique feature is a verb conjugator for different verb tenses.
Writing a Paper
Writing in North American Higher Education: A Primer for International Students
This handout is an introduction to the basics of academic writing conventions for students who are new to American colleges and universities.
Writing for English as a Second Language Students
This document put together by Dartmouth College's Writing Program outlines how to write an American academic paper. It describes the American thesis sentence, the American paragraph, the structure of an American essay, and the English sentence.
Need help brainstorming a topic for your thesis or constructing a bibliography?
Here are some great resources to help!
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill- Writing the Paper
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill provides multimedia writing strategy demos as well as handouts to help with writing specific issues (thesis statements, brainstorming, conclusions, comparative essays, etc).
Citations
MLA Formatting and Style Guide
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
APA Formatting and Style Guide
APA (American Psychological Association) is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.
Plagiarism
Canisius College Academic Integrity for International Students
Acadia University Library: "You Quote It, You Note It"
A very helpful and easy to understand interactive tutorial on plagiarism. This webpage put together by UNC's Writing Center addresses different aspects of writing an American paper including creating an argument, writing an introduction and thesis statement, revising a draft, and much more.
Using English for Academic Purposes: "Avoiding Plagiarism"
This website defines what plagiarism is, shows examples of plagiarism, and gives advice and exercises to educate students on how to avoid plagiarism.
