University Writing Program

Open-Access Resources (OAR) for Classroom Use

• A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing, Melanie Gagich & Emilie Zickels

Process

https://www.brandeis.edu/writing-program/resources/students/academic/index.html

Sources

Close reading, analyzing writing, images, film, etc.

 

 

Argument & Thesis

counterargument handouts

Revision

• Revising Drafts (UNC Handout)

A great handout on revision

• Cutting while Revising: Purdue OWL Vidcast

Genre and Discipline

Rationale, CGA, etc.

• Inquiries Journal

An open-access undergraduate and graduate student research journal – useful for showing students examples of high quality, student writing

• List of Journals that Publish Research Conducted by Undergraduate Students (University of North Carolina Wilmington)
• Why Writing Works: Disciplinary Approaches to Composing Texts
• Harvard Disciplinary Writing Guides

Useful for understanding writing conventions across disciplines / supporting CGA discussion

Research

Locating and evaluating sources, proposals, methodology, advanced argumentation and source use, etc.

• The Plagiarism Spectrum (TurnItIn.com)

Useful for discussing forms of plagiarism

• How to Avoid Plagiarism (video modules from Rutgers)

Video modules

• Harvard Guide to Using Sources

Supports discussions of source use and plagiarism avoidance

• Picking Your Topic Is Research!

Excellent source for narrowing your research topic

Style, Grammar, and Citation

Websites

• APA Style Center
• MLA Style Center
• Purdue OWL
• Excelsior OWL

Videos

• Steven Pinker on Linguistics and Writing (YouTube video)

The segment from 23:00 to 31:28 is useful for demonstrating the difference between passive vs. active voice.

• BBC Masterclass: Subject-Verb Agreement
  • Part I
  • Part II
  • Part III

Useful Resources ("For Further Reading")

• Grammar Girl

Offers accessible explanations of grammatical concepts. NOTE: It usually it makes the most sense to Google the name of the construction and then “grammar girl” after it, rather than browsing the site itself.

 

Stuff to Disaggregate

• Writing Commons

Founded by Joseph M. Moxley is a professor of English at USF, Writing Commons is a peer-reviewed, open text for writing courses. Entires cover topics such as genre, rhetoric, and editing.

• Course Reserves

While not strictly open, the Library is happy to help with reducing costs through our Reserves program. Some books can be purchased as multi-user ebooks. For books that cannot be purchased by libraries as ebooks, the Library can put a print copy on Permanent Reserve meaning that any student can check teh book out for up to 2 hours at a time. We've done with Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual, for example. Please feel free to email reserve@brandeis.edu with additional requests.

Produced by or recommended by the Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse:

• The Process of Research Writing
• Bazerman's A Rhetoric of Literate Action: Literate Action
• Writing for Success. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition
• Harvard Writes