This is the home page for the Brandeis Open-Access Writing Handbook.
The primary purpose of this handbook is to provide a cohesive, open-access, no-cost handbook covering all aspects of academic writing for use by the Brandeis community. Faculty are encouraged to reference this guide and to use portions of it in their classes.
1.1 Reading critically
2.1 Argument components
2.2 Moving from evidence to claims
2.3 Finding and evolving a thesis
3.1 Organizing the paragraphs:
Transition, topic sentence, claim, analysis, relevance
3.2 Ordering the paragraphs: guidelines for constructing an outline
3.3 Introductions
3.4 Body paragraphs
3.5 Conclusions
3.6 Reverse outlining and revision? or put it in 4.7 below?
4.1 Primary vs. Secondary vs. tertiary sources?
4.2 Finding sources (keywords)
4.3 Evaluating sources
4.4 Narrowing your research topic (NC video)
4.5 Using sources analytically by putting them in conversation
4.6 Motivating your argument
4.7 Source Use
4.8 Citation
4.9 Revision
5.1 Audience
5.2 Active vs. passive voice
5.3 Clear and direct vocabulary
5.4 First Person
5.5 Proofreading