The Yale College Writing Program’s Favorite Links

We have looked at many writing-related web sites.  Here are some of our favorites:

The Best General Sources:

“Writing Prose,” Yale’s guide, available in print as well as online; see http://www.yale.edu/bass/gencon.html for “General Considerations,"and http://www.yale.edu/bass/wp/writingprose.html for correcting specific problems.  The entire text of "Writing Prose" is also available as a pdf file via Adobe Reader; click here.  (If you need to download the free application Adobe Reader, click here).
http://owl.English.purdue.edu/handouts -- The online writing lab, full of useful, reliable handouts on every writing topic imaginable
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/owls/writing-labs.html#r-t -- Purdue’s guide to other online writing guides
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/html/tools.htm -- Harvard’s website offering thorough instruction on writing academic essays, including advice on how to read critically, how to develop a thesis, how to begin and end an essay
www.bartleby.com/141/strunk.html -- A classic: the original 1918 edition of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style; keep in mind that this book is available because the copyright has lapsed.  If you like what you see here, consider ordering the current in-print, more up-to-date version that has been revised to reflect contemporary usage
http://www.nutsandboltsguide.com/ -- A useful, humorous guide to college writing
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/writing/Writing_Center/WCWritingRes.htm -- Down-to-earth advice for academic papers, starting with “Ten Suggestions from the Writing Center”

 

For Senior Essays:
http://www.yale.edu/history/senioressay2.pdf-- The History Department's 2003-2004 handbook provides much useful information that can be adapted to any department.  The "Help Is on the Way" section includes Fred Strebeigh's very useful "Polishing the Rough Draft" (p. 33-38), as well as essays on finding a topic, starting a draft, and organizing your research.
 

First and Second-Year Students:

http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/collegewriting/index.htm -- A guide illustrating, among other things, the differences between high school and college papers
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing -- “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQs) is generally useful. Among the FAQs, “I’m writing my first college paper. What do I do?”
http://www.library.yale.edu/instruction/english114/index.html -- The research guide for English 114 students
http://www.library.yale.edu/instruction/english115/index.html -- The guide for helping English 115 students with their class assignments

 

For Research and Resources:

http://lookwayup.com/free/ -- A dictionary that not only provides definitions but also corrects your spelling if need be; includes a thesaurus and foreign language dictionaries
http://www.eslcafe.com/search -- Helpful for ESL students; the Purdue site listed above under “The Best General Sources,” also provides another such guide
http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl -- The Oxford English Dictionary online; the OED does not simply give the definition of a word but traces the history of each entry to show how it originated and how it has evolved
http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/reference/index.html -- Purdue OWL’s “Virtual Reference Desk” – lists online dictionaries and other resources http://www.albany.edu/writing/resourceseval.htm -- Links to guides on evaluating Internet information
http://www.library.yale.edu/instruction/topic.html -- “Researching a Topic in Four Easy Steps,” a general guide to research from Yale reference librarians

 

For Writing in Different Disciplines:

www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Writing_Center/departme.htm -- Useful tips for writing papers for history and English courses
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/index.html -- Descriptions of what professors may expect for assignments in various disciplines (art history, business writing, history, literature, philosophy, political science, religious studies, sciences, scientific research reports, and sociology)
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb.html -- Under “Writing First Drafts,” information for writing essay exams, for writing in biology, history, and scientific journal articles, as well as for writing a research paper for the social sciences, though portions are specific to the author’s courses
http://depts.washington.edu/psywc/handouts.shtml-- Information for writing psychology papers, including summarizing research articles, putting together a critical review, and a general style guide for psychology papers
http://web.mit.edu/writing/site_map.html -- a site map to MIT’s list of sources, some from MIT, some from other online writing labs; particularly useful for scientific and technological writing; however, much of what is offered at this site is restricted to MIT students and faculty
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/llc/writecenter/web/handouts.html -- Rensselaer Polytechnic’s guides for general academic, scientific, and technical writing
http://fbox.vt.edu/eng/mech/writing/ -- For engineering and science students
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~compose/-- Aside from its general guide to academic papers, offers guides to the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences; this site may be particularly useful for humanities majors since it often explains how other disciplinary approaches to writing
and critical thinking differ from writing within the humanities

 

 

For Web Writing:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html --“How Users Read on the Web" explains how users interact with web pages
http://www.webreference.com/content/writing/ -- “Writing Well for the Web offers, as it states, “Quick and Easy Tips” for those unaccustomed to web writing
http://www.webstyleguide.com -- Web Style Guide, 2nd Edition -- the online version of Patrick Lynch's Web Style Guide
http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/wftw1.html -- “The Difference Between Online and Paper Presentation”
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