How to Use this Page
Below are resources that University Writing has developed to support students and instructors across the disciplines in their writing and writing instruction. We define writing broadly, so you will find resources on ePortfolios, visual design, professional communication, and presentations in addition to traditional writing tasks like reflective writing, literature reviews, peer review, and editing and proofing.
Please use the keywords on the right-hand side of the page or the search bar above to navigate these resources. If you would like to use these resources in your course, please follow the Creative Commons information located at the bottom of each resource. If you plan to use the source in its original format, we ask that you leave the University Writing branding intact.
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Academic writing is a unique type of writing and can vary across disciplines. Use these materials to better understand the elements of academic writing, such as voice, disciplinary writing, and college-level writing. Reading academic sources is an important part of learning how to write in your discipline. For tips on how to engage with reading these sources, see our section on Reading Difficult Materials
Materials designed by Colby Axelberd, Christopher Basgier, Katharine Brown, Amy Cicchino, Clare Hancock, Megan Haskins, James Truman, and Livi Welch
This worksheet is designed to help incoming first-year college students learn a bit about writing at the college level. There are also scenarios where students can consider what they would do in difficult writing situations
The handout breaks down some implicit expectations related to academic voice, such as when and how to use first-person writing, jargon, style, and sentence variation
This worksheet invites you to revise a piece of writing by paying attention to its voice within a sample paragraph
This brief handout provides some examples of academic voice from various disciplines
This worksheet provides excerpts from disciplinary writing and asks participants to guess the disciplinary context for the writing. By doing this, we hope you will begin to see how different disciplines structure and style their writing
This worksheet invites writers to consider the rhetorical situation of a genre and plan their writing within that genre
This worksheet helps you apply reading like a writer to your work by inviting you to examine written artifacts from a writerly perspective by paying attention to features like structure, key terms, signposting, and verb use
This worksheet is meant to help graduate students approach writing their first manuscript by making explicit options for manuscript section organization and looking at examples
This handout invites readers to compare an excerpt from a dissertation to an excerpt of the same material, rewritten for nonspecialist or "general" audiences
This handout invites extension professionals to reflect on the kinds of academic and non-academic genres the produce in their positions.
This worksheet invites writers to plan a piece of writing for a general audience by leading them through the elements of the rhetorical situation
This worksheet guides you through developing an argument and countering opposing arguments with a focus on claims, reasoning, and impact
This resource provides helpful information for students writing in a foreign language. Though writing in another language comes with its obstacles, it also yields many benefits that can lead to deeper learning and an elevated relationship with language
A literature review is an evaluation of the available literature on a given subject. In literature reviews, you are synthesizing and analyzing research to tell a story about the work done about a topic and how it relates to present and future research. Use the resources below for guidance as your write your literature review.
Materials designed by Katharine Brown, Autumn Frederick, Layli Miron, and Muhammad Umer
This worksheet helps you begin identifying scholarly conversations by analyzing an example literature review
This worksheet helps you analyze an example literature review to identify the storytelling elements being used
This worksheet parallels the moves a writer makes when creating a literature review with Freytag’s pyramid. It guides writers in outlining their own literature reviews by answering a series of brainstorming questions
This handout helps students plan literature reviews by using selected examples of AI tools
Large writing projects, such as dissertations, theses, and research papers, can be daunting. Use these resources to assist you with organizational and time management strategies needed to finish your project. Be sure to see our resources on The Writing Process as you engage in this work.
Materials designed by G. Travis Adams, Katharine Brown, Amy Cicchino, Megan Haskins, Annie Small, and James Truman
This handout provides strategies for approaching large writing projects
This worksheet has tips and reflective questions to help you begin a large writing project
This worksheet introduces you to and helps you begin creating writing goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
This handout offers you strategies to developing a regular writing routine
This handout shares strategies for tracking your writing progress, like wordcount trackers, accountability logs, and goal planning
This worksheet can be used to create a weekly writing schedule
This handout invites writers to reflect on their academic identity, celebrate writing successes, and plan their next steps in their large writing project
This brief writing prompt helps writers plan how to use their time productively in a writing session
This worksheet provides two brief writing prompts to use as a warm-up as well as recognize and celebrate moments of growth in writing skills
This writing warm-up encourages writers to affirm their readiness for writing through identifying the strengths they bring to the project
This writing warm-up invites writers to reflect on a semester's worth of writing and recognize moments of growth
The writing process can be stressful, and it is easy to feel anxious about writing, struggle to start writing, or lose focus while writing. Use these resources to implement mindfulness strategies such as meditative pauses, progress tracking, and reflective journaling into your writing routine.
Materials designed by G. Travis Adams, Christopher Basgier, Katharine Brown, Michael Cook, and Annie Small
This brief handout describes writer’s block and explains its causes
This brief worksheet explains solutions to writer’s block and a short reflective writing prompts to help you begin overcoming your own writer’s block
This is a handout useful for instructors as they help students navigate writer's block
This longer worksheet explains some of the causes of writer’s block and writing anxiety, and it offers reflective prompts you can use to manage writing challenges
Using Reflection to Manage Writer’s Block and Writing Anxiety Word Document
Using Reflection to Manage Writer’s Block and Writing Anxiety PDF
This handout describes the meditative pause, or brief moments in which you deliberately stop writing and check in with your body, your breath, and your mind, before returning to write
The following meditation script, “Focus into Breathing,” can be used before you write as a way of slowing down a busy mind and focusing attention
This activity helps you recognize your patterns of thought about writing and replace self-defeating thoughts with empowering ones to reduce the occurrence of writer’s block and writing anxiety
This activity combines Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and contemplative and embodied pedagogies to help writers externalize and silence an overly harsh inner critic
This brief writing prompt helps writers plan how to use their time productively in a writing session
This worksheet guides you in using expressive writing for self-discovery. You will learn about different types of expressive writing, such as answering prompts or making gratitude lists, and can complete several reflective prompts.
This worksheet provides two brief writing prompts to use as a warm-up as well as to recognize and celebrate moments of growth in writing skills
This writing warm-up encourages writers to affirm their readiness for writing through identifying the strengths they bring to the project
This writing warm-up invites writers to reflect on a semester's worth of writing and recognize moments of growth
There is no one “right” way to organize a thesis or dissertation, which is part of what makes writing one challenging. Use these resources to help guide you as you make decisions regarding organization structure and argument development for your thesis or dissertation. To learn more about formatting your thesis or dissertation, contact the Graduate School. Also check out our section on research writing.
Materials designed by G. Travis Adams and Carly Cummings
This brief handout explains the different parts of a thesis or dissertation
This handout guides students through the process of outlining and developing the sections of scientific theses and dissertations
A successful writing group can help you take personal accountability for your writing progress and give you a support network of other writers. Writing groups can help you create a writing routine, give and receive feedback on your writing, and help you talk through writing blocks.
Materials designed by Katharine Brown, Amy Cicchino, Megan Haskins, Margaret Marshall, and Annie Small
This handout will introduce you to writing groups and offer some considerations for you as you organize your own writing group
This worksheet introduces you to and helps you begin creating writing goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound
This handout offers you strategies to developing a regular writing routine
This handout shares strategies for tracking your writing progress, like wordcount trackers, accountability logs, and goal planning
This worksheet can help your writing group determine what progress looks like for you and track that progress.
This worksheet can be used to create a weekly writing schedule
This reflective, discussion-based activity invites writers to evaluate their growth and discuss with group members areas of desired growth
This group conversation starter invites each group member to identify one writing skill of which they are proud and share it with the group
This activity invites writing groups to compose a letter to each other sharing how the writing group has been of support
