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.
We are always seeking to improve. Please take a moment to offer us feedback by completing this brief survey.
As you write and communicate with others, it is important that you consider accessibility, or the ability for diverse audiences to engage with your writing. The commitment to accessible and inclusive practice is ongoing and demands recursive critical reflection, education, and feedback, but we hope these resources get you beginning to think about diverse readers and audiences for your work.
Materials designed by Christopher Basgier, Katharine Brown, Amy Cicchino, and Layli Miron.
This guide articulates University Writing's practices for accessibility and inclusivity. We use this guide for internal training within our program
Accessibility and Inclusivity Guide from University Writing Word Document
Accessibility and Inclusivity Guide from University Writing PDF
This handout guides discussion facilitators in enacting inclusive practices like inclusive introductions, rapport building, and strategies for encouraging conversation
This handout helps mentors learn how to build mentor-mentee relationships that take account of meaningful differences across race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual identity, and academic major
This handout helps writers create accessible Word and PDF documents with an emphasis on visibility, audibility, and mobility
This checklist helps you evaluate the accessibility of a specific form of digital writing, ePortfolio websites, by reviewing the accessibility of your content and digital design.
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
University Writing's resources page is an Open Educational Resource (OER), or a collection of teaching and learning resources made publicly available with copyright licensing that allows others to share and adapt our materials. Creating an OER can be a lengthy process, and we have worked to develop a sustainable model for OER creation and maintenance. We hope that these resources allow other OER creators to develop a sustainable process for their projects.
Materials designed by Katharine Brown, Amy Cicchino, Mark Smith, Layli Miron, and Heesun Yoon
Three members of University Writing's OER Team—Katharine H. Brown, Mark Smith, and Heesun Yoon—wrote a peer reviewed article on their work with the OER project. In this article, published by the Global Society of Online Literacy Educators in the Online Literacies Open Resource, the authors describe and demonstrate processes for creating accessible documents and PDFs
This spreadsheet template can be used to track your progress as you prepare resources for OER publication; it is particularly useful for managing a large number of resources housed in a cloud storage system
This document guides University Writing's team through the process of preparing new or revised materials for publication to the OER; this guide can be adapted for you own context for uploading or preparing and publishing resources
This spreadsheet template can be used by OER creators to manage needed OER updates; the provided columns can be used to track each document's accessibility and readiness for publication
This guide articulates University Writing's practices for accessibility and inclusivity. We use this guide while preparing accessible resources for publication to our OER; further, it includes guidance on inclusive practices which can inform the design of materials
Not everyone is an expert in visual design, but these resources will help you learn some core principles for an effective and accessible ePortfolio design.
Materials designed by Heather Stuart and Parker Wade
This handout introduces ePortfolio creators to four basic design principles: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity
This handout introduces ePortfolio creators to introductory concepts of accessibility like navigation, use of heading styles, color choice, alternative text, link embedding, and captions. If you would like to learn more advanced strategies for accessible design, please see our entry on Accessibility and Writing
When creating and designing your ePortfolio, you will want to respect the safety, privacy, and creative works of others. In addition to these resources, we encourage you to also visit AAEEBL’s Digital Ethics Principles for ePortfolios, which University Writing was active in creating.
Materials designed by Toni Carter, Amy Cicchino, and Heather Stuart
This handout walked ePortfolio creators through considerations for legal and ethical ePortfolio practices.
This handout introduces you to concepts like copyright and fair use. Because ePortfolios can include existing media, ePortfolio creators are at risk for copyright violation. The handout includes key terms, frequently asked questions, and some scenarios to help you apply your growing knowledge of copyright and fair use.
This checklist helps you evaluate the accessibility of your ePortfolio site by reviewing your content and digital design.
You need a space to host and build your ePortfolio site. These resources will help you consider what questions you should ask as you are assessing different platforms regarding content, privacy, and accessibility. Then, you can learn about the benefits and drawbacks of three popular ePortfolio building platforms: Wix, Weebly, and WordPress.
Materials designed by Lucas Adelino, Heather Stuart, and Parker Wade.
This brief handout gives tips on helping ePortfolio creators share, protect, or enhance the privacy of their ePortfolio
This handout compares three popular ePortfolio platforms—Weebly, Wix, and WordPress—to discuss differences in ease of use, customization, storage, support, and settings
Choose a Platform: Comparing Weebly, Wix, and WordPress Handout Word Document
Choose a Platform: Comparing Weebly, Wix, and WordPress Handout PDF
If you’ve chosen Weebly as your ePortfolio platform, this handout can help you get started!
If you’ve chosen Wix as your ePortfolio platform, this handout can help you get started!
If you’ve chosen WordPress as your ePortfolio platform, this handout can help you get started!
As you begin using your ePortfolio platform, try working through this list of tasks to learn about your website builder
This handout introduces ePortfolio creators to introductory concepts of accessibility like navigation, use of heading styles, color choice, alternative text, link embedding, and captions. If you would like to learn more advanced strategies for accessible design, please see our entry on Accessibility and Writing
