Where to Start? The internet is filled with a variety of
websites claiming to provide accurate and helpful advice on writing. By Googling,
“Advice for Writing,” you will receive over one hundred and ninety million
results, and you may wonder where to start or what information is going to be
useful. You may also wonder if any of this information is interesting, or if it
is all dry facts about grammar, organization, and spelling. Thus, this post includes
links to a few articles that could be useful for many different writers and hold
the reader’s attention.
Rachelle Gardner: When Googling for writing advice, the first
links that appear may or may not come from sites that are credible. One
credible source of advice, though, which many overlook, is the blogs of the
writing industry professionals. These blogs do not just cover novel writing.
They also include posts on form and grammar. For example, this entry by
literary agent, Rachelle Gardner, covers a variety words that are often
confusing to writers, such as “lay” and “lie” and “affect” and “effect.” Throughout
her blog, you can find many more articles on craft, and since these articles
were written not only to inform, but entertain, they are often less monotonous
than other sites.
Scott Westerfeld: The blogs of writers can also be helpful
for writing advice. Although all authors do not provide advice on form and
grammar, many do. In this article, the author, Scott Westerfeld, is aiming more
at fiction writers, but his advice can be applied by writers of essays and
other papers, too. He discusses “writing your way out” of the rut that you may
find yourself in due to conflicting advice. This can be especially helpful if
you receive feedback from your professor, your peers, and maybe even one of the
writing tutors and need to figure out a way to start your revisions.
PrivateWriting.com: Often, writers come into the center with
prompts that are non-specific, saying nothing more than something like, “write
an argumentative essay on a topic of your choice.” Brainstorming topics can be
frustrating, especially when you have a looming deadline and just want to get
writing. For an argumentative essay, if you were to come into the writing
centers trying to decide on a topic, a tutor might ask you what your interests
are and what topics you find important. If you are struggling on your own, though,
to develop a list of topics that interest you, it is not a bad idea to turn to
the internet. This link, for example, provides a list of brief topics for
argumentative essays that could inspire your final thesis. Lists like this can
spark ideas and help you get started.
A Funny Personal Statement: Sample papers also are available
throughout the internet. Many of these may not be credible or useful, but even
if they are mainly just humorous, they can still provide a reference point for
your papers. This link presents an amusing personal statement supposedly
written by a student applying for college. Writing style-wise, it may not be the
best example, but it does cover an aspect of personal statements that students
sometimes forget: to tell what is unique about you. The writer of this sample
paper tells about a bit too many “unique” experiences, but papers like this can
often remind writers of what they need to include in their own papers.
Worthy of a Read: This link is a list of humorous writing
tips. They are simple tips, but they are ones that can be useful for writers of
every style and level. As they are also amusing, they are often easier to
remember and apply in the future.
The OWL Purdue: This list would not be complete without
a link to the Purdue Owl website. This site is probably the one that students
are directed to the most. It provides information about citations, with example
works cited pages and paper layouts. The information is straightforward and
generally easy to understand. It is not necessarily entertaining, but when
citing, it seems that it is more important to have the information readily
available, easy to access, and understandable.
Writing is a difficult task, and finding
useful resources to help can also be very strenuous. The internet can be an
excellent source, but it is necessary to remember that some sites are more credible,
and interesting, than others. The university also provides many resources, with
one, of course, being the writing centers, where tutors can also point you in
the direction of other writing-related sources and websites.
 |
| Image taken from http://virtualme.biz/favorites/ |
No comments:
Post a Comment