Writing Guides

UWC’s resources can be found here: https://uwc.utexas.edu/services/resources/

Past in Process’s staff and members have used the University Writing Center for years. We love their resources and staff and would like to share them with our members. Our staff has taken the liberty of providing context and a summary of each of their most useful writing resources, but all resources can be downloaded from their website above.

All resources are created by University Writing Center staff for the purpose of helping University of Texas students. View more about the program here: https://uwc.utexas.edu/ 

Contact UWC at: 512-471-6222, uwc@utexas.edu 

Address: The Perry-Castañeda Library, 101 E 21st St #2.330 Austin, TX 78712

The Basics

The Basics is a category of resources that includes all focus areas in an essay. From getting started with reading and understanding your assignment in Brainstorming to a Final Revisions Checklist to ensure that you are ready to present your fantastic work.

• Brainstorming

  • The Brainstorming guide helps you develop ideas from the start of reading and assignment or prompt and gives helpful tips for deciding what to write about from your ideas.

• Introductions

  • Introductions is a guide to writing the beginning of your paper. Whether you are presenting historical knowledge or making an argument, the Introductions guide gives three examples of introductions and tips for writing bold beginnings.

• Thesis Statements

  • Thesis Statements gives great detail to help you understand what a thesis statement is, different types of thesis statements, and how to draft and revise your thesis. Look to this document at the start of your writing process to first develop your thesis and a thesis checklist that helps you finish off your ideas during the revision process.

• Audience (video)

  • This video about the audience, put together by Rhetoric and Writing students at UT, describes and develops how an author should think about their audience, the people reading their work. No matter if your writing is an assignment or creative, understanding your audience can help your writing develop tone and voice.

• Paragraphing

  • The main content of any paper is in its paragraphs. Paragraphing describes what a paragraph’s purpose is and the components of a paragraph. This document gives helpful tips on creating topic sentences, supporting the main idea, relevance to a thesis, and transitions to other paragraphs. 

• Conclusions: How Do I End?

  • Conclusions can be the most challenging part of a paper, but you can look to this guide for what to include in your conclusion and the purpose of a conclusion. Consult Conclusions for strategies for a strong concluding paragraph.

• How to Edit Your Own Writing

  • Proofreading doesn’t have to be difficult at any level of writing. How to Edit Your Own Writing gives step-by-step instructions on proofreading your paper and the most common mistakes to check.

• Final Revisions Checklist

  • Checklists are essential to good writing practice. The Final Revisions Checklist has all the information for self-reflection on an assignment and listings for following assignment guidelines. 

• Revising Organization: Reverse Outlining

  • Revers Outlining sounds complicated, but it is actually a way to take what has already been written, like free-writing, and reorganize it into a cohesive essay. 

• Writing in Process (15-30min ppt presentation)

  • Read the Directions

  • Make a Plan

  • Word Barf (Freewriting)

  • Revision/Rewriting

  • Proofreading/Editing

• Avoiding Plagiarism (25-35 min ppt presentation) (slides 5-17)

  • Plagiarism is one of the most important things to avoid in writing. UT’s UWC has created a presentation on Avoiding Plagiarism by defining plagiarism, explain the benefits of citing sources, reviewing examples of plagiarism, and the best practices to avoid plagiarism.

Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation

• Apostrophes

• Capitalization

• Clarity

• Commas

• Definite and Indefinite Articles Flow Chart

• Direct Quotes and Paraphrase (video)

  • When writing research papers, sometimes it’s hard to tell if a direct quote or a paraphrase of the quote is better. This video by UT’s UWC uses rhetoric to define the best practices for using quotes from texts. 

• Eliminating Wordiness

• Focusing on Transitions

• Formatting Numbers

• Fragment and Run-on Sentences

• Passive Voice and Passive Agency

• Prepositions: A Rough Guide

• Resisting Clichés

• Semicolons, Colons, and Em Dashes

• Subject-Verb Agreement

• Verb Choice

• Verb Tense and Aspect

• Verbs of Attribution

Writing Guides

• Analyzing Poetry

• Art and Art History Papers: Formal Analysis and Comparative Analysis

• Cover Letters

• Definitions of Poetic Devices

• How to Construct and Format a Resume

• Journalistic Writing and AP Style

• Making the Transition from High School to College Writing

• Personal Statements

• Personal Statements: Models for Generating Content

• Revising Essays and Research Papers (45-50min)

• Rhetorical Analysis

• Rhetorical Fallacies

• Sentence Clarity (45-50min)

• Sentence Clarity (45-50min) Activity

• Stasis Theory: How Can It Help Generate Ideas?

• Transitioning from High School to University-Level Writing (45-50min)

• Writing About People Respectfully

• Writing Abstracts (45-50min)

• Writing Literature Reviews (25-35min)

• Writing Personal Statements (35-45min)

• Writing Resumes, CVs, and Cover Letters (45-50min)

Research Papers and Lab Reports

• Paraphrasing

• Primary and Secondary Sources

• Steps for Writing a Research Paper

• Using and Framing Direct Quotations

• Writing Research Introductions