Homegrown Handouts
Homegrown Handouts address the most common questions tutees ask in the Writing Center. These handouts were created by our Writing Center staff. If you have a particular topic you would like addressed, please contact us.
Business Writing
- Business English [pdf]
- Business Proposals [pdf]
- Cover Letters [pdf]
- Curriculum Vitae (CVs) [pdf]
- Email Etiquette [pdf]
- Job Website Writing [pdf]
- Memos [pdf]
- Resignation Letters [pdf]
- Resumes in a Digital Job Market [pdf]
Citations: Guides and Assistance
- AP Style [pdf]
- APA Citation Guide [pdf] (7th Edition)
- APA Formatting Guidelines [pdf] (7th Edition)
- ASA Citation Guide [pdf]
- Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) Citation Guide [pdf]
- Chicago Style Guidelines [pdf]
- MLA Citation Guide [pdf] (9th Edition)
- MLA Formatting Guidelines [pdf]
Clarity and Writing Style
- Academic Language [pdf]
- Cleft Sentences [pdf]
- Cliches and How to Avoid Them [pdf]
- Concise Writing: Part I [pdf]
- Concise Writing: Part II [pdf]
- Concrete Language [pdf]
- Embellishing vs. Supporting [pdf]
- Expletives [pdf]
- First-Person Usage in Academic Writing [pdf]
- Garden Path Sentences [pdf]
- Hedging, Softening, and Writer's Distance [pdf]
- Nominalization [pdf]
- Old Information before New Information [pdf]
- Parallelism [pdf]
- Passive Voice [pdf]
- Precise Words [pdf]
- Redundancy [pdf]
- Reporting Verbs [pdf]
- Sentence Openers [pdf]
- Sentence Variety and Rhythm [pdf]
- Third-Person Point of View (POV) in Academic Writing [pdf]
- Wordiness [pdf]
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- AAVE: Dismantling Standard American English [pdf]
- Accessible Writing Strategies [pdf]
- Antiracist Perspective in Writing [pdf]
- Biased Language (APA) [pdf]
- Inclusive Writing (MLA) [pdf]
- Inclusive Writing: Part I [pdf]
- Inclusive Writing: Part II [pdf]
- LGBTQ+ Terminology: Gender and Gender Identity [pdf]
- LGBTQ+ Terminology: Sexual Orientation [pdf]
- Mental Illness References in Writing [pdf]
- Offensive Language about Mental Illness [pdf]
- Offensive Stereotypes in Creative Writing [pdf]
- Religious Terminology [pdf]
Essay Planning and the Writing Process
- AI Writing in Academics [pdf]
- Body Paragraphs [pdf]
- Brainstorming [pdf]
- Conclusions [pdf]
- Editing: Creating Reader-Friendly Papers + Essays [pdf]
- Editing: Creating Reader-Friendly Paragraphs [pdf]
- Editing: Creating Reader-Friendly Sentences [pdf]
- Editing for Clarity: Characters and their Actions [pdf]
- Editing: Meaningful Word and Punctuation Choices [pdf]
- Editing Your Paper: The Basics [pdf]
- Essay Planning: How to Develop a Working Thesis Statement [pdf]
- Essay Planning: Reading Assignment Prompts & Descriptions [pdf]
- Essay Planning: Outlining with a Purpose [pdf]
- Essay Planning: Visual Mapping [pdf]
- Introductions [pdf]
- Outline Template [pdf]
- Paraphrasing [pdf]
- Peer Review Strategies and Tips [pdf]
- Plagiarism: Understanding Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Citing [pdf]
- Proofreading [pdf]
- Quotations: Embedding [pdf]
- Reverse Outlining [pdf]
- Topic Sentences [pdf]
Grammar
- Adjectives [pdf]
- Adjectives: Comparative and Superlative [pdf]
- Adverbs [pdf]
- Appositives [pdf]
- Articles [pdf]
- Capitalization [pdf]
- Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS) [pdf]
- Dangling Modifiers [pdf]
- Fragments [pdf]
- Gerunds [pdf]
- Independent and Dependent Clauses [pdf]
- Independent Clauses in Compound Sentences [pdf]
- Infinitives [pdf]
- Misused Words: Fewer or Less [pdf]
- Misused Words: Lay vs. Lie [pdf]
- Misused Words: Onto vs. On To [pdf]
- Misused Words: Part I [pdf]
- Misused Words: Part II [pdf]
- Misused Words: Part III [pdf]
- Misused Words: Raise vs. Rise [pdf]
- Misused Words: Synonyms for "Said" [pdf]
- Misused Words: Who, Whom, Whoever, Whomever [pdf]
- Nouns: Count and Noncount [pdf]
- Nouns: The Basics [pdf]
- Nouns: Advanced [pdf]
- Nouns: Expert [pdf]
- Participle Phrases [pdf]
- Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases [pdf]
- Prepositions: "Of," "At," and "For" [pdf]
- Prepositions of Time and Place [pdf]
- Pronouns [pdf]
- Relative Clauses [pdf]
- Sentence Types and Functions [pdf]
- Subject-Verb Agreement [pdf]
- Subordinating Conjunctions and Subordinate Clauses [pdf]
- Transition Words [pdf]
- Transitions: Conjunctive Adverbs [pdf]
- Verbs: Modals [pdf]
- Verbs: Phrasal [pdf]
- Verbs: The Basics [pdf]
- Verbs: Time Frames [pdf]
- Verbs: Transitive and Intransitive [pdf]
- Verb Tenses: Telling Time [pdf]
Punctuation
- Colons [pdf]
- Commas [pdf]
- Comma Splices and Fused Sentences [pdf]
- Contractions [pdf]
- Dashes [pdf]
- Ellipses [pdf]
- End Punctuation [pdf]
- Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes [pdf]
- Parentheses and Brackets [pdf]
- Possessive Apostrophes [pdf]
- Quotation Marks [pdf]
- Semicolons [pdf]
Reading
- Fake News and Fallacies [pdf]
- Lateral Reading [pdf]
- Reading a Research Paper [pdf]
- Reading Comprehension [pdf]
- Summary and Analysis of Scientific Research Articles [pdf]
Research Papers
- Abstracts [pdf]
- Conclusion Section for Research Papers [pdf]
- Discussion Section for Research Papers [pdf]
- Graphic Organizers for Research Papers [pdf]
- Introduction Section for Research Papers [pdf]
- Literature Reviews [pdf]
- Methodology Section for Research Papers [pdf]
- Research Paper Writing Process [pdf]
- Research Papers in the Sciences [pdf]
- Research Proposals [pdf]
- Research Questions [pdf]
- Results Section for Research Papers [pdf]
- Social Media as Research [pdf]
Specific Writing Assignments
- Analytical and Critical Writing [pdf]
- Annotated Bibliographies [pdf]
- Argumentation: Premises and Conclusions [pdf]
- Argumentative Writing and Using Evidence [pdf]
- Book Reviews: Academic [pdf]
- Comparing/Contrasting: Essay Planning [pdf]
- Comparing/Contrasting: Essay Organization [pdf]
- Dialogue [pdf]
- Discussion Posts [pdf]
- Exam Essay Preparation [pdf]
- Literary Analysis [pdf]
- Personal Narrative Essays [pdf]
- Personal Statements [pdf]
- Poetry: The Structural Elements [pdf]
- Rhetorical Analyses [pdf]
- Scriptwriting Format [pdf]
- Short Stories [pdf]
- Speech Preparation [pdf]
- Toulmin's Model of Argumentative Writing [pdf]
(Note: See the "Research Papers" section for resources about writing research papers, including topics such as abstracts and literature reviews.)
These handouts are licensed under a . You may reproduce them for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout (printed
out for classroom use, for example) and attribute the source: The San José State University
Writing Center.