| Abstracts An abstract is a short, summarized statement of a larger work. It describes to the reader the key elements and is designed to entice potential readers into perusing the full paper. The idea is to be as clear and complete as possible in the shortest amount of space. Check out our tutorial for more details on how to write the best abstract possible. | Active & Passive Voice
Active and passive voice are two separate styles of writing. While there are specific reasons to choose either form, scientific academia usually prefers passive voice and the humanities generally prefer active. To review the differences between the two, check out our tutorial. |
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Thesis Statements Thesis statements are meant to show the main idea that is going to be discussed throughout your paper. Thesis statements help keep your paper on track as you write and help the reader explore your argument. Check out our tutorial to become a thesis statement master! |
Possessive & Plural Nouns In English, possessive and plural nouns both have an ‘s’ placed at the end of the word. However, possessive nouns also require an apostrophe. If the noun is singular, but possessive, the noun requires an apostrophe before the ‘s.’ If the noun is plural and possessive, the apostrophe comes after. Check out our tutorial for more details. |
| Annotated Bibliographies An annotated bibliography is a list of citations for books, periodicals, documents, articles, etc. Each citation or reference is followed by a brief paragraph describing the article, who wrote it, and how you are going to apply it to your paper. Even though annotated bibliographies can be tricky, our tutorial will help you navigate common pitfalls. | Commas Comma errors are common among many writers, and one of the reasons commas can be so tricky is because there are so many rules governing their usage. Some of the most important rules are explained in our tutorial. |
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Rhetorical Analyses “Rhetorical analysis” refers to an in-depth examination of how an author portrays his or her argument or message. It is different from a summary in that a rhetorical analysis analyzes the specific strategies that an author chose to employ while a summary only contains a brief overview of what was said. To learn how to write your own rhetorical analysis, check out our tutorial. |
Sentence Fragments When a sentence is grammatically incomplete, it is called a sentence fragment. Sentence fragments can be easily avoided if you know how to spot them and how they usually occur. Check out our tutorial so that you can identify and fix your own mistakes. |
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Literature Reviews Literature reviews are an assessment of scholarly literature written about a specific topic and serve as an essential foundation for continued research. Besides demonstrating your knowledge of scholarship on a topic, literature reviews are meant to summarize, analyze, and synthesize the most important parts of a source. Our tutorial reviews the primary elements of literature reviews and how to write them effectively. |
Paraphrasing Paraphrasing is an important part of integrating source material into a research paper. However, paraphrasing should not be confused with summarizing or quoting. Our tutorial elaborates on how to paraphrase effectively without making common mistakes. |
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Point of View An article’s “point of view” refers to the author’s use of pronouns within his or her sentences. In English, point of view can be broken down into three primary categories: first-person, second-person, and third-person. Our tutorial covers the differences between the three primary points of view and discusses when to use each. |
Subject-Verb Agreement The grammatical subjects of sentences must agree with their specific verbs. This means that if the subject is singular, the verb must also be singular. If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural as well. To learn how to proofread your own paper for subject-verb agreement errors, check out our tutorial. |