Exercises and Reference Sheets

These video guides give a step-by-step look at formatting your paper according to APA 7th edition, starting with the title page and ending with the works cited page. 

To learn more about APA 7th Edition, see Purdue OWL's APA Formatting and Style Guide or schedule an appointment at the Writing Center today! 

 

Title Page: This video examines the layout of the first thing the reader sees in an APA paper: the title page.

 

Headings: This video explains APA 7 headings, including when to use them, how to use them, the different levels of headings, how to change the formatting of your headings based on level. 

 

In-Text Citations: This video explains how to cite your sources throughout an APA paper using in-text citations. Citing sources is one of the most important practices for writing a research paper and a fundamental way for writers to avoid plagiarism. 

 

References Page: The following videos cover the ins and outs of constructing an APA 7 reference page. Part I focuses on the general layout of a reference page and how to create a reference, where Part II focuses on referencing different types of sources. 

 

These videos explain how to produce a paper that follows MLA 9 guidelines, from general formatting to documenting sources individually. 

To learn more about MLA 9th edition, see Purdue OWL's MLA Formatting and Style Guide. Have other questions about MLA 9? Come visit us! 

 

Formatting Your Paper: This video introduces the overall layout of an MLA 9, including word spacing, page numbers, and font style.  While MLA 9 doesn't require a title page, there are still some important things to include on the first page of your paper. 

 

In-Text Citations: This video explains in-text citations for MLA 9 and how to use them properly. In-text citations show our readers where we got our information. This is important because it shows our credibility as researchers and helps us to avoid accidentally plagiarizing our sources.

 

Works Cited Page:  This final video explains the anatomy of an MLA 9 works cited page. Sometimes called a "bibliography," the works cited page is where we list all of the sources we've consulted in full. This allows the reader to find the original source of our information if they wish to read further. 

 

• Starting the Writing Process — Tips for instructors and students on beginning writing
• Pre-writing — Processes, strategies, and questions to help you start writing
• Writer's Block and  Writer's Anxiety — Strategies to combat common writer's block symptoms
• Paragraphs and Paragraphing — Advice for creating understandable and coherent paragraphs

• Research: Overview — Productive questions to ask when starting a research project
• Searching Online — Strategies for searching online for information to yield the best results 
• Conducting Primary Research — This section includes information on what primary research is, how to get started, ethics involved with primary research and different types of research you can do. It includes details about interviews, surveys, observations, and analysis.
• Evaluating Sources of Information - This section provides information on evaluating bibliographic citations, aspects of evaluation, reading evaluation, print vs. Internet sources, and evaluating internet sources.
• Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing - This resource will help you become more comfortable with the uses of and distinctions among quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. This handout compares and contrasts the three terms, gives some pointers, and includes a short excerpt that you can use to practice these skills.
• Avoiding Plagiarism - This resource offers advice on how to avoid plagiarism in your work—there are few intellectual offenses more serious than plagiarism in academic and professional contexts.

• Creating a Thesis Statement - This resource provides tips for creating a thesis statement and examples of different types of thesis statements.
• Establishing Arguments - This section discusses the thesis statement and explains argument in writing, which includes using research to support a thesis. This resources also discusses Aristotle's logical proof: ethos, pathos, and logos and the logical fallacies.
• Logic in Argumentative Writing - This resource covers logic within writing— logical vocabulary, logical fallacies, and other types of logos-based reasoning.
• Rhetorical Situation - This presentation is designed for instructors to use with students to introduce a variety of factors that contribute to strong, well-organized writing. This presentation is suitable for the beginning of a composition course or the assignment of a writing project in any class.

• Developing an Outline — The four parts to an effective outline: what they are and how to incorporate them
• Paragraphs and Paragraphing — Advice for creating understandable and coherent paragraphs
• Transitions and Transitional Devices - This resource discusses transition strategies and specific transitional devices to help students' essays and sentences flow more effectively.

• Writing a Research Paper - This section provides detailed information about how to write research papers including discussing research papers as a genre, choosing topics, and finding sources.
• Writing About Fiction - This resource covers major topics relating to writing about fiction. This covers pre-writing, close reading, thesis development, drafting, and common pitfalls to avoid.
• Writing About Literature - This material provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.
• Writing About Poetry - This section covers the basics of how to write about poetry. Including why it is done, what you should know, and what you can write about.
• Writing Definitions - This resource provides suggestions and examples for writing definitions.

• Proofreading Your Writing - This section provides information on proofreading, finding and fixing common errors.
• Adding Emphasis in Writing - This handout provides information on visual and textual devices for adding emphasis to student writing including textual formatting, punctuation, sentence structure, and the arrangement of words.
• Sentence Variety - This resource presents methods for adding sentence variety and complexity to writing that may sound repetitive or boring. Sections are divided into general tips for varying structure, a discussion of sentence types, and specific parts of speech which can aid in sentence variety.
• Punctuation - This resource will help clarify when and how to use various marks of punctuation. When speaking, we can pause or change the tone of our voices to indicate emphasis. When writing, we must use punctuation to indicate these places of emphasis.
• Commas - This resource offers a number of pages about comma use.

• Conciseness - This resource explains the concept of concise writing and provides examples of how to ensure clear prose.
• Paramedic Method: A Lesson in Writing Concisely - This handout provides steps and exercises to eliminate wordiness at the sentence level.
• Using Appropriate Language - This section covers some of the major issues with appropriate language use: levels of language formality, deceitful language and Euphemisms, slang and idiomatic expressions; using group-specific jargon; and biased/stereotypical language.