VANDERGRIFT'S WRITING RESOURCES

Each of us has ideas worthy of sharing; and writing, whether online or on paper, is still a primary means of such sharing. It is a matter of courtesy to present your writing to others in a generally accessible style, recognizable, consistent, etc. For those who need assistance in developing their writing skills, I have included several links to writing labs. Style manuals provide guidelines for this; then you must just keep writing enough to develop your own personal style. The increased use of citations from various electronic sources raises new issues, thus, I have provided a number of links to details on electronic citation.

"Rules for the preparation of manuscripts should contribute to clear communication. Take, for example, the rule that some editors consider to be the most important: Double-space everything. A double-spaced manuscript allows each person in the publication process to function comfortably and efficiently. . . . Rules introduce the uniformity necessary to convert manuscripts written in many styles to printed pages edited in one consistent style. They spare readers a distracting variety of forms throughout a work and permit readers to give full attention to content." Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, xxv

Key Style Manuals

Gibaldi, Joseph and Herbert Lindenberger. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 1998.

Harner, James L. Literary Research Guide: An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies. 4 th Edition. Modern Language Association, 2002.

Li, Xia and N. B. Crane. Electronic Style: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information. 2nd Edition. Medford, NJ: Information Today, 1996.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th Edition. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2001.

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

University of Chicago Press. The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th Edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Electronic Sources for Citations

Citing the World Wide Web in Style: American Psychological Association and Modern Language Association Formats This page is constructed by Jay Brandes and contains useful examples in citation formatting.

Citing Internet Addresses This site provides detailed examples on how to cite internet communications.

Guide to Citing Developed at Montana State University this page provides sample entries for a large number of style manuals. Their Electronic Information Style Guide is very helpful with sample entries.

Styling Your Work

Big Dog's Grammar is a bare bones guide. Note the addition of self-assessment tests.

Cook, Claire K. Line By Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing. Boston, MA: Houghton, 1985.

Guilford, Chuck has designed an online writing assistant program called Paradigm.

Hughes, Anthony On-Line Grammar is quite useful for fundamentals and does offer some assistance for English as a Second Language.

Lanham, Richard A. Style: An Anti-Textbook. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974.

Lynch, Jack Guide to Grammar and Style is one of the best reference tools on these issues and Professor Lynch is at Rutgers.

Purdue University On-Line Writing Lab (LAB) provides detailed lessons and on-line mentoring in writing.

Strunk, William, Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1979. An electronic version of the 1st edition of Elements of Style is available at Project Bartleby at Columbia University for convenience.

Williams, Joseph M. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: An Informed Guide To Writing Non-Fiction. 5th ed. New York: Harper, 1995.

Professional Journals Do Not Accept Discriminatory Language

Cofer, Charles and others. "Guidelines for Nonsexist Language in APA Journals." American Psychologist 32 (1977): 486-94.

International Association of Business Communicators. Without Bias: A Guidebook for Nondiscriminatory Communication. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1982.

Maggio, Rosalie. The Bias-Free Word Finder: A Dictionary of Nondiscriminatory Language. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1992.

Miller, Casey, and Kate Swift. The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing. 2nd ed. New York: Lippincott, 1988.

Created September 20, 1995 and is continuously revised

SCILS, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey