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Tip Sheets
Tip sheets are written and used by the AU Writing Center to help students work through writing obstacles. For help with researching, revising, brainstorming, reorganizing, and citing, look no further!
Links for Tip Sheets
You’re not alone if you feel that starting is the scariest part of writing. Brainstorming is an important part of the writing process. It can be incredibly hard, so here are some ways to make it as painless as possible.
Download the Brainstorming Tip Sheet here.
90% of college students procrastinate assignments. Do yourself a favor and read the assignment as the first step. This significantly eases assignment anxiety and helps you plan ahead. Additionally, reading comprehension is higher on printed materials than on screens. When in doubt, print it out.
Download the Understanding Assignments Tip Sheet here.
If contributing to the scholarly conversation sounds daunting, take heart, because it is, for everyone! Also, you’re a student. No one is expecting you to be perfect at it. And adding something new to the conversation does not require you to produce a single earth-shattering idea that no one has ever thought of before.
Your ideas are going to feel confused, messy, difficult, and maybe even wrong while you write a first draft. Write anyway. That’s how you find out if they’re worth anything at all (hint: they always are).
So, you’re in the research phase. You need help reading for comprehension andputting together sources for your paper. Never fear!
Download the Reading and Synthesizing Sources Tip Sheet here.
A well-organized paper begins with a confident introduction that clearly states what the writer intends to establish and what kind of sources they’ll use. It ends with a conclusion that reaffirms how the evidence the writer laid out accomplished this task. In the middle, the writer moves through body paragraphs, explaining each idea fully before moving on to the next. When the writer shifts focus, she signals clearly to the reader with transition sentences and topic sentences. These transitions clearly state how the idea she just established and the next idea are related.
Download the Revising for Organization/Structure Tip Sheet here.
Introductions and conclusions are difficult because they require the writer to step out of arguing and explaining and talk to their audience instead. Understanding what your reader may know and think before and after reading your ideas will help you package your ideas up for them. When in doubt, imagine you are your reader!
While your introduction and thesis set up the topic and argument/main idea, the body of the paper must support that argument. Depending on your assignment, your body paragraphs may follow a variety of orders and styles. No matter which class it is for, however, every body paragraph must have a few foundational pieces.
In-text citations may be more difficult to get right than Works Cited or Reference pages. How you cite a source within a paragraph depends on your citation style, the kind of source you're using, and the context of each given sentence.
If you are confident that you fulfilled the assignment’s directions and your paper clearly explains your ideas, you can look at revising for lower-order concerns.
Ethics & Values
In line with our mission statement, the Writing Center works hard to embody our ethics and values. This includes a commitment to linguistic justice through work and education. Learn more about The Writing Center's ethics.
Graduate Student Information
The Writing Center is proud to provide support to our graduate student body. We employ grad tutors from across academic fields to help you adjust to graduate-level coursework, further push and develop your skills, and provide sustained feedback for larger projects.
Questions?
If you have any questions regarding Writing Center services, please reach out at [email protected] or via phone at 202-885-2991.