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Writing Center Handouts

Avoiding Plagiarism
Are you worried about plagiarism but not sure what it means or how to give credit to your sources? Read this handout for a clear explanation of plagiarism and ways to steer clear of it. 

Brainstorming Techniques
Do you have a paper or assignment that you just can’t figure out how to start? Maybe you are feeling totally blank, uninspired, and anxious because you feel so blank and uninspired? Here, you’ll find some techniques that might help you pick out a direction to start.

Changes from APA 6 to APA 7
The APA-specified title page for students includes: the title of the paper, the name of each author of the paper, the school being attended, the course number and name (e.g., ENGL 106), the course instructor’s name and title, the assignment’s due date, and a page number.

Commas & Conjunctions
Conjunction confusion? Go beyond the confines of and, but, and or to see how and when to use coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions. Also learn about how these linking words interact with commas. 

Eliminating Wordiness
Spit it out! Get to the point! Learn how to trim fat sentences into lean, mean, point-making machines. Switch out weak words for stronger, punchier ones. Leave your audience informed, excited, and hungry for more! 

The Importance of Parallelism
Parallelism--or parallel structure--simply means using the same grammatical pattern or structure when listing two or more words, phrases, or clauses. This handout will help you strengthen your writing skills by demonstrating parallelism at work with gerunds, infinitives, past tense, adverbs, and adjectives. 

Prewriting
Suffering from writer's block? Having trouble beginning the writing process? This handout offers suggestions for generating and organizing ideas for a writing assignment.

Screenwriting Fundamentals
Is the screenwriting format bogging you down? Knock out common errors and improve your screenplay. This handout discusses not only technical formatting issues, but also how to approach plot content as a screenwriter.

Semicolons, Commas, & Periods
Confused by all the punctuation choices? This handout explains the different uses for semicolons, commas, and periods. 

Transitions
Readers expect each new section of your text to link clearly to what they have already read. This handout describes how to use transitions as signposts to direct your readers. 

Writing a Thesis Statement
Your thesis statement is the main argument of your paper, often placed in the introduction or the first few paragraphs of your paper. The following steps are designed to help you get started.