The CSU Writing Center offers you two types of assistance: individualized tutoring and the resources outlined below. Most successful writers share their work in order to improve it or to help them save time. A writing consultant can speed up the process of writing.

What a Tutoring Session Can Offer You

We find that graduate students need help with the following items:

• making their work accessible to others
• organizing their research
• reviewing forms that are unique to graduate students (e.g. thesis, dissertation, research proposal, graduate admissions essay)
• paraphrasing and quoting appropriately
• checking citations

Please call extension 6981 for a tutor to review your work; if you would like the Director to look at the text, please dial extension 6982.

Additional Resources for Graduate Students

Below are book references and some web links that may assist you with various aspects of writing in graduate school. If you would like to discuss any of these resources, please dial extension 6982.

Books

• The best book on writing a book proposal is Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner. Very clearly written, this book will help you distill a great deal of research into a clear, focused proposal.
• Many books exist on writing theses and dissertations. One you might consider is Theses and Dissertations: A Guide to Planning, Researching, and Writing by R. Murray Thomas and Dale L. Brubaker, published by Bergin & Garvey in 2000 in Westport , Connecticut.

Web Links

NOTE: These are MS Word documents

• Prof. Rachel Carnell of the English Department offers these suggestions
  for those of you writing a Master's thesis:
• Helpful techniques for writing a personal statement:
  http://owl.english.purdue.edu /handouts/pw/p_perstate.html
• Reflection techniques for your best sources:
  Sitting with Sources
• A description of a research proposal and annotated bibliography:
  Research + Annotated
• A description of a researched position paper
  Researched Position Paper
• A description of a segmented report
  Writing a Segmented Report
• Some common false ideas regarding plagiarism
  Common Myths about Plagiarism
• A Plagiarism Quiz to consider various facets of paraphrasing
  Plagiarism Quiz
• Changing your language from informal to formal
  Informal to Formal
• Grammar Web Exercises (in case you need to find some grammatical point)
  Grammar Web Exercises for Students
• The Best APA Style Sheet Handout http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html
• The Best MLA Style Sheet Handout
  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html
• Advice about writer's block
• Writing a Review of Literature
• Personal Statements
• How to Finish a Writing Project

 

Questions, comments, and other sundry things may be sent to CSUwriting@csuohio.edu