Writing Resources

Each section below contains links both to generally accessible writing resources and to those which are accessible only via a UCSB campus connection. At the start of each section is a "Quick and Preferred Reference" (marked by three asterisks) for those whose time is limited.

• Grammar & Style
• Writing Tips
• Spelling
• Oral Presentations
• Comments and Suggestions

Grammar & Style

General Access

***Guide to Grammar and Writing (Charles Darling and Capital Community Technical College) -- a marvelous guide with clear explanations and practice quizzes to assist in the correction of any gramatical problem.

***SentenceCraft (Larry Behrens) -- very clear and visually effective explanations of parts of sentences followed by practice exercises.

Strunk's Elements of Style (Project Bartleby) -- the classic text online.

Writing Tips

General Access

***Writing tips (Ted Nellen) -- an incredibly comprehensive site with links to other pages about virtually every part of the writing process, including anxiety. Heavily reliant upon the resources of The Purdue University Writing Lab.

Writing Argumentative Essays (Bill Daly) -- a comprehensive guide to writing papers, including opportunities to practice and test ideas.

Writer's Handbook for Academic Writing (The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center) -- a terrific guide to the process of writing all kinds of papers, with helpful advice about developing theses, the most effective use of quotations, how to prepare bibliographies, and the differences between writing about literature, writing research papers, reviews and scientific reports.

Spelling

General Access

Common Errors in English (Paul Brians) -- list of commonly misspelled words, words that sound similar to one another, and phrases. Explains the distinction between the spelling of different words that sound the same.

Oral Presentations

General Access

Virtual Presentation Assistant (Communication Studies, University of Kansas) -- a comprehensive guide to creating and delivering oral presentations, which includes links to other sites on this topic.

Index of Resources

1. Overview
2. Guides to Readings in Literature and Information Culture
   1. Bookshelf (Brief descriptions and mini-reviews of works in a variety of media that developers of the Transcriptions project or speakers in its colloquium series have been reading. These are the works that are helping to shape the intellectual direction of the Transcriptions project. The Bookshelf is a searchable database.)
   2. Hypertext Literature (annotated catalogue of representative works of hypertext fiction, poetry, and theory in a variety of media, both offline and online works; includes a guide to the Transcription studio's library of publications by the Eastgate company)
3. Guides to Online Research
   1. Online Research Resources (library catalogues, digital text archives, periodical indices, etc.; includes both general-access and UCSB-only resources)
   2. Online Reference Resources (dictionaries, thesauri, atlases, encyclopedias, etc.)
   3. Online Resources for Writing and Speaking (grammer and style guides, writing tips, advice on oral presentations, etc.)
   4. Evaluating & Citing Online Resources (checklists, exercises, examples, and annotated links; also includes a printable form to use in tracking and evaluating online sites)
4. Guides to Technology in Transcriptions Courses
   1. Web-Authoring Basics (basic outline of the process required to download, revise, and upload web pages associated with Transcriptions courses)
   2. Web-Authoring Resources (design and how-to advice for both beginning and advanced Web authors; includes links to HTML and design style guides, help with images, and examples of good and bad design)
   3. Transcriptions Studio Software (catalogue of the major production tools used by Transcriptions with links to resources and tutorials; covers Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Fireworks, Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, and Allaire's Homesite programs)
   4. How to Post Messages in the Exchange Messaging Environment (step-by-step guide)
   5. How to Use the Web to Add/Edit Content in the Project's Timeline or Linkbase Databases (step-by-step guide)
5. For Instructors and Developers:
   1. Teaching with Information Technology (annotated links to resources and tools for designing courses utilizing IT; also includes example sites)
   2. Developer Resources for Transcriptions Project (Templates for course and topics pages, Photoshop templates for images, Descriptions of web technology used in HTML design, Cascading Style Sheets [CSS], Server Side Includes [SSI], and relevant information)

This page created by
Caroline L. Brehm
for the Transcriptions Project
(last updated 9/4/99)

Suggestions regarding the continuing development/maintenance of this site are most welcome!