Homegrown Handouts

Homegrown Handouts address the most common questions tutees ask in the Writing Center. These handouts were created by our Writing Center staff. If you have a particular topic you would like addressed, please contact us.

For additional online writing resources, visit our External Resources section.

• Business English [pdf]
• Business Proposals [pdf]
• Cover Letters [pdf]
• Email Etiquette [pdf]
• Memos [pdf]
• Resignation Letters [pdf]
• Resumes from Start to Finish [pdf]

• AP Style [pdf]
• APA Citation Guide [pdf] (7th Edition)
• APA Formatting Guidelines [pdf] (7th Edition)
• ASA Citation Guide [pdf]
• Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) Citation Guide [pdf]
• Chicago Style Guidelines [pdf]
• IEEE Citation Guide [pdf]
• MLA Citation Guide [pdf] (9th Edition)
• MLA Formatting Guidelines [pdf]

• Academic Language [pdf]
• Cleft Sentences [pdf]
• Cliches and How to Avoid Them [pdf]
• Concise Writing: Part I [pdf]
• Concise Writing: Part II [pdf]
• Concrete Language [pdf]
• Embellishing vs. Supporting [pdf]
• Expletives [pdf]
• First-Person Usage in Academic Writing [pdf]
• Garden Path Sentences [pdf]
• Hedging, Softening, and Writer's Distance [pdf]
• Nominalization [pdf]
• Old Information before New Information [pdf]
• Parallelism [pdf]
• Passive Voice [pdf]
• Precise Words [pdf]
• Redundancy [pdf]
• Reporting Verbs [pdf]
• Sentence Openers [pdf]
• Sentence Variety and Rhythm [pdf]
• Third-Person Point of View (POV) in Academic Writing [pdf]
• Wordiness [pdf]

• AAVE: Dismantling Standard American English [pdf]
• Accessible Writing Strategies [pdf]
• Antiracist Perspective in Writing [pdf]
• Biased Language (APA) [pdf]
• Inclusive Writing (MLA) [pdf]
• Inclusive Writing: Part I [pdf]
• Inclusive Writing: Part II [pdf]
• LGBTQ+ Terminology: Gender and Gender Identity [pdf]
• LGBTQ+ Terminology: Sexual Orientation [pdf]
• Mental Illness References in Writing [pdf]
• Offensive Language about Mental Illness [pdf]
• Offensive Stereotypes in Creative Writing [pdf]

• Body Paragraphs [pdf]
• Brainstorming [pdf]
• Conclusions [pdf]
• Editing: Creating Reader-Friendly Papers + Essays [pdf]
• Editing: Creating Reader-Friendly Paragraphs [pdf]
• Editing: Creating Reader-Friendly Sentences [pdf]
• Editing for Clarity: Characters and their Actions [pdf]
• Editing: Meaningful Word and Punctuation Choices [pdf]
• Editing Your Paper: The Basics [pdf]
• Essay Planning: How to Develop a Working Thesis Statement [pdf]
• Essay Planning: Reading Assignment Prompts & Descriptions [pdf]
• Essay Planning: Outlining with a Purpose [pdf]
• Essay Planning: Visual Mapping [pdf]
• Introductions [pdf]
• Outline Template [pdf]
• Paraphrasing [pdf]
• Peer Review Strategies and Tips [pdf]
• Plagiarism: Understanding Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Citing [pdf]
• Proofreading [pdf]
• Quotations: Embedding [pdf]
• Reverse Outlining [pdf]
• Topic Sentences [pdf]

• Adjectives [pdf]
• Adjectives: Comparative and Superlative [pdf]
• Adverbs [pdf]
• Appositives [pdf]
• Articles [pdf]
• Capitalization [pdf]
• Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS) [pdf]
• Dangling Modifiers [pdf]
• Fragments [pdf]
• Gerunds [pdf]
• Independent and Dependent Clauses [pdf]
• Independent Clauses in Compound Sentences [pdf]
• Infinitives [pdf]
• Misused Words: Fewer or Less [pdf]
• Misused Words: Lay vs. Lie [pdf]
• Misused Words: Onto vs. On To [pdf]
• Misused Words: Part I [pdf]
• Misused Words: Part II [pdf]
• Misused Words: Part III [pdf]
• Misused Words: Raise vs. Rise [pdf]
• Misused Words: Synonyms for "Said" [pdf]
• Misused Words: Who, Whom, Whoever, Whomever [pdf]
• Nouns: Count and Noncount [pdf]
• Nouns: The Basics [pdf]
• Nouns: Advanced [pdf]
• Nouns: Expert [pdf]
• Participle Phrases [pdf]
• Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases [pdf]
• Prepositions: "Of," "At," and "For" [pdf]
• Prepositions of Time and Place [pdf]
• Pronouns [pdf]
• Relative Clauses [pdf]
• Sentence Types and Functions [pdf]
• Subject-Verb Agreement [pdf]
• Subordinating Conjunctions and Subordinate Clauses [pdf]
• Transition Words [pdf]
• Transitions: Conjunctive Adverbs [pdf]
• Verbs: Modals [pdf]
• Verbs: Phrasal [pdf]
• Verbs: The Basics [pdf]
• Verbs: Time Frames [pdf]
• Verbs: Transitive and Intransitive [pdf]
• Verb Tenses: Telling Time [pdf]

• Colons [pdf]
• Commas [pdf]
• Comma Splices and Fused Sentences [pdf]
• Contractions [pdf]
• Dashes [pdf]
• Ellipses [pdf]
• End Punctuation [pdf]
• Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes [pdf]
• Parentheses and Brackets [pdf]
• Possessive Apostrophes [pdf]
• Quotation Marks [pdf]
• Semicolons [pdf]

• Fake News and Fallacies [pdf]
• Reading a Research Paper [pdf]
• Reading Comprehension [pdf]
• Summary and Analysis of Scientific Research Articles [pdf]

• Abstracts [pdf]
• Conclusion Section for Research Papers [pdf]
• Discussion Section for Research Papers [pdf]
• Graphic Organizers for Research Papers [pdf]
• Introduction Section for Research Papers [pdf]
• Literature Reviews [pdf]
• Methodology Section for Research Papers [pdf]
• Research Paper Writing Process [pdf]
• Research Papers in the Sciences [pdf]
• Research Proposals [pdf]
• Results Section for Research Papers [pdf]
• Social Media as Research [pdf]

• Annotated Bibliographies [pdf]
• Argumentation: Premises and Conclusions [pdf]
• Argumentative Writing and Using Evidence [pdf]
• Book Reviews: Academic [pdf]
• Comparing/Contrasting: Essay Planning [pdf]
• Comparing/Contrasting: Essay Organization [pdf]
• Dialogue [pdf]
• Discussion Posts [pdf]
• Exam Essay Preparation [pdf]
• Literary Analysis [pdf]
• Personal Narrative Essays [pdf]
• Personal Statements [pdf]
• Poetry: The Structural Elements [pdf]
• Rhetorical Analyses [pdf]
• Scriptwriting Format [pdf]
• Short Stories [pdf]
• Speech Preparation [pdf]

(Note: See the "Research Papers" section for resources about writing research papers, including topics such as abstracts and literature reviews.) 

These handouts are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. You may reproduce them for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout (printed out for classroom use, for example) and attribute the source: The San José State University Writing Center.