Writing Guide

The Write Stuff: Writing as a Performing and Political Art, Second Edition, by Thomas E. Cronin
Suggestions and cautions for students writing research papers or for would-be leaders writing their declarations of independence, letters from jail, or manifestos.

Elements of Style
by William Strunk Jr. is the classic guide used for many years. It is entirely online (unlike the current style manuals) and still serves as a good general guide to writing style.

Guide to Grammar and Writing
by the Captial Center Community College is a concise guide to the basics of writing well. The sites can be easily navigated and your questions answered quickly.

The Online Writing Lab (OWL)
of Purdue University combines their local activities with tremendous web-based resources on writing style. Pay particular attention to the "Resources for Writers" section.

The Composition Center of Dartmouth University
has many of the same resources found elsewhere. The "Coming up with your topic" section is an excellent and engaging description of how reading, thinking and writing should be simultaneously integrated into the writing process.

"Writing Tools"
from the Writing Center at Harvard University has many important observations bout the writing process. One of the most important, yet often overlooked topics, is "How to Read an Assignment."

The style manual produced by the Modern Language Association(MLA)
is the standard in the social sciences and commonly used in the political science classroom. They offer guidelines for citing sources found on the Internet. For a guide to citing print sources you can find the MLA style summarized by Concordia University

The American Psychological Association (APA)
"How to Cite Information From the Internet and the World Wide Web" provides examples of electronic citations for the APA style. Concordia University provides an online guide to all APA citation styles.

"Citing Internet Sources"
is a thorough look at citation styles for the World Wide Web.

The Style Manual for Political Science
is published by the American Political Science Association (APSA) . It should be published online, but it isn't. You may be able to get a copy through your Political Science department, if not go directly from the APSA. The University of Wisconsin provides a limited summary of the "APSA Documentation."

APSA and the "Chicago Style"
offers sample citations and references drawn from the Style Manual for Political Science, revised edition, 1993, and from The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition (1993.

(Chicago manual of Style) of documentation.

"Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It"
by Indiana University's a positive guide to writing that will help you from inadvertently plagiarizing the work of others.