Useful Links

Two how-to-do-it books

MLA Handbook for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations , (New York: MLA, 1977) Gen. Ref. Z 253.

This is the most useful text to buy. It has notes on everything you need, including how to do indented outlines. It's not as full or as easy to understand as the next title below, but it's all there.

Update (27/3/99): you don't have to buy it any more. It's here, in a really helpful frame format. This is wonderful. All students should use this site all the time.

Kane, Thomas S, The Oxford Guide to Writing , (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983).

This book has it all: how to make an indented outline, how to spell, how to punctuate, how to write a paragraph, how to take notes, how to sharpen your pencil--everything. The bad news is that (a) it's rather American, and (b) it's out of print. There are two copies in the Library, on long loan.

Update 2002: this has now been reissued as two books: the Oxford Essential Guide to Writing, at the very cheap price of £3.44 (from Amazon); and the New Oxford Guide to Writing, paperback £9.14 (Amazon). The latter looks so interesting that I've just ordered it.

10. Useful Links

Here is a wonderful set of documents on how to write essays; here, from the same source, is a full set of links about using the Web for writing.

Here, courtesy of the truly valuable Voice of the Shuttle, are a whole set of links: style and grammar guides, how to think and create arguments, searching the Web and evaluating what you find, and so on. Remarkable.