Writing Guides

Guidelines

General Resources

How to create an Annotated Bibliography

How to create a Literature Review

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These resources provide excellent guidelines and examples that may be used in conjunction with the specific instructions or requirements of individual assignments or faculties.

For further assistance with academic writing, visit the U of C’s Effective Writing Centre.
For information on style guides, go to the Library’s page on Citing and Writing.
For information on plagiarism see the Effective Writing Centre’s: Plagiarism.
For information on writing in specific subject areas, check the Subject Resources web page for your program and use the navigation bar on the left to locate resources on writing and citing.  You can also check the Effective Writing Centre Subject Area Writing Resources page.
For information and online tutorial on the information search process, see WISPR.

General Citing & Writing

Refworks (U of C only): Refworks is an easy to use, web-based software that saves, organizes and manages your sources of information as well as a tool to help create your bibliography.

Research & Documentation Online:  A great, quick overview of the most popular style guides broken down by subject area.

The OWL at Purdue: Writing Guide:The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

Citation Style Guides: Provided by the University of Berkley, this site has PDF overviews of MLA, APA, & Chicago-Turabian Styles.

Queen’s University Citation & Style Guides: This site provides several PDF guides to different citation styles.  While it does have APA, MLA, & Chicago, it also highlights ASA, CBE, Social Sciences, Turabian, Vancouver, and other special formats.

Writing Guides at Colorado University: There are several guides to help you write research papers as well as in specific genres.

University of Washington Writing Guides Helpful documents on composing and researching a paper

University of Alberta Writing Guides: Guide for research, writing, citation style guides, and tutorials.

Cleveland State University Writing Process: There are some logical steps that every writer seems to follow in the creation of a paper. The process described here outlines those basic steps.

Doyle Online Writing Lab:The Doyle O.W.L has 24-hour online writing resources for students provided by Reed College. Within this site, you will find writing resource portals to find out information about citation manuals, grammar tips, and more.

Writing With Sources: A Guide for Students 2nd Edition by Gordon Harvey: Developed for Harvard University's Expository Writing Program, Writing with Sources describes the main principles and methods of integrating and citing sources in scholarly work and provides cogent guidance on avoiding the misuse of sources.

Citing medicine: The NLM style guide for authors, editors, and publishers by Karen Patrias: Citing Medicine gives information on constructing citations at three levels: Diagrammed Citation, General Rules and Examples, and Specific Rules. NLM intends Citing Medicine to be an evolving publication, so check back for updates. Available from: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/citingmedicine

Student’s Guide to the Presentation of Essays - (U of Calgary Department of English)

Annotated Bibliography

Writing an Annotated Bibliography – University of Toronto - An excellent resource that discusses selection of sources, summarizing the argument of a source, and assessing the relevance and value of sources. Points out the various formats for annotated bibliographies and provides examples and vocabulary suggestions.

Annotated Bibliographies – University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Centre - This resource discusses various approaches or formats to consider when writing annotated bibliographies and provides examples for each.

Annotated Bibliographies Brought to you by The OWL at Purdue – Purdue University Online Writing Lab - A concise handout on annotated bibliographies that provides links for further assistance with specific steps; includes examples.

How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography – Cornell University Library – Prepared by Cornell University Library, this page provides guidance on the preparation of annotated bibliographies and includes a link to further information on “How to Critically Analyze Information Sources”.

How to write and Annotated Bibliography – University of California Santa Cruz - This comprehensive resource includes: definition, composition, purpose, examples and links to further information.

How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography - (Cornell University Library)

Book/Literature Reviews:

How to write a book review by Dalhousie University – An excellent step-by-step approach to writing effective critical book reviews, including considerations for specific literature types.

Book Reviews – University of Calgary Effective Writing Centre – A very comprehensive resource covering the important elements of writing effective book reviews.

The Book Review or Article Critique – University of Toronto – This resource provides general guidelines and questions to keep in mind when reading and writing a critical book review.

Writing Book Reviews – University of Waterloo – Although “no single approach is right for all books”, this resource provides many valuable suggestions for writing effective book reviews.

How to Write Book Reviews – Queen's University – an excellent instructional tool outlining the process of writing effective book reviews. Provides references and links for further information.

Critical Reviews – University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Centre – Learn how to write critical reviews of non-fiction works.

The Literature Review: A Few Tips by the University of Toronto – A detailed guide including questions to ask yourself about each item you include in the review as well as questions to ask yourself about the review itself.

Review of Literature by University of Wisconsin-Madison – These guidelines provide helpful tips on the components of a literature review, covering: what is a review of literature, writing the introduction, writing the body, and writing the conclusion.

How to Write a Literature Review – University of California Santa Cruz – This guide discusses the major components of a literature review and criteria to consider when assessing each source.

Conducting a Literature Review – University of Melbourne – A very comprehensive approach to the complete process of producing a literature review from getting started to the final checklist.

Writing a Literature Review – Wesleyan University – This resource includes a wealth of information and is presented in three sections: What is a Literature Review; What is the Literature; and Writing the Review.

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