Writing Center Quick Guides

Created by Writing Center tutors, our Quick Guides provide concise instruction on a variety of writing skills, tasks, and processes. Tutors often integrate these guides into tutoring sessions, but you can use them independently to get a quick handle on the topic of your choice.
Print copies of the Quick Guides are available in our campus locations, but we invite you to download as many as you like.
Writing as Process
Writing in Different Genres
- Introductions and Conclusions for Humanities Papers
- Taking In-Class Essay Exams
- Writing an Abstract
- Conference Proposals and Abstracts
- Writing Business Letters
- Writing Business Memos
- Writing Cover Letters
- Guidelines for Posting to Discussion Boards
- Writing a Diversity Statement
- Sending Email to Faculty and Administrators
- Writing a Literature Review
- Organizing Literature Reviews: The Basics
- Organizing Literature Reviews: Advanced
- News Writing Fundamentals
- Advice for Writing Personal Statements
- Writing Personal Statements for Health Professions
- Writing a PowerPoint Presentation
- Problem Proposals
- Reflective Essays
- All About Resume Writing
- Scientific (IMRaD) Research Reports - Overview
- Scientific (IMRaD) Research Reports — Abstracts
- Scientific (IMRaD) Research Reports — Introduction Section
- Scientific (IMRaD) Research Reports — Methods Section
- Scientific (IMRaD) Research Reports — Results and Discussion Section
- Scientific (IMRad) Research Reports — Conclusion Section
- White Papers
- Writing Effective Talking Points
General Writing Practices
Research-Based Writing
- How to Write a Research Question
- Searching for Sources on the Mason Library Databases
- Quotation, Paraphrase, Summary, and Analysis
- A Guide to Annotated Bibliographies
- Writing a Literature Review
- Organizing Literature Reviews: The Basics
- Organizing Literature Reviews: Advanced
- Hedges: Softening Claims in Academic Writing
Citing Sources
Reading Practices
Grammar & Style
- Converting Fragments to Full Sentences
- Active and Passive Voice
- Choosing Between Infinitive and Gerund: “To do” or “doing”?
- Choosing the Correct Word Form
- Combining Clauses to Avoid Comma Splices, Run-ons, and Fragments
- Commas, Semicolons, and Colons
- Count vs. Noncount Nouns
- Definite and Indefinite Articles
- Improving Cohesion: The "Known/New Contract"
- Modal Verbs
- Parallel Structure
- Prepositions
- Pronouns
- Proper Nouns
- Reducing Informality in Academic Writing
- Run-on Sentences
- Same Form, but Different Functions: Various Meanings of Verb+ing and Verb+ed
- Subject-Verb Agreement
- The Three Common Tenses Used in Academic Writing
- Using Reduced Relative Clauses to Write Concisely
- Verb Tenses
- Word Order in Statements with Embedded Questions