LibGuides: College Writing II: Welcome to College Writing II

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This guide helps you learn the following skills required for producing excellent college writing:

develop a topic
search the library catalog
search databases for full-text articles
use Interlibrary Loan
judge the quality or bias of what you read
properly attribute sources
avoid plagiarism.

Getting Started

Deciding on a topic is possibly the most difficult part of doing research. If you're not sure how to start, talk with your professor, ask a librarian, or:

Think about a topic that you are interested in.
Do some background reading from a textbook or subject encyclopedia.

Generally, you will want to narrow your topic to something manageable. You may need to rework it several times as you research. It is possible you may need to expand a topic if it is too narrowly focused on a single idea.

Once you have an idea, write it out as a short sentence or question then pick out search terms.

Use the sources in the following Research Tools pages to find information.

"How does stress affect memory?" stress, memory

Guides to Writing from the University of Wisconsin

Writing a Research Paper
A simplified description of the steps needed to complete a research paper.
Writer's Handbook
Useful guide covering all aspects of the research and writing process.

College Writing and English

Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence
Introduction to College Writing
About Writing: A Guide
The Word on College Reading and Writing
The Informed Writer: Using Sources in the Disciplines, 5th edition
by Charles Bazerman. addresses a wide range of writing activities and genres, from summarizing and responding to sources to writing the research paper and writing about literature. This edition of the book has been adapted from the fifth edition, published in 1995 by Houghton Mifflin. Copyrighted materials—primarily examples within the text—have been removed from this edition.
Brinkerhoff, "Doing Research"
A modules-based approach to learning research skills that emphasizes the reflective nature of information discovery, the contextual basis for evaluating that information, and a recognition that information has value.

College Writing II

Library Home Page

UMass Lowell Policies

Getting Started

Guides to Writing from the University of Wisconsin

College Writing and English