Writing Center

Research Resources

Have questions about citations? When you make an appointment at the writing center, we will help you learn the citation style. This mostly means learning how to be a good proofreader and learning how to look up the style you need to work with. Here are some of the tools we may use to work with you:

APA Style Guide
This is the website for the American Pschological Association, which publishes the APA style guide.

Citation Fox
Citation Fox is an excellent resource for APA and MLA, great interface and examples

MLA Style Guide
This is the website for the Modern Language Association, which publishes the MLA style guide.

Google Scholar
Google Scholar automoatically creates citations. There are numerous citation makers online. ALL of them are prone to errors, but we have found Google Scholar is more reliable than most. WARNING: You need to proofread any citation Google Scholar creates.

Resources for Genre and Style

Writing in the Nursing Field
This site explains the unique genres associated with the nursing profession and includes additional resources on writing scientific abstracts, finding reliable academic sources, and writing to a specific audience.

Disciplinary Writing Guides
The Harvard Writing Project includes specific PDFs on writing across the disciplines including psychology, life sciences, philosophy, economics, and more. There are also guides on writing the senior thesis in a variety of subjects.

Writing Centers' Resources

• Michigan Technological University:
  This site provides advice on citations, plagiarism, proofreading, and how to write research papers.
• Purdue University:
  If English is your second language, this page will be very helpful. It has over 60 links to handouts concerning grammar and other essentials.
• Temple University:
  Temple's writing center offers tutoring online for campus students and non-campus students. It also offers technology resources which can be very helpful.

How to Access Online Databases: A Link from the Community of Writers

The following link was suggested by Ms. Arianna Hernandez and her students at Valley Charter School in California. Thanks, Ms. Hernandez, for getting in touch with us and demonstrating the way people can connect via the Internet over shared curiosity and desire to investigate information online.

The following link suggested by Ms. Hernandez's students is on the CR Codes Website, a personal web site. The list provided on the page linked below is a very helpful tool if you do not have access to a library database such as the one students at West Chester University (and other universities) can access. The author of the site, Lidia Szczepanski, has a great map in her mind of information and where it is housed. She has a particular interest in the promise of CR Codes for providing on-site access to sites via Smart Phone devices, for instance.
CR Codes Scanning: Technology Research

Other WCU Services

• Disability Assistance
• Career Development Center