University of Kentucky Undergraduate Education
Prof. Robert S. Tannenbaum
Helpful Hints for Student Authors
Download a pdf version of all of the hints, plus the index
This page contains some general suggestions and a brief bibliography.
For specific hints click on the number.
For an INDEX to all of the hints, click here.
The Writing Center at the University of Kentucky provides a wide range of services for all UK students. I encourage you to visit the Center in the WT Young Library to become acquainted, and also to make use of their assistance.
Prof. William W. Freehling has offered his students a brief piece that he calls "Essay-Writing as Architecture," which you may find quite helpful. He succinctly discusses the overall structure and flow of an essay, in addition to providing specific suggestions for paragraphs and sentences.
Prof. Ben Yagoda wrote a short article, entitled "The Seven Deadly Sins of Student Writers," for the Chronicle of Higher Education on the seven categories of mistakes that he has found his students to be making in their writing. This article may provide you with some constructive criticisms that you can apply to your own works.
Strunk, William and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. (fourth edition) New York: Longman. 2000.
Brians, Paul. Common Errors in English Usage. Wilsonville, Oregon: William, James and Company. 2003.
Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. London: Profile Books Ltd. 2005.
Staff of the University of Chicago Press. The Chicago Manual of Style. (fifteenth edition) Chicago: the University of Chicago Press. 2006.
Miller, Jane E. The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers. Chicago: the University of Chicago Press. 2004.
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. (second edition) Chicago: the University of Chicago Press. 2003
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. (sixth edition) Chicago: the University of Chicago Press. 1996.
Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. 100 Words almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
You should have a large, comprehensive dictionary. Your spell checker may be fine for catching typographical errors or common misspellings. However, a good dictionary will help you understand the words you are using, and help you to choose the best word to express what you are trying to say (see Helpful Hint 60). A complete dictionary will include comments on usage that will help you clarify your writing and distinguish between words with similar meanings. There are many good dictionaries. My personal favorite and the one I use is:
Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. (revised edition) New York: Gramercy Books. 1996.
It does not include some of the newest words, but that is not a problem, because for those all I need is the spelling. It does include excellent other features. You should look carefully at the extra features before you invest in a big dictionary. Don't be fooled by shear size or number of entries. Remember, you are going to use it as a reference, not just a spell checker.
In the individually numbered hints that follow, whenever a precise definition is needed in order to distinguish between two or more similar words, or when a distinction for purposes of usage is made, I have relied heavily on this dictionary, often paraphrasing it.
General Points to Watch and Consider:
PROOFREAD! PROOFREAD! PROOFREAD! If you will simply take the time to proofread your paper, you should be able to catch many, if not most, of the errors that you have made. Given the following list of common errors, plus the capacity of your word processor to spot spelling and grammatical errors, you should always be able to turn in a nearly perfect paper.
I have found a number of common errors that members of my classes have made
in their written assignments. It would be valuable for you to keep these
in mind as you prepare each of your assignments. Remember, "every
rule has an exception -- even this one." So, do not feel absolutely
bound by these suggestions. However, unless you have an excellent reason
for violating a rule, you probably ought to follow it. I call these suggestions "Helpful Hints" ("HH," for short). They are numbered, and can be reached in groups of ten by clicking below. You can also reach a specific hint by clicking on its number in the table at the top of this page. If would you prefer to have a paper copy of all of the hints, plus the index, you may download a pdf version by clicking here, and then printing it out.
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Last updated 7/22/08