Odegaard Writing and Research Center

OWRC Handouts

Sample MLA Formatted Paper

What is an Academic Paper?

Why academic writing is different from writing you have done in high school.

Strong Body Paragraphs

A strong body paragraph explains, proves, and/or supports your paper’s argumentative claim or thesis statement. If you’re not sure how to craft one, try using this handy guide.

Concessions and Counterarguments

In your papers, it is often important to make a concession to the other side to make your argument stronger—that is, rather than acting like another side of your argument does not exist, you address it and “debunk” it. In fact, in an argument paper, presenting the other side and then “tearing it apart” can often be a very effective strategy.

Resumes & Cover Letters

Most of us who compose on a computer understand revision as an ongoing, even constant process. Every time you hit the delete button, every time you cut and paste, every time you take out a comma or exchange one word for another, you’re revising.

Top Ten Rules of Writing

Good reading makes good writing, time management, importance of spelling, reading your writing aloud and more.

Attending to Style

Most of us know good style when we see it. We also know when a sentence seems cumbersome to read. However, though we can easily spot beastly sentences, it is not as easy to say WHY a sentence – especially one that is grammatically correct – isn’t working. We look at the sentence; we see that the commas are in the right places; we find no error to speak of. So why is the sentence so awful? What’s gone wrong?