Good Writing

Good academic and professional writing, on any topic, shares these qualities:

Clear and Concise

Create clear, strong sentences using precise nouns, active verbs, and no more words than necessary.

• Commonly Confused Word Pairs - from the NASW Press

• Homophones (words that sound alike) from the Purdue OWL

• Plain Language - U.S. government website on writing official materials in plain language

• Conciseness - from the Purdue OWL

• Examples of clear and concise writing - from plainlanguage.gov

Clear and concise writing helps readers understand your content. This article from The New Social Worker tells how to achieve readability.

Correct Grammar

Correct writing can enhance your credibility and professionalism. Here are a few excellent resources for help with English grammar:

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)  

• Columbia School of Social Work Writing Center Handouts

• Tools for Authors from the NASW Press 

• ESL Resources from the Purdue OWL 

Unbiased Language

APA offers guidelines for writing about racial and ethnic identity

The NASW Press offers excellent Guidelines for Writing About People and for Unbiased Writing

This article from ChangeAgent discusses how we can describe people by their strengths rather than by their deficits.

The National Center on Disability and Journalism created this Disability Language Style Guide

The University of British Columbia offers this resource for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers (APA guidelines from Norquest College)

Uses Evidence Carefully and Critically

• "Fake News" and Misinformation - guide from the U-M Library

• AllSides aggregates news stories from across the political spectrum

Logical 

• Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies

Cites Sources

• Academic Integrity includes giving credit whenever you use the work or words of other people

• Social Work writing cites sources using APA Style

Specific Tips for Social Work Writing

As an MSW student, you will engage in both academic and professional writing. Your academic writing will include researching the published literature and writing analytical papers. Professional writing tasks in field and beyond may include memos, record keeping, and process recordings. Clear, concise, precise writing is essential here. For more details, see Professional Communication.

General Resources for Writing and Research in Social Work

• Ten Tips for Strong Social Work Writing

• Dictionary of Social Work - from the University of Montana

  • offers clear and concise definitions for many words used in social work

U-M Library Resources for Social Work Research:

To access online journal articles and other library resources, be sure to log in with your uniqname, password, and two-factor authentication. (If you are not logged in, you might be asked to pay for access., Don't pay. If you are a U-M student, you already have access.)  

You can log in through My SSW or through the library's My Account link.

• Ask a Librarian (online chat reference)

• Social Work Librarian, Darlene Nichols

  • Contact Darlene for help with library research

• Getting Started With Social Work Research

  • This guide includes links to other guides for specific social work topics and courses

Tips for Specific Writing Tasks

• Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing - from the Purdue OWL

• Annotated Bibliographies - from the Purdue OWL

• Literature Reviews for Social Work - from the Purdue OWL

• Book Reviews:

  • a good intro from the University of North Carolina Writing Center

  • very concise guidelines from the Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics

• Policy Writing - from the U-M Ford School of Public Policy

• Op-Ed Essays - from Duke University

• Writing for the Web - from University of Maryland, Baltimore

Good Books on Writing

Ames, N., & FitzGerald, K. (2015). Writing clearly for clients and colleagues: The human service practicioner's guide. Chicago: Lyceum Press.

This book gives an excellent overview, with exercises and examples of clear writing for professional tasks.

Green, W., & Simon, B. L. (2012). The Columbia guide to social work writing. New York: Columbia University Press.

This is the best comprehensive book I know of which covers all aspects of social work writing.

Weisman, D., & Zornado, J. L. (2013). Professional writing for social work practice. New York: Springer Pub. 

This excellent book focuses on professional writing tasks. It includes many examples of common writing errors, followed by corrected versions.

Strunk, W., & White, E. B. (2009). The elements of style. New York: Pearson Longman.

This book is a clear and concise classic. 

Project Gutenberg offers a free version of the original edition by William Strunk.