How to write well

Writing is an important part of university learning. Expect to do a lot of writing at UPOU.

There are no shortcuts to becoming a good writer. You have to keep reading, keep writing, and keep getting feedback. Here are a few tips to improve your writing skills.

Take additional writing courses

UPOU offers a bridging course on writing through the same site where you did the DE Readiness course. Log in to http://readiness.upou.info and you should be able to access an English bridge course in which you can enroll.

Use an automated writing assistant like Grammarly

Grammarly is an online tool that you can use to spot grammar and spelling errors in (and improve the tone and style of) your writing. The free version of Grammarly should be sufficient for most of your writing needs during your studies.

Read books on academic writing

A few of these books include:

Oshima, A., & Hogue, A. (2006). Writing Academic English. White Plains, NY: Pearson/Longman. A copy is available online on http://longnc.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/writing_academic_english.pdf
Strunk, W., & White, E. B. (1999). The Elements of style. Boston (USA): Allyn and Bacon : Longman. A copy is available online on http://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf

Learn how to cite sources correctly

Citing sources correctly is an important part of your academic training. My preferred reference styles are APA and IEEE, but you can use any style as long as you use it consistently.

Websites such as EasyBib and CitationMachine help you easily format your references, while citation management tools such as Zotero allow you to incorporate and format references in your document.

Other tips

Consult other references on the Web, including the followings:

Check out the works of Jose Carrillo, who has written an excellent series of books on writing in English(10 Most Annoying English Grammar Errors, English Plain and Simple, and Give Your English the Winning Edge). You can order them from the Manila Times website. He also manages the Jose Carillo's English Forum website.
Consult this guide to verb tenses for help with choosing the most appropriate verb tense to use.
Check out Purdue University's Online Writing Lab.
Check out this writing cheatsheet that I adapted from UCLA's Dr. Jasmine Trice's "Writing Guidelines" document for her own students.

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