Technical Writing & Communication: A Primer

Grammar Choices is a guide to the choices available to academic writers in English. Although there are certainly some rules governing acceptable and unacceptable grammar, there are far more choices to be made among grammatically acceptable forms that have different meanings. The ability to control these meanings will help students communicate more effectively and efficiently in graduate-level and professional academic writing.

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. West Virginia University regards plagiarism as academic dishonesty. Consequences of plagiarism include failing an assignment, receiving a lower course grade, and even failing a course. Complete this tutorial and optional quiz to learn how to avoid plagiarism.

Can't find the right word or looking for an alternative for a word? Try checking a thesaurus. The WVU Libraries provides access to a number of electronic thesauri. You can also visit www.thesaurus.com.

The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide you with examples of some of the phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing and can be used simply to assist you in thinking about the content and organisation of your own writing, or the phrases can be incorporated into your writing where this is appropriate.