Life Skills First Year Seminar - East Central: Writing & Communication

Please follow these guidelines when contacting me or other instructors via email.  You can use this information as a guide also for communicating with fellow students, and posting on this site as well as Blackboard.

• Always use include your course and section number in the subject line of your email.  Many instructors teach multiple courses and this small courtesy will help them keep their inboxes organized.
• Use a greeting, such as Dear ______, and always sign off with a thank you or other appropriate closing remark.  Always include your full name and contact information if necessary.
• Write in full sentences, using correct grammar, style and punctuation.  NO chat abbreviations or "text-speak"!
• Practice good "netiquette."  See below.

Your instructor may reserve the right to not respond to emails that do not conform to these guidelines.

On this page, you will find resources to assist you improve your writing and communications skills.  A strong command of language is fundamental to success in college and beyond.  Please feel free to explore these resources, which will offer you everything from brushing up your grammar skills to tips on how to give effective oral presentations.  

The following documents provide help with citing sources and formatting research papers according to APA and MLA guidelines.

Tutorials

• You Quote It, You Note It
  This is a 10 minutes interactive tutorial from Arcadia University.
• Dr. Cite Right
  This is a self-paced interactive tutorial from Central Piedmont Community College.
• For a short interactive tutorial on citing sources and avoiding plagiarism, see IvyTILT, Module 6.

Videos

You may not hear much about plagiarism but it does occur, and has serious consequences.

Take a look a these articles from Google News.