New Resources for Science Tutors and Writing Tutors

The CAE has added several new resources to its website for writing in the areas of biology, chemistry, and nutrition—thanks to the efforts of Bethany Plant. Please check out our new online handouts that Bethany has designed, and post some comments regarding their usefulness to you as a content or writing tutor. Feel free to distribute these resources to students. In addition, let them know they are easily available online by going the CAE website’s handout page and selecting the option for Content Area from our Online Handouts Table of Contents Page

Citing Sources in Biology, the CBE Format:
http://ww2.sjc.edu/PDF/CAE/Citing_Sources_in_Biology.pdf
Citing Sources n Chemistry, the ACS Style:
http://ww2.sjc.edu/PDF/CAE/Citing_Sources_in_Chemistry.pdf
Helpful Resources for Dietetic and Nutrition:
http://ww2.sjc.edu/PDF/CAE/Helpful_Resources_for_Writing_in_Dietetics_Nutrition.pdf
Helpful Tips and Resources for Writing in Biology and Chemistry:
http://ww2.sjc.edu/PDF/CAE/Writing_in_Biology.pdf

Image taken from www.stcnet.com

Graduate School Essays

From time to time, we are asked to help students with writing their essays for graduate school admissions. RPI offers online guidance. In addition, some of our tutors who graduate this May might be interested in the link for their own personal needs.

http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/gradapp.html

If you use the link to access information, post your response to let us know how useful you found the information.

Podcasting Improves Writing

Kim Kraner offers this blog to her CAE colleagues:

Have you considered using podcasts? Would you like to improve your writing? Visit the Grammar Girl website to download her award-winning podcast, which features quick and easy grammar how-to tips. Each podcast discusses a specific grammar topic, including such troubling issues as dangling prepositions, comma splices, when to use lay versus lie, and much more. If you don’t have a MP3 player or iPod, don’t despair. Her site also includes full transcripts of every episode.

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/

from the site:
About Grammar Girl
"Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Whether English is your first language or second language, Grammar Girl’s punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer. Mignon Fogarty is the creator and host of Grammar Girl. Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast.
2007 Winner Best Education Podcast – Podcast Awards2007 Winner Favorite Audio Program – Podcast Peer Awards2006 Winner Best Education Podcast – Podcast Peer Awards
Mignon Fogarty Bio:
Mignon Fogarty is the creator of Grammar Girl and the founder and managing director of Quick and Dirty Tips. A magazine writer, technical writer, and entrepreneur, she has served as a senior editor and producer at a number of health and science web sites. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University.
Mignon believes that learning is fun, and the vast rules of grammar are wonderful fodder for lifelong study. She strives to be a friendly guide in the writing world. Her arch enemy is the evil Grammar Maven who inspires terror in the untrained and is neither friendly nor helpful."

After visiting the site, let Kim and all of us know what you think. Post your comments.

Psychology Resources Online

Amie Senland has sent along these links to psychology websites that she found helpful throughout her career at SJC. Her comments are included in her annotations of each site.

https://webmail.sjc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.dialogical.net/psychology/
This is the WWW Virtual Library of Psychology websites. Some links are currently broken but there are many resources on this page, including online tutorials, self-quizzes in various areas of psychology.

https://webmail.sjc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/aupr/students.shtml
This is Athabascau University's Centre for Psychology Resources. This page has general psychology resources, along with career and graduate school advice. I specifically like the left-hand column, which provides even more links for specific areas within psychology, such as sensation and perception or developmental psychology. There are so many helpful psychology resources on this site.

If you visit these sites, please post your responses to them.

Clip art from http://www.pppst.com/

Tutor Training Ideas: Take a Peek

Take some time this week or next, as your schedule permits, to visit online the Darmouth College’s Academic Skills Center site on Learning Strategies: Maximize Your Academic Experience. There are tips on time management, reading college textbooks, identifying learning styles, and so forth. The site might help you excel as both a student and tutor. Let us know what you think after exploring the site. Post a comment. Feel free to use some of the resources with your tutees. Here is the link you need to explore.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/index.html

The Dangling Modifier

The link below will take you to Dangling Modifier, which describes itself as: "An international newsletter by and for peer tutors in writing, produced in association with the NCPTW. The mission of The Dangling Modifier is to provide an international forum for ongoing conversation among peer tutors in writing." The link is for Volume 14, Issue 1. Feel free to access other volumes and issues. Post your responses to articles, and consider submitting a piece to the publication.

http://www.ulc.psu.edu/Dangling_Modifier/index.php

20 Most Common Writing Errors

Link to this Oregon State University page for access information about commonly made mistakes in writing. You will find a variety of discipline-specific links, though the mistakes listed for the disciplines overlap. Feel free to print handouts to give to students. http://wic.oregonstate.edu/wic_grammar_error_sheets.html