Questions about grammar, usage, mechanics, or other organization problems?
              When you can't visit The Learning Center in person, use this online Workshop
                                                      for guidance on the following:

• Number Use

• Hyphens 

• Titles

• Punctuation with Quotation Marks

• Run-On Sentences

• Sentence Fragments
  
  For more information: click on the links above or the headings below.

Number Use

There are many times when writing papers that you will want to use a number.  For example, "I took my old car in for repairs at list fifty times."  The question is, when do you write a number out?  When do you use the number, or "figure," format?  Knowing this rule can really help you avoid a significant number of small, annoying errors that can add up over the course of a paper. 

Hyphens

This area specifically addresses the use of hyphens with "compound modifiers."  This is a quirky, and very picky rule.  If you don't know this rule it can lead to a number of mistakes over the course of a paper.  Thankfully, the rule is very easy to learn and assimilated into your writing habits and common knowledge. 

Titles

When writing papers, regardless of the subject area, you will often use the titles of other works in your writing.  These titles include: books, articles, poems, movies, CDs, websites, newspapers, and organizations, just to name a few.  Knowing how to correctly punctuate titles is especially important and will allow you to avoid careless mistakes that might count against you.  Again, this is a pretty easy rule to learn.   

Punctuation with Quotation Marks

Quotation marks will make frequent appearances in your college papers, especially research papers.  Using quotations is one matter, but what is often overlooked is that you have to know how to correctly use punctuation with the quotation marks.  This is an easy rule to learn and, once learned, will prevent you from making a number of careless errors that will hold your writing back.  

Run-on Sentences

Run-on sentences are some of the most frequent errors committed by student writers.  Undoubtedly, you will hear your English professor go on and on about how to avoid these.  Knowing how to avoid run-on sentences, as well as sentence fragments, is probably one of the more drastic improvements you can make in your writing. 

Sentence Fragments

Along with run-on sentences, sentence fragments are some of the most frequent errors committed by student writers.  Undoubtedly, you will hear your English professor go on and on about how to avoid these.  Knowing how to avoid sentence fragments is probably one of the more drastic improvements you can make in your writing.