The Weapons in Your Arsenal

Composing, editing, documenting, and publishing a textual work confronts an author with an infinite number of difficulties. To be comprehensible to readers, text has to accord with conventions of semantics (word meaning), syntax (word order), and punctuation. Authors must acknowledge ideas or words they borrow from other authors or be guilty of plagiarism or copywriter infringement. Authors of scientific and other academic research need to acknowledge borrowed ideas, but they should also want readers to be aware of similar research.

To assist authors with composition, editing, documentation, and publishing, The University of Chicago Press, The Modern Language Association, and the American Psychological Association (APA) publish The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, and the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. The University of Perdue maintains an extensive website, the Online Writing Lab (OWL) with explanations and examples of CMS, MLA, APA style, and advice for writing all kinds of documents from composing poetry to authoring the driest technical documents.

Southeastern Louisiana University Students may visit the Southeastern University Writing Center, which provides tutoring in the principles and skills of writing, has a “Handouts” page with downloadable summaries of CMS, MLA, and APA style, and other downloadable documents which concisely describe important composition, semantic, syntactical, and punctuation principles.

Together, all of these resources form the weapons in the author’s arsenal.

Writing Resources

Whether it be a graduate student’s lengthy dissertation in their chosen field, or a brief book review of the latest Stephen King novel, written papers are an essential component of most college curriculum. At some point, these projects are required and expected in order to complete the vast majority of courses. With these assignments comes many questions concerning technical protocol (spacing, margins, fonts, and the like). Attention to these necessities can make the writing assignment an anxious and arduous experience. Students are also expected to comply with various guidelines or styles, and while they can add an element of complexity to the written paper, each of these styles has its own handbook designed to assist the writer with their project. For the student’s convenience, The Pick has provided the following resources, which comprise the three most common writing manuals:

MLA: Modern Language Association, most notably used by students of literary studies.

CMS: Chicago Manual of Style, also utilized in publishing and other literary concentrations, as well as history and the arts.

APA: American Psychological Association, chiefly used in social and behavioral sciences.

Help is on the Way!

The Writing Center at Southeastern Louisiana University is a resource center dedicated to the writing needs, concerns, and interests of students. The Writing Center provides a range of services including one-on-one consultations (both in person and online), writing workshops, a speaker series, instructional handouts, student publications, and computer assistance. Located in Dvickers 210 and staffed by Graduate and Work Study students, the main goal of the Center is to foster a culture of writing across the University's curriculum.

There is no charge for the services offered in the Writing Center beyond the tuition fees students pay each semester. Please feel free to drop by, make an appointment, and grab a cup of coffee!