On-Line Resources

• New Library Materials

Grammar

• Various grammar activities for Prep English students from the West Campus CSSC
• Grammar presentations, interactive practice exercises, and help pages for basic writing skills
• Grammar Bytes! An awesome grammar site from Valencia’s own Prof. Robin Simmons

Writing

• Discusses the writing process and sentence/paragraph structure
• An excellent resource for information on writing assignments, the writing process, and writing mechanics
• Tips on how to read and understand an academic writing assignment
• 12 Common Errors: An Editing Checklist
• Proofreading, Editing and Revising
• Strategies for improving sentence clarity
• Presentations, speeches, and Powerpoint tutorials with templates and more

Speech

• Developing and Delivering a Presentation
  

Reading

• Various skills practice for Prep Reading students
• Practice distinguishing fact and opinion
• Use CNN news articles to practice various reading comprehension skills
  

Computer Skills

• Microsoft Word 2007 Command Reference Guide
• Microsoft Word 2007 Solutions Center

Study Skills

• Virginia Tech’s study skills self-help information

Competency Exams

• Professor Chauncey Parker discusses “How to Write a 5-Paragraph Essay.” This 47 minute video provides valuable advice on preparing to write timed essays for the Prep English II and Freshman Composition competency exams. You will need headphones to listen to this presentation.
• On-line Prep English II Florida Basic Skills practice test.
• Sample essay prompts for the essay portion of the Prep English II competency exam.

EAP

• Interesting things for ESL students
• Dave Sperling’s ESL Café features help with idioms and phrasal verbs as well as an assortment of quizzes.

CPT

• Reading and Sentence Skills (English) practice for the CPT

Research and Documentation

• Covers all stages of research, parts of a paper, and presentations
• A step-by-step approach to writing a research paper
• Plagiarism prevention
• Official MLA website
• MLA style and documentation
• Official APA website
• Site with guidelines for correct APA citations
• Duke University’s Libraries’ Guide to Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism:
  Documentation Guidelines
• Diana Hacker’s Research and Documentation On-Line, includes sample MLA and APA papers
• How to take notes from research reading

Dictionaries and Thesauruses

• Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary and thesaurus, plus fun word games
• On-line dictionary
• Includes dictionaries of idioms and phrasal verbs
• Great books on-line including the American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition, and Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus

All of the Above

• ESL, general writing concerns, and grammar information and activities

College Admissions and Scholarship Essays

• This website is devoted entirely to the college admission essays and helping you write the most effective essays to gain admission into your top-choice colleges
• How to write a winning scholarship essay

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