LibGuides: International Student Guide to Using MPAL: Writing Resources

Introduction to Writing Resources

This page collects resources for improving your writing skills and getting answers to your writing questions.

The Getting Help box collects resources both on campus and online to help you navigate grammar rules, study skills, and the writing process.
Guides to Writing About Music provides links to books in the Library that offer instruction, examples, and tips for writing about music in an academic context.
If you have questions about citing your sources and avoiding plagiarism, make sure you check out the next tab of this guide!

Remember, if you need help conducting research, ask a librarian! If you're struggling with the writing process, you can always visit one of the Writers Workshop locations on campus and someone will be glad to help you.

Getting Help

Writers Workshop
The Writers Workshop contributes to the intellectual and creative activities of the University of Illinois by providing support for all writers in the campus community—undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctorates, faculty, and staff—via writing consultations, writing groups and writing retreats, and workshops and presentations throughout the academic year.
UIUC Center for Writing Studies
The Center for Writing Studies is an interdisciplinary academic unit at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that facilitates research and promotes graduate study in the areas of written composition, language, literacy, and rhetoric.

OWL: Purdue Online Writing Lab
This site includes information on everything from the writing process to basic grammar rules to citation guidelines.
Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms
The Dictionary of Idioms contains idiomatic words and phrases, slang terms, figures of speech, common proverbs and metaphors, each clearly defined and illustrated with at least one sample sentence or quotation.
Harvard College Writing Center: Strategies for Essay Writing
Includes guides to various aspects of writing academic essays. It leads student writers through the different steps of the academic writing process, featuring guides on topics from how to read an assignment prompt, to brainstorming ideas, to writing a thesis, to outlining.

ESL Programs
The UIUC Department of Linguistics offers several English as a Second Language (ESL) and Service Programs throughout the year.
ESL Tutors from the Linguistics Department
The Linguistics Department also keeps a list of approved tutors--people with degrees and/or extensive experience working with ESL learners--that are available to set up appointments with ESL students.
UIUC International Student and Scholar Services
International Student and Scholar Services provides support and resource recommendations for international students through advising, immigration services, programming, advocacy, and outreach

Guides to Writing About Music

Writing about Music by D. Kern Holoman
Call Number: Online Resource
Extending the principles devised for the classical repertoires, this revised edition includes examples from world music, rock, jazz, popular music, and cinema. This essential volume covers some of the thorniest issues of musical discourse: how to go about describing musical works and procedures in prose, the rules for citations in notes and bibliography, and proper preparation of such materials as musical examples, tables, and illustrations.
Writing about Music by Richard Wingell
Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating ML3797 W56W72002
Writing About Music offers practical advice and guidance to help students master the special skills needed to write about this most-elusive of arts. The text serves as a guide for each phase in the process of researching and writing a paper on a musical topic, and preparing for other projects such as seminar presentations, concert reports, program notes and essay examinations.
How to Write About Music: the RILM Manual of Style by James R. Cowdery, editor
Call Number: Online Resource
The manual addresses a multitude of special problems faced by writers on music–problems rarely solved by general writing guides. Detailed guidelines are provided for the bibliographic handling of standard print, audiovisual, and electronic sources, as well as specialized ones such as program notes, liner notes, and music videos. Third Edition (older editions available in print).
A Guide to Library Research in Music by Pauline Shaw Bayne; Edward Komara
Call Number: Online Resource
A Guide to Library Research in Music introduces the process and techniques for researching and writing about music. It provides examples of different types of writing; offers a thorough introduction to music literature; describes various information-searching methods and library-based organizational systems; and explores the wide array of music resources.