Writing Skills

Department Writing Center

• Location: Yolo 224 or Yolo 234
• Hours:
• Writing Center Assistant: Mary Carmen Rosales and Anita Joule

The 20 Most Common Writing Errors

• 20 Most Common Errors (of College Student Writers, from Andrea Lunsford's EasyWriter 3rd Edition)

Evaluating Information and Its Sources

• This link, from our campus library, will help you test whether information is accurate and reliable. It is known as the CRAAP Test (for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose of an information source)

Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

• This page contains Chico State's Writing Center's tutorial on how to avoid plagiarism; it also contains a link to the university's official policy on academic integrity

APA Format (American Psychological Association Format)

• How to Use These APA Links Below (Short Video/Demo Orientation of The Links in This Box)

APA Support Resources

• APA Reference Guide (PDF Document)
• SampleStutdent Research Paper Formatted in APA Style (PDF Document, Source D. Hacker, 2004)
• Purdue's "APA Formatting and Style Guide" Site (Helpful APA Links Are at the Bottom of the Page)
• CSU, Chico's Meriam Library's "Citation Formats & Style Manuals" Link (Includes Two APA Links)

Template for APA Reference List Citations

• APA Reference List Citation Template (MS Word Document, A "How To Use" Video Is Linked Below)
  
• How to Use the Citation Template (A Simple Tool to Help You Format Your References)

Short APA Instructional Videos/Demos (2-7 minutes each)

Overviews

• APA Reference Citation Overview
• In-Text Citations (Citing Sources in the Body of Your Paper)
• APA Reference List Overview

Specific Types of References

• Citing Books in the Reference List
• Citing Articles in the Reference List

Special Cases in Reference Citation

• Citing Sources Without an Author
• Citing Secondary (Indirect) Sources (Something You Read Discussed Another Person's Work)
• Citing Personal Communications (Interviews, Telephone Calls, Etc.)

Paper Appearance

• Appearance of an APA-Formatted Paper (Beyond References)