Resources for Cadets

This page offers a collection of resources to help you recognize what right looks like. Click through guides on every step of the writing process, written by experts at top universities. Or, stay closer to home: the page also features a series of writer guides authored by Cadet Writing Fellows. These guides are for cadets by cadets--about writing at West Point. 

The MWC offers one-on-one consultations during afternoons and evenings. Get individualized feedback on any academic, professional, or personal writing project.

Have a question about Signature Writing Events or other elements of the WPWP? Check out our Guide for Cadets. 

Writing Guides by and for Cadets

• Fighting Procrastination
• Overcoming Writer's Block
• Writing & Play

     Especially useful for enhancing substance and organization.

• College Essays
• Conclusions
• Generating Arguments
• Outlining Arguments
• Research Questions
• Reverse Outlines
• Signposting 101
• Thesis Windtunneling

     For more effective style, mechanics, and documentation.

• Elevating Your Style
• Chicago Citations
• Opening Sentences
• Passive Voice
• Effective Repetition

     For writing in the humanities and social sciences. 

• History (Approaches)
• History (Initial Research)
• History (Research Questions)
• Philosophy (Short Papers)
• Social Sciences (Using Sources)
• Literature (Analyzing Prompts)

     For STEM communication.

• Lab Report Basics
• Scientific Storytelling
• Technical Abstracts
• Technical Report Basics
• Tone in Lab Reports

     For professional communication.

• Goal-Oriented Communication     

     For Writing Center consultants and teaching professionals.

• The Teaching Tree
• Counseling in the Writing Center

General Resources

• How to Read an Assignment (Harvard)
• Elements of the Academic Essay (Harvard)

Argument & Pre-Writing

• Brainstorming (UNC)
• Outlining (Harvard)
• Argument (UNC)
• Developing a Thesis (Harvard)
• Audience (UNC)
• Evidence (UNC)

Organization & Structure

• Essay Structure (Harvard)
• Paragraph Development (UNC)
• Reverse Outlining (UNC; video)
• Topic Sentences and Signposting (Harvard)
• Transitioning (Harvard)
• How to Write a Comparative Analysis (Harvard)
• Conclusions (Harvard)
• Conclusions (UNC)
• Introductions (UNC)

Style

• Passive Voice (UNC)
• Passive Voice Demo (UNC; video)
• Flow (UNC; video)
• Style (UNC)

Mechanics & Documentation

• Verb Tenses (UNC)
• Commas (UNC)
• Conciseness (UNC)
• Fragments and Run-ons (UNC)
• Quotations (UNC)
• Semi-Colons, Colons, and Dashes (UNC)

Citation

• How We Cite (UNC; video)
• Purdue OWL (Purdue)
• Documentation and Acknowledgement of Academic Works (DAAW) USMA RESOURCE

Revision

• Editing and Proofreading (UNC)

Genres & Writing-in-the-Disciplines (WiD)

• Science Laboratory Analysis Manual (SLAM) USMA RESOURCE
• Technical Communications Guide USMA RESOURCE
• History (UNC)
• Fiction (UNC)
• Poetry (UNC)
• Political Science (UNC)
• Philosophy (UNC)
• Writing in the Disciplines Guide (Harvard)
• Intelligence Writing WPWP RESOURCE

Looking for more?

A wide range of writing guides on almost any subject or genre, concerning every stage of the writing process, are available at:

• the University of Michigan’s Sweetland Center for Writing
• the George Mason University Writing Center
• the Writing Studio at Vanderbilt University
• the Purdue University Online Writing Lab
• the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
• the University Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin
• Examples of model student papers from Yale and the University of Michigan
• Sites we recommend to faculty
• Baruch College Writing Center's “Writers Teaching Writers” blog