UW-Madison students can visit The Writing Center for an individual appointment. If you’ve been writing in the spaces provided in the guided brainstorming exercise, you’re already on the way to a draft of your essay. Just email your writing to yourself, print it out, and bring it in when you come in for your appointment.…
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Before you begin: useful tips for writing your essay
Before you start writing, keep these principles in mind: Less is more That is, you have a lot you could say, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should try to say everything. Be selective. Organize your essay around a unifying theme rather than merely listing your accomplishments. Give good examples and explanations Try to…
Frequently Asked Questions
**Important note: Expectations for application essays vary widely. The answers below are meant to give some general guidelines, but may not be applicable to the particular program to which you are applying. Is it all right to use the first person? In most cases it’s essential. The application essay is about you and what you…
Additional Resources about Grants and Grant Writing
This page provides a brief overview of some of the resources available through the Grants Information Collection at UW–Madison’s Memorial Library in addition to some other resources for writers working on grant proposals. Grants Information Collection For current students, faculty, and staff at UW–Madison, this collection at the Memorial Library is a great resource for…
Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The Basics
Grant Proposal Writing is Exciting, Imaginative Work So, you want to write a grant proposal? This is exciting! This means that you have valuable research to do or a particular nonprofit to build or a community resource you’re passionate about developing. You have a distinct vision for how something could be improved or advanced, and…
Writing a Summary or Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts
Academic writers across all disciplines analyze texts. They summarize and critique published articles, evaluate papers’ arguments, and reflect on essays. In order to do these things, they have to read complex texts carefully and understand them clearly. This page is about how you can read and analyze nonfiction texts. When you’ve read a text well,…
How to Review a Play
Preparing to Write a Play Review Below are some tips to help you prepare to write a play review: The Nature of the Assignment Because the performance of any play is such an ephemeral experience, writing a play review can be an exciting, though difficult, task. You have to be both spectator taking in and…
Using Literary Quotations
Use the guidelines below to learn how to use literary quotations. For further information, check out Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Acknowledging Sources, or you may wish to see when the Writing Center is next offering its workshop entitled Intro to Literary Analysis. Incorporating Quotations As you choose quotations for a literary analysis, remember the purpose of…
A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis
Use the guidelines below to learn about the practice of close reading. Overview When your teachers or professors ask you to analyze a literary text, they often look for something frequently called close reading. Close reading is deep analysis of how a literary text works; it is both a reading process and something you include…
How to Read a Poem
Use the guidelines below to learn how to read a poem and understand it. Read with a pencil Examine the basic subject of the poem Consider the context of the poem Study the form of the poem Look at the word choice of the poem Finishing Up Read with a pencil Read a poem with…