English study (general) - web resources

http://learnerdictionary.com/pronex/pronex.htm Practising pronunciation

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/ Learning words from different topics by picture

http://www.curriculumassociates.com/professional-development/topics/Six-Traits-Writing/objectives.htm Six Traits of Writing

http://www.elllo.org/ Listening exercises at various levels—extra practise

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/index.htm There are good reading exercises (by level)

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ OWL has some of the best grammar resources

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/678/01/ They also have some resources that specifically target ESL needs

English grammar and punctuation - web resources

Comprehensive Grammar Guide from Capital Community College Foundation

Conquering the Comma – PowerPoint slides from Purdue University Writing Lab, dealing with clauses, sentence structure and commas

PowerPoint Presentations on common grammar errors from Capital Community College Foundation

English Page - grammar tutorials and exercises

Self Study Grammar Quizzes from the Internet TESOL Journal

NASA handbook for technical writers and editors.
Everything you probably never wanted to know about grammar and punctuation - 101 riveting pages of grammar!

Online Writing Lab at Purdue University. Includes strategies for improving your writing and focuses on both larger issues and sentence and word level issues

Proofreading for Common Surface Errors: Spelling, punctuation, and grammar from Indiana University

English writing - web resources

Academic Writing

General

The Writing Centre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A very comprehensive site for writing, grammar and referencing help

Charles Sturt University - An introductory tutorial on academic writing

Academic Phrasebank - Lists of suitable phrases for tasks such as referring to the literature, reporting results and discussing findings (compiled by Manchester University)

Science Specific

Scientific Writing Booklet (pdf)
A very comprehensive guide to scientific report writing covering the structure of scientific reports, the writing process and referencing, from the University of Arizona Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Physics

Scitext Cambridge
The principles of writing a scientific document

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students - edited by Penn State and Virginia Tech.

Literature Reviews

Central Queensland University – This website has detailed tutorials and video presentations of academics in different faculties discussing literature reviews.

University of Canberra
A short guide to writing a literature review

University of Toronto
A list of questions to ask when searching for and evaluating sources for a literature review

University of North Carolina
Quite detailed guidelines for structuring and writing a literature review

Thesis Writing

Australasian Digital Theses Program
A database of digital versions of theses, which, as of April 1 2008, contained 23,634 theses. La Trobe University students can publish their theses to this database.

NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations)
Searchable databases containing hundreds of thousands of theses and dissertations from around the world

Index to Theses
A database of over half a million theses accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireleand since 1716

University of Melbourne
Pamphlets on various aspects of thesis writing and links to other useful websites

University of Canberra
Institute for Applied Ecology - Notes on Writing Theses and Papers

University of NSW
How to Write a PhD thesis by Joe Wolfe, School of Physiscs. A little dated (1996) but is a concise overview of some important considerations when writing a thesis

Monash University
Brief guidelines on thesis writing

Scholarly Abbreviations

Latin words and abbreviations are becoming less common in academic writing; however, a number of important terms are still widely used in scientific writing and it is important to understand them and to use them correctly. These Latin abbreviations are often written in italics, but style guides and journals have their own house rules.

Most commonly used and confused

i.e. (Latin = id est) “that is, that is to say”

Data on sex determination suggest that this species has only two sexual genotypes i.e. female XX) and male(XY).

e.g. (Latin = exempli gratia) “for example”

Several of the plots (e.g., Plots 4 and 9) showed evidence of nutrient deficiency.

Note - don't forget the full stop after each of these two abbreviations. A comma normally follows both abbreviations and then the specific items are given, but this can depend on the style guide or journal that you are following.

Other abbreviations you may find in your reading

ad hoc - “for this particular purpose”

The initial experimental method was very ad hoc as these variables had never before been tested in an ecologically valid setting.

ad libitum - “freely”

The pigs were housed in holding pens and food and water was available ad libitum.

a priori - “from cause to effect”

If we use a priori reasoning we would argue that the noise must have been loud because the animals were startled.

a posteriori - “from what comes after”

If we use a posteriori reasoning we would argue that the animals were startled because the noise was loud.

c. or ca. (Latin = circa) - “about”

The specimens dated from c. 1250.

cf. (Latin = confer) - “compare”

The data differed significantly between the experiments (cf. Table 6 and Table 7).

et al. (Latin = et alii) - “and others.”

The tag is used in citations to indicate that there are three or more authors. Note: you must not use et al. when then there are only two authors.

Princeton et al. (1998) established a link between intoxication and alcohol.

etc. (Latin = et cetera) - “and so forth“

A number of crops (maize, rice, corn, rye etc.) are planted in the area.

N.B. (Latin = nota bene) - “note well“ (this abbreviation is generally not italicised)

Table 5 below presents the data from the feeding trials. (N.B. non significant data have been excluded.)

per diem - “each day“

The light regime was 8 hours light and 16 hours dark per diem.

per se - “of/in itself“

The argument is not convincing per se but in context it could be persuasive.

(Note: the bold type in this handout is used for emphasis. Consult the appropriate style guide for your composition.)

Source: latrobe.edu.au