Academic Cover Letters

When you're applying for a faculty position with a college or university, the cover letter is your first chance to make a strong impression as a promising researcher and teacher. Below you'll find some strategies for presenting your qualifications effectively in an academic context.

Purdue University (1998). Careers>Resumes>Cover Letters

Action Verbs to Describe Skills, Jobs, and Accomplishments in Employment Documents

These are some words commonly used to describe your skills on your resume.

Purdue University (2004). Careers>Resumes>Glossary

Avoiding Plagiarism

Academic writing in American institutions is filled with rules that writers often don’t know how to follow. A working knowledge of these rules, however, is critically important; inadvertent mistakes can lead to charges of plagiarism, or the unacknowledged use of somebody else’s words or ideas. While other cultures may not insist so heavily on documenting sources, American institutions do. A charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from the university. This handout, which does not reflect any official university policy, is designed to help writers develop strategies for knowing how to avoid accidental plagiarism.

Purdue University (1997). Academic>Writing>Ethics>Plagiarism

Business Letters: Accentuating the Positives

Your letters will be more successful if you focus on positive wording rather than negative, simply because most people respond more favorably to positive ideas than negative ones. Words that affect your reader positively are likely to produce the response you desire in letter-writing situations. A positive emphasis will  persuade the reader and create goodwill. In contrast, negative words may generate resistance and other unfavorable reactions. You should therefore be careful to avoid words with negative connotations. These words either deny--for example, NO, DO NOT, REFUSE, and STOP--or convey unhappy or unpleasant associations--for example, UNFORTUNATELY, UNABLE TO, CANNOT, MISTAKE, PROBLEM, ERROR, DAMAGE, LOSS, and FAILURE.

Purdue University (2000). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence

Business Writing

ENGL 420 teaches students the rhetorical principles and writing practices necessary for producing effective business letters, memos, reports, and collaborative projects in professional contexts. The curriculum is informed by current research in rhetoric and professional writing and is guided by the needs of business, industry, and society at large, as well as by the needs of Purdue students and programs.

Clark, Tracy. Purdue University (2003). Academic>Courses>Writing>Business Communication

Conducting a Productive Web Search

There are two main types of indexes: those that are hierarchical (i.e. that lead one from a general topic to a more specific one) and those that list sources in some sort of order (most commonly alphabetical).  The first type of index often contains a broad range of topics while the second are usually sources designed to address a particular topic or concern.

Purdue University (1998). Academic>Course Materials>Online>Search

Conquering the Comma  

This presentation introduces your students to the rules of comma usage, including placement in compound sentences, after introductory elements, with dependent phrases and clauses, around non-essential elements, in a series, and with adjectives. This presentation also covers methods for avoiding a common comma error--the comma splice. This presentation is ideal for the beginning of a composition course, the assignment of a writing project, or as a refresher presentation for grammar usage.

Liethen, Jennifer Kunka. Purdue University. Presentations>Slideshows>Style Guides>Grammar

Cross-Referencing: Using MLA Format  

This presentation teaches your students the purposes of MLA documentation, as well as methods for using parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page. This presentation is an important addition for the beginning of a research unit in a humanities course or any assignment that requires MLA documentation.

Liethen, Jennifer Kunka. Purdue University. Academic>Course Materials

Developing an Outline

An outline is: a logical, general description; aschematic summary; an organizational pattern; a visual and conceptual design of your writing. An outline reflects logical thinking and clear classification.

Purdue University (1997). Academic>Writing

Developing Your Resume  

This sixty-one slide presentation takes job seekers through a comprehensive interactive workshop about the drafting and desigining of their resume sections, including the contact information, the objective statement, the education section, the experience section, and the honors and activities section.

Kopp, Bryan M. Purdue University (1997). Careers>Resumes

Documenting Electronic Sources

The Internet is a widely used tool for research, but unfortunately, style manuals contain little information on how to document electronic sources. This page contains links to sources which will help students, teachers, and anybody doing research on the Internet to cite such sources using different styles. Some links come from 'Cyber Citations,' an article by Michael A. Arnzen, which appeared in Internet World in September 1996. Some of the addresses were no longer current and are updated here, and many more have been added.

Purdue University. Reference>Style Guides>Research

Documenting Sources: Using APA Format  

This presentation reviews the purposes of APA documentation, as well as methods for effectively using parenthetical citations and a reference page. This presentation is ideal for the beginning of a research unit in a science course or any assignment that requires APA documentation.

Liethen, Jennifer Kunka. Purdue University. Presentations>Slideshows>Writing

Advanced Professional Writing

This course is designed for undergraduates and graduates interested in the professional writing and publishing of both print based and electronic documents. Through a variety of projects, we will cover advanced theories of document design, web-based publishing, educational media, information delivery, and multimedia production. The course is designed so that students will have opportunities to work on both electronic and print based projects.

Bay, Jennifer. Purdue University (2003). Academic>Courses>Writing>Business Communication

Evaluating Sources of Information

We live in an information age. The quantity of information available is so staggeringly huge that we cannot know everything about a subject. For example, it's estimated that anyone attempting to research what's known about depression would have to read over 100,000 studies on the subject. And there's the problem of trying to decide which studies have produced reliable results.

Purdue University. Academic>Research>Assessment

Eye on Color

Each day, thousands of websites lose credibility and all-important return traffic -- not because they're poorly written, constructed, designed, or advertised, but because of: colors that clash colors that camouflage colors that just plain don't work! Attention to color on the web is generally considered the province of web-design professionals -- but those of us who study and teach professional writing are in a prime position to use our knowledge and skills to lead the way toward a more aesthetically-pleasing, and rhetorically-effective, World Wide Web

Clark, Tracy. Purdue University (2003). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Color

Finding Your Focus: The Writing Process  

This presentation acquaints your students with the steps that constitute the writing process, including strategies for brainstorming, drafting, revising, and proofreading. This presentation would work well for the beginning of a composition course or the assignment of a writing project in any class.

Liethen, Jennifer Kunka. Purdue University (1998). Presentations>Slideshows>Rhetoric

Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation

A guide on punctuation, capitals, spelling, sentence construction and parts of speech.

Purdue University (1998). Reference>Style Guides>Grammar

Organizing Your Argument  

This presentation reviews the elements of an organized essay, including the introduction, the thesis, body paragraphs, topic sentences, counterarguments, and the conclusion. The twenty-one slides presented here are designed to aid the facilitator in an interactive presentation about constructing a well-organized argument. This presentation is ideal for the introduction of argument to a composition course, the beginning of a research unit, or the assignment of a written argument.

Liethen, Jennifer Kunka. Purdue University. Presentations>Slideshows>Writing

Professional Writing Mentoring

The main objective of this practicum is to encourage your pedagogical, technical, and professional development.

Romberger, Julia and Kate Agena. Purdue University (2003). Academic>Courses>Graduate>Education

Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing

This handout is intended to help you become more comfortable with the uses of and distinctions among quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. The first part of the handout compares and contrasts the terms, while the second part offers a short excerpt that you can use to practice these skills.

Purdue University. Academic>Writing