Writing Centre and Academic Communications
WHO - Writing Help Online
What study guides are available?
Writing Help Online (WHO) is a free, online study guide program designed to help improve your writing skills.
WHO, which runs through Brightspace, is organized into study guides on particular writing topics.
Most study guides have three levels:
- Level One
This level presents the requirements for such writing topics as what makes an effective thesis statement.
- Level Two
In this level, complete a study guide assessment. Answer true/false, multiple choice, and comparison questions to apply knowledge of the topic from Level One.
- Level Three
Here, complete a final study guide assessment. Submit an example of the topic from Levels One and Two to the Writing Centre and receive individual feedback, which explains how well you are applying the information from all three levels.
What study guides are available?
The program includes study guides in the following areas:
- Academic Writing
Thesis Statements, Introductions, Paragraphs, Conclusions, and Transitions
- Science Writing
Project Proposals, Reviewing Scientific Articles, and Lab Reports (Titles, Abstracts, Introductions, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion Sections, Conclusions, Appendices, and Writing Strategies)
- Business Writing
Subject Lines, Business Paragraphs, Pre-Writing Strategies, Tone, Transitions, and Case Analysis (Case Analysis Overview, Problem Definition, Introduction/Executive Summary, Environmental Analysis, Suggested Solutions and Alternatives, Recommendations, and Action Plans)
- Grammar and Punctuation
What is a Sentence? (Subjects and Predicates), Types of Clauses, Run-on Sentences, Comma Splices, Commas, Colons, Semicolons, Apostrophes, Subject-Verb Agreement, Noun-Pronoun Agreement, and Sentence Fragments
Study guides can also be designed and adapted upon request. For more information, please click here.
The examples used in the study guides are, for the most part, academic, so that students see how the information they are learning works in an academic context. Thus, rather than reading informal examples, such as “Suzie went to school,” students read academic examples, such as “Shields’ work raises questions of writing and narrative form.”
Rather than trying to understand all the elements and conventions of writing at once, students work on specific elements of writing in short, focused study guides.
Students work through study guides with increasing levels of interactivity. This process allows them to apply their skills in increasingly comprehensive ways.
WHO was developed at Saint Mary’s University, so it can be supplemented and adapted to incorporate feedback and to meet instructor requests.
For more information, please contact
Amanda Saoud, WHO Coordinator
who@smu.ca | 902-491-6203