The Writing Place
The Writing Place is Northwestern’s center for peer writing consultations.
Whether you are writing a paper for a class, composing application letters and essays, or working on some other writing project, a Writing Place consultant can help you at any stage of the writing process, from talking about ideas to developing a plan to revising and editing a draft.
Consultations are free and available to anyone in the Northwestern community: undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, or staff.
Writing About Design History
For those new to design history (and for general inspiration for everyone) discipline-specific guides to art research and writing about design can be very useful. Here are a few, and places to find more:
Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism by Call Number: Art Library 745.4 D4572Victor Margolin gathers together a body of new writing in the emerging field of design studies. The contributors argue in different ways for a rethinking of design in light of its cultural significance and its powerful position in today's society.
A Short Guide to Writing about Art by Call Number: Art Library 709 B261s 2003One of the most classic texts on writing about art. Though geared toward fine art or visual art objects, those writing about design objects will be well served by this guide as well.
Citation Management
To help you keep track of the citations you find for articles, books, and images while you're researching, and to help you integrate the citations into your papers, footnotes, and bibliographies while you're writing, the library supports two citation management tools, EndNote and Zotero.
- WorkshopsLibrary workshops on using EndNote, Zotero, can be found on the main library workshops calendar.
- EndNoteEndNote is a subscription software program designed to store and manipulate bibliographic information (your citations). This link takes you to Northwestern University Libraries' full guide to using EndNote.
- ZoteroZotero is a free bibliographic manager for your citations that is usable with through your computer's web browser. This link takes you to Northwestern University Libraries' full guide to using Zotero.
Style Manuals
The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed.Call Number: Art Library Reference Desk 655.2 C53 2010Art History's preferred style manual describes recommended nuances of grammar and writing style and shows the preferred formats for footnotes and bibliographies.
- Chicago Manual of Style Online, 16th ed.The full text of the Chicago Manual of Style is also available to Northwestern library users online.
Citing and Plagiarism
- The Office of the Provost's Guide to Academic Integrity"Academic Integrity: A Basic Guide" governs academic integrity for all students and faculty at Northwestern. There are four main sections of the Guide:
- Principles Regarding Academic Integrity
- Eight Cardinal Rules of Academic Integrity
- Counseling and Contacts
- How to Avoid Plagiarism - Weinberg College's page on Academic IntegrityThis page states that "Plagiarism includes more than just copying someone’s work. Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source." The brochure "Academic Integrity: A Basic Guide" [see above] contains a discussion of the proper citation of sources ["How to Avoid Plagiarism"]. Northwestern's Writing Place provides more tips for avoiding plagiarism."