The University Writing Center is located on the first floor of the Student Success Center. It is staffed by trained peer, graduate, and faculty tutors who offer free assistance with all types of academic and non-academic writing.
UWC tutors can help you brainstorm for ideas, narrow your focus, organize your ideas, shape your work for different audiences in different disciplines, incorporate and document your sources effectively, and develop your revision strategies. To schedule a tutoring session or browse online writing resources, visit www.jmu.edu/uwc.
Need an answer now? Check out the Online Writing Tips & Resources page https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/link-library/index.shtml
If you're new to writing about dance, or need some inspiration, the below books about dance research and writing might be helpful.
Writing a research paper or presentation for a class usually requires you to read various sources and synthesize what you learn from them into your project. Using ideas from other people's work in your work requires you to document or cite or reference the sources of the information you use. These citations or references will appear in the text of your paper or be mentioned in your presentation. You will also have to list the sources you rely on at the end of your paper or presentation slides.
There are many different ways to document or cite or reference the sources. These are called citation styles, and the professor who assigns a paper or presentation tells students which style they should use. Two common styles used when writing about the arts are Chicago (see the Chicago Manual of Style) and MLA (see the MLA Handbook).
Visit the JMU Libraries Citing Sources Guide for complete information about various style manuals as well as more information about citation management resources we offer like ZoteroBib and Zotero.