Types of Writing
As you've probably learned by now, writing isn't just one thing, one activity. Writers write for a variety of purposes, for a variety of audiences, and within a variety of genres. This section of our handout website is meant to help you work within some of the most common and most complicated genres you'll likely face in and out of college. We've grouped these handouts into academic writing and professional writing.
The Career Center offers helpful advice for resume and cover letter writing. Click here to check out their website.
Academic writing includes essays like the ones you may be asked to write in your courses, including response essays, writing about literature, abstracts, and lab reports, as well as those writing tasks related to the academy, like the personal statements you'll write if you apply for graduate/professional school or if you apply for a scholarship.
- Academic Critiques
- Annotated Bibliographies
- Engineering Writing (links to Purdue's OWL)
- Personal Statements
- Medical Writing (links to Purdue's OWL)
- Scholarship Applications
Professional writing includes writing that you're likely to do when you're looking for a career. Here we include information about resumes, cover letters, and professional communication like memos.
