Writing & Citing in Engineering: Research & Writing Tools

Research and Writing Help

MU Writing Center

Research Consultation: a free one-on-one session with a librarian

Evaluating Information

The craft of scientific presentations : critical steps to succeed and critical errors to avoid

A Guide to writing as an Engineer

Writing for Science

Enjoy writing your science thesis or dissertation

Dissertation Timeline Calculator  (developed at the University of Minnesota)
This tool breaks down the dissertation process into manageable deadlines and provides your with important resources and advice.  

ProQuest and Ebsco databases will also format the citations for you when you save or print them.

Citation Builders

• ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers (Citation Builder)
• ASME/IEEE (Citation Builder)

Information on common styles, with examples, for:

• MLA
• APA
• Chicago

Engineering Guides

• ACM References
• ASCE Authors’ Guide (pdf)--Chapter 5 covers citation info in depth, beginning on p. 29.
• ACS Style Guide
• ASME Style Guide
• ASTM Standards
• IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors
• MAE Citation Guide

• More Science guides (ACS, etc)

• Citation Style Guides

Web-based personal citation databases and bibliography creators:

• Endnote
• Zotero
• Mendeley

Import, store, and share research citations and automatically format bibliographies into whatever style needed (APA, MLA, Chicago, and many more)

Libx Toolbar

• LibX is a browser plugin for Firefox that provides direct access to your library's resources from any web page. A plugin for the Chrome browser should be available later this year.

Alerts in Databases

• Save searches to run at a future date
• Set up Auto Alerts (a saved search that is run whenever the database is updated; the results are emailed to you).

Alerts in MERLIN for Books/DVDs