Directed Learning Activities

A directed learning activity (DLA) is a set of exercises a student completes in order to improve a specific writing or grammatical skill. DLAs are great because they cut to the chase of the issue you want to work on; there is nothing in a DLA unrelated to what you want to improve.

Students looking to improve specific areas of their writing should consider the Writing Center's DLAs. Some students also may be asked by their professors to come to the Writing Center to complete specific DLAs.

Once you've decided which DLA to work on, simply print out the information (see below) for the DLA you've chosen and begin. If you prefer, you can complete your work on the Word document, or if you come into the Center to complete your DLA, we can provide all the materials for you. Some DLA activities can be completed entirely from home, while others will require you to use some of the software in the Writing Center. If your DLA requires you to use our software, just remember to check our hours before coming in.

Once all activities in a DLA are complete, you will meet with a Writing Center tutor to make sure that you're on the right track. You can either schedule an appointment with a Writing Center tutor (at the WC Online website) or come into the Writing Center and place your name on the DLA Walk-In List in our computer lab. The tutor will look over your work and review any parts of the activities that might be improved. Please note that both the activities and meeting with a tutor are required to complete a DLA; not one or the other.

Current list of DLAs, organized by category

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DLA titles	Supplementary links	Recommended for AMLA 70 & 80 courses	Recommended for AMLA 90 &  English 1A/80	General Paragraph and Essay Writing Skills	Recommended for English 1A and 1C	Recommended for Paralegal Courses
Academic Writing Don'ts DLA				x	x
Adjective Clauses DLA		x	x
Ambiguous Pronoun Reference DLA		x	x
American Psychological Association (APA)					x
Analysis vs. Summary				x	x
Analytical vs. Persuasive Thesis Statements DLA	Thesis PowerPoint			x	x
Annotated Bibliography DLA					x
Apostrophes & Possessives DLA	Apostrophes & Possessives PowerPoint	x	x
Articles DLA		x	x
Avoiding Plagiarism DLA	Avoiding Plagiarism PowerPoint		x	x	x
Basic Sentence Patterns DLA		x	x
California Case Citation Yellow Book DLA						x
California Case Citation Blue Book DLA						x
Capitalization DLA		x	x
Comma Splices and Run-ons DLA		x	x
Comma Usage DLA		x
Conclusions DLA	Sticks and Stones and Not Too Rich/Thin			x	x
Conditionals DLA		x
Connotation and Denotation		x
Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers DLA			x
Dictionary Skills		x
Editing out "To Be" Verbs DLA				x	x
Evaluating Websites DLA			x	x	x
Fragments DLA		x	x
Future Tenses DLA		x	x
Gerunds & Infinitives		x	x
Identifying Logical Fallacies DLA					x
Integrating Sources DLA	Psychology Today Article				x
Introduction to California Case Citation DLA						x
Introductions DLA	Introductory Paragraph Handout			x	x
Modals & Similar Expressions		x
MLA, 8th Edition DLA				x	x
Narrative and Descriptive Paragraphs		x	x
Outlining the Essay DLA	Weight Lifting 101 Samples			x	x
Paragraph Development (MEAL Plan) DLA				x
Parallelism DLA				x	x
Participial Adjectives DLA		x
Parts of Speech DLA		x	x
Past Perfect & Past Perfect Progressive Tenses DLA		x
Passive Voice			x
Past Tenses DLA		x
Prepositions DLA		x	x
Present Perfect & Present Perfect Progressive Tenses DLA		x
Present Tenses DLA		x
Pronoun Agreement DLA	Pronoun Agreement PowerPoint		x
Reduced Adjective Clauses DLA		x
Reduced Adverb Clauses		x
Reverse Outlining DLA	Maybe You Shouldn't The World of Photography		x	x	x
Subject-Verb Agreement DLA		x	x
Summary Skills for Academic Writing DLA	Six Tips for a Healthy Spring Break			x
Thesaurus Skills DLA		x
Thesis Statement DLA	Thesis Statement PowerPoint		x	x	x
Toulmin Argument Part 1					x
Transitions DLA				x	x
United States Code Citation						x
Verb Tense Shifts DLA		x	x
Word Forms DLA		x

 

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