Who writes here
Everything published on this site is written by me, Arlene McCoy. There are no contributors and no ghost-written posts. My background is set out on the education and experience page so that you can judge what I am qualified to say and where you should look elsewhere.
Where the guidance comes from
Advice here has three sources, and I try to keep them distinguishable in the text.
- Convention. Citation rules, formatting requirements, and the standard expectations of assignment types. These come from the relevant style manuals and from published institutional guidance.
- Research. Claims about how people read, learn, write, or revise. These are drawn from published work and cited where the claim carries weight.
- Experience. What I have observed helps students in practice. This is the largest category and I mark it as experience rather than dressing it as evidence.
What this site does not do
This is an educational resource. It does not write, edit, or supply work for academic submission, and it does not review student drafts. Where I mention my professional work, including for EssayPay, it is disclosed as such and never presented as neutral recommendation.
Review and updating
Every guide and article carries the date it was last reviewed. Cornerstone guides are reviewed at least annually and immediately after a relevant style manual is revised. Shorter articles are reviewed when a linked source changes, when a reader raises a problem, or on the annual pass.
A review means I re-read the piece against current guidance, check that the links still resolve, and confirm the examples still work. If a review changes the substance of what the piece says, that is a correction and is handled under the corrections policy.
Accuracy
Where advice varies by institution or discipline, I say so rather than presenting one convention as universal. Where I am uncertain, I say that too. Confident writing about uncertain matters is the failure mode I most want to avoid here, because students are reasonably inclined to trust a page that sounds sure.
Independence
Nothing on this site is paid placement. No third party pays to appear in an article, and links to external work are included because they are relevant, not because of any commercial arrangement. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on the page itself.