11 Rules of Writing - Concise guide to some of the most frequently violated rules of writing, punctuation, and grammar.
WordWizard - Portal for word lovers. Learn about word meanings, slang, quotations, insults, and famous authors. Wordwizard offers a round trip across the English language.
Bartleby.com: Strunk's Element of Style (1918) - For use in English courses in which the practice of composition is combined with the study of literature. It aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style.
Writing For Multimedia - Michael Butzgy's style guide for multimedia.
Cliche Finder - Special tool word-searches 3,300 cliches.
Cliche - List of 2000 English cliches with some statistical and literary notes on their use.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant - Help in discovering, organizing, revising, and editing informal, thesis, argumentative, and exploratory essays.
Online Classes in Rhetoric, University of Minnesota - The University of Minnesota offers a number of Internet correspondence courses in rhetoric. Sign up here.
Rhetorical Figures - From alliteration to zeugma, and everything in between, all the figures of speech are here.
Word Fugitives - An interactive column by The Atlantic's Barbara Wallraff. Discovers needs in our language and recommends new words to fill them.
Word Lab - A message board where you can request and brainstorm unique words, names, titles, coinages, puns, phrases, slogans and slang.
Cliche Site - Clichés, sayings or phrases listed with definitions and explanations. Clichés are organized by subject and alphabetically and you can use the search function.
The Tongue Untied - Grammar, punctuation and style for journalists.
Modern Language Association - The Modern Language Association is the official guide to non-fiction writing. The site includes a guide to MLA style.
Good Grammar, Good Style - Articles and answers to frequently asked questions about grammar, mechanics, and style. Links and bibliography.
Guide to Grammar and Style - The information ranges from copy editing to elements of style to discussions. Practical information about the writing craft.
The Book of Cliches - A compilation of common phrases, euphemisms, and rationales for times of trouble. Organized by occasion.
The Word Centre - Consulting firm dedicated to training businesses to use plain English. Free newsletter and professional editing services.
NoodleBib - The MLA Bibliography Composer - A free tool to create, edit, and save your MLA-style bibliography online, then publish it to a Web page, email it, or save it as RTF and open it in Microsoft Word.
SoYouWanna Avoid Common Writing Errors - We compiled a list of the most common writing errors people tend to make. This is not a primer on grammar or essay-writing. This is a checklist of things which you might well do and which you must stop doing.
E-dition: Dictionary of Concise Writing - A look at word usage in popular culture. The Dictionary of Concision is a complete manual of several thousand wordy phrases.
Grammar Slammer - This help file indexes style and usage, capitalization, abbreviations, punctuation, letter writing, common mistakes and a grammar glossary.
Common Errors in English - Catalogue of writing or speaking mistakes and easily confusable words, with corrections.
Plain English Campaign - An independent group fighting for plain English in public communication. We oppose gobbledygook, jargon and legalese.
Bartleby.com: The Columbia Guide to Standard American English - Kenneth G. Wilson's handbook includes descriptive and prescriptive examples with hyperlinked cross-references.
Top20Composition.com - Online directory for grammar, spelling, punctuation, research, creative writing, and proofreading resources.
Dr. NAD's Prig Page. - Tests of usage, built interactively.
Guides for Better Science Writing - Bibliography of style manuals for scientific research, writing, and presentation. Guides for biology, medicine, chemistry, engineering, geology, and mathematics.
Macedon's Taberna: The Craft of Writing - Commentary on various technical aspects of writing: the nuts and bolts of narrative.
That's Right Words - Articles about grammar information and hints. New Zealand site. Errs on the side of "correctness," not that of modern usage.
The Sports Cliche List - A large, searchable collection of sports cliches, lingo, and jargon.
Linguistic Phenomena/Devices - A list of lesser-known features in English writing. Hendiadys, holonyms, and hypernyms.
Frequently Asked Questions about English - Answers to common questions about usage, style, grammar and punctuation.
Suite101: Word Play - Archived discussions and articles concerning words.
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing - Popular, award-winning online writing guide. Authoritative help with research, style, structure, major citation styles, mechanics, and revision.
Suite 101: Workplace Communications - Archive of articles covering writing and speaking skills, with emphasis on clear communication, basic design, communicating with international and multicultural audiences.
CBC News: Words, Woe & Wonder - An in-depth look at the words we use from CBC News.
Suite101: English Grammar - Archive of articles about English grammar and style.
Exploring English - An online tutorial for the parts of speech with style notes for the English Language.
A.Word.ADay - The music and magic of words. This is the website for the mailing list A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), which sends a vocabulary word and its definition to the subscribers every day.
The Wonderful Writing Skills Unhandbook - An interactive site that uses the writing process to teach writing skills.
Pseudo Dictionary - The dictionary for words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries.
Verbage - If you are looking for just the right word, you may find it here. If not, you can suggest your own.
AskOxford.com - For questions on English grammar, spelling, and usage. Search a dictionary of words, names or quotations.
Language Wrangler - Provocative essays on word usage, writing ideas and style.
Glossarist.com - A searchable directory of thousands of glossaries and topical dictionaries containing terms and definitions on hundreds of subjects.
Plain Language Action Network - Promoting clearer communication between the public and government. This site has resources for writers to attain that goal.
The Philosophy of Punctuation - Paul Robinson's classic essay on periods, commas, semicolons, dashes.
How to Write an Explication - Step-by-step directions to writing an explication. Good and bad examples provided.
Phrases Thesaurus - A generator of headlines and copy for journalists. Enter a word and the database is searched to provide a list of phrases related to that word.
Word Quests - Word lists that provide thematic units of English words derived from Latin and Greek sources.
Yale Style Manual - For the design of Web pages and Web sites. Covers graphic and information design, page layout, Web graphics, site organization, navigation, and Web multimedia content.
Wordiness - A list of words and phrases to purge from your writing.
Garbl's Editorial Style Manual - Provides advice on abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, numbers, plurals, possessives, punctuation, spelling and word usage.
World Wide Words - Explores the history, evolution byways, quirks, and curiosities of the English language. New and recent words and phrases are often featured, as are books on aspects of English. A weekly newsletter is sent by e-mail and RSS.
SecretariesUSA.com - Reference for the home and corporate office, including capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, forms of address, abbreviations, letter styles, and business forms.
Findaphrase.com - Free phrase database to help journalists, copywriters and content editors search common phrases.
Einfoweb: Punctuation and Grammar - Help on punctuation and another page on grammar.
The Economist Style Guide - Guide based on the style book given to all journalists at The Economist.
Crazy Colour Writing Skills Handbook - Includes useful tips to help your spelling including homophones, words often misspelled, a dictionary search, an introduction to fingerspelling. Grammar, spelling and writing style guide.
Wordelizer - Delve deeply into a word or subject. Quick search of several word and language related sites.
The Visual Thesaurus - An exploration of sense relationships within the English language. By clicking on words, you follow a thread of meaning, creating a spatial map of linguistic associations.
Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature - Bimonthly publication, SPELL/Binder, contains articles on grammar, usage, word origins, and other subjects of interest to language lovers.
Writer's Dreamtools - A series of useful tools to enhance writers' and students' creativity, spark ideas and fight writer's block.
Ewriting - Easy to learn electronic writing style that will speed up email and online chatroom discussions.
Correct Punctuation - A brief guide to correct English punctuation.
The Well Bred Sentence - This book offers an intensive course in sentence construction and punctuation.
Braintique: The Natural Way to Write - A process and system for helping people become better writers. The site includes exercises, examples, and information about descriptive writing and metaphors.
Ralph's Manual of Style - A guide to style, grammar, usage, and more by a guy named Ralph.
Lingo Factory - A cooperative effort to coin useable terms and then trick people into using them regularly as though they are real words.
Tribe: Words of Power - For people who love words, use them, feel them in their mouths as flavorful bursts of energy. This is the tribe for fun with words and receptive learning.
Tribe: Word Freaks - Group for people who love discussing words and writing style.
Tribe: Linguistics - Group for discussions of words and language.
Word Rogues - Tips on writing, English, and grammar. This site also contains active community college English syllabii and links to other writing, grammar sites.
The Word Nerds - A weekly podcast about words, language, and why we say the things we do.
Verbivore - Richard Lederer's page, with contact information and a handful of his language-loving articles.
Just Language - A casual and contemporary look at how we humans communicate with each other both at home and abroad.
Guide to Grammar and Writing - Digital handouts on grammar and English usage. From subject-verb agreement and use of articles to exercises in parallel structures and argumentative essays. You can submit questions about grammar and writing.
The Archive of Endangered, Special, or Fun Words - Writing about and classifying words and language.
Slang City - Writing about American slang.
Pataphysics, Pataphors and Pataphorology - An extended metaphor that creates its own context. A science invented by P.A. Lopez and derived from the science of 'pataphysics as described by Alfred Jarry.
LousyWriter.com - A free online resource to improve your writing skills. Learn how to write, how to use words, how to write sentences, and how to communicate effectively.
Illiterate Businesses - An unabashed rant blog featuring English-language business signs with grammatical, spelling and/or punctuation errors. Includes a free sign editing offer.
The Word Detective - The online version of the newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language. A very extensive column and word archive. Written by Evan Morris.
Plain Language Center - Articles and information on writing and evaluating plain and target-appropriate language for business publications and websites.
Web Typography - The elements of typographic style applied to the web.
Urban Dictionary - A veritable cornucopia of streetwise lingo, posted and defined by its readers.
Jargon Finder - The use and abuse of jargon. From The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
WritingDEN - Interactive site created to help students improve English reading, writing and listening skills.
Plain English at Work - Online guide to using plain English and changing the corporate style. Produced for Australia's Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs and the Australian National Training Authority.
Consulting First, Inc.'s Dictionary - Dictionary, thesaurus, translation, and spelling checker.
Word Spy - The word lover's web site by Paul McFedries.
Word Files of Confusing English Words - A presentation of English words that are often confusing with definitions and context examples.
Word News - Efforts have been made to provide some of the best thoughts, ancient and modern, that are particularly appealing for our time and to promote a greater appreciation for the English language.
Word Info - An English vocabulary dictionary with free searches of words from Latin and Greek sources.
Cliche Web - Thousands of cliches. Fully searchable and interactive. Formerly Steve's Cliche List. Since 1995.
ThereTheir.com - A guide to avoiding some of the most common spelling and grammar errors encountered in online communication, such as chat, texting, message boards, online games, and email.
Guardian Unlimited - Style Guide - The British newspaper's guide to word usage, grammar and punctuation, edited by David Marsh and Nikki Marshall. Includes 1928 edition in pdf format.
SDSU Writing Rescource Crib - Offering tips and lively description on grammar, English, and writing.
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