Editorial, Graphics & Publishing Services → Editorial Help Desk → Links to Helpful Resources

Links to Helpful Resources

We hope you find this list of writing resources websites useful and interesting. They are guides to help you navigate the nebulous field of grammar and the imprecise language that is English.

There’s a new dictionary in town.

Test your vocabulary skills and track your progress; look up the meaning of those tough words and see examples of how to use them in a sentence; and read articles in the magazine about words on a new online dictionary. (You probably should bookmark this one.) Be careful though, it could become addictive! http://www.vocabulary.com

Classic Reference Sites

A sampling of new words from Webster’s 11th Edition www.merriam-webster.com/info/new_words.htm

Welcome to The Chicago Manual of Style Online—the indispensable online reference for all who work with words www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

Improving Your Writing

Learn to make your writing focused and informative, so your audience can read and understand the information and you can get the response you want from your readers.
Go to plainlanguage.gov.

Tip of the Month Archives

“Helping you do things better” www.quickanddirtytips.com/home/

Writing resources and instructional material http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Resources in English as a second language www.cln.org/subject_index.html

Fifty best blogs for grammar geeks www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/50-best-blogs-for-grammar-geeks.html

How to use a semicolon: A quick primer http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

Why you need to proofread http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113006753_pf.html

Before-and-after examples of effective, productive e-mail at http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/EmailCommunication.htm

All About Words

A fun site for those who love words, sponsored by Oxford Dictionaries http://www.savethewords.org/

H. L. Mencken’s 1919 book about changes Americans had made to the English Language http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_American_Language

Do you speak American? Discourse on the decline of grammar http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/correct/decline/

Please send us any interesting site you know of or run into that you would like to share.

Contact Donna M. Marks or call the Editorial Help Desk at 240-740-2971.