Tip of the Week
Like the semicolon, the colon joins in one sentence two ideas or elements that might
be expressed in separate sentences, strengthening the bond. The second elements
are often definitions, elaborations, or embellishments. Here’s an example from The
Economist’s
"The day after Super Tuesday":
He [Barack Obama] also snatched two prizes on the coast: tiny Delaware and, more symbolically, Connecticut. For more, visit the ClearWriter Blog.
Want tips like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for ClearWriter's
FREE Tip of the Week:
(Note that both first and last names are required.) |
ClearWriter quick writing training tips and basic tools
Whether you are writing a thesis, an interoffice memo, or an annual report, our free content can help you write faster and better.
Our favorite links
Looking for more? Explore our favorite web resources.
Grammar and usage
Style guides
Dictionaries
Glossaries
Translation tools
Word origins, word play
Search engines for
editors and writers
Power tools for writing
and editing
Lists of
links on writing, editing, and publishing
Writers' forums and
market intelligence
Discussion lists and newsgroups
Literature online
Grammar and usage
First, the classics:
William Strunk's The Elements of Style (1918, pre–E.B. White); H.L. Mencken's
The American Language
(1921); and H.W. Fowler's
The King's English (1908) — all available in their entirety online.
Columbia Journalism Review
Language Corner
For usage advice with professional flair, there’s
little better than Evan Jenkin’s semimonthly column.
Daniel Kies’ Modern
English Grammar
If ever you need to find out more about auxiliary
progressive verb phrases and the like, this page is a good place to start.
Dr. Charles Darling’s
Guide to Grammar and Writing
Dr. Darling’s guide offers quick answers
to often-confused points of grammar, such as when to capitalize phrases following
a colon. And the 170 quizzes can show you if you know as much about grammar as you
think.
Garbl’s
Myths and Superstitions about Writing
Many usage “rules” aren’t
rules at all. For years writing authorities have proclaimed as baseless such maxims
as “Never split an infinitive” and “Never end a sentence with a preposition.” Even
so, myths persist.
Grammar Bytes
First prize for a great site name—and for interactivity and humor—goes to Robin
Simmons's energetic site. Lively if sometimes simplistic exercises are accompanied
by thorough explanations, tip sheets, and handouts.
Guide to Grammar
and Style
The alphabetical organization of Jack Lynch's otherwise
appealingly discursive guide creates some odd alphabedfellows ("dash, data, definite
article"; "shall, sic, slashes").
Online English Grammar
Anthony Hughes's online grammar has the adult learner of English in mind. 120 topics
are illustrated with ingenious and often surprising examples.
Paul Brians’ Common Errors
in English
Not for writers inclined to follow liberal usage, Professor
Brians catalogs hundreds of frequently misused expression. His collection includes
such classics of wrong usage as confusing ensure and insure and more idiosyncratic
hobgoblins, such as the phrase koala bear: “A koala is not a bear. People who know
their marsupials refer to them simply as ‘koalas.’” Follow Professor Brians’ advice
to avoid the scorn of people who know their marsupials.
Purdue's Online Writing Lab
The grammar, spelling, and punctuation
section of Purdue's Online Writing Lab is organized accessibly in outline form under
categories such as "parts of speech" and "sentence construction." The site offers
dozens of handouts used in the lab, though we disagree with some of the specifics.
Their handout, “Conciseness: Methods of Eliminating Wordiness,” could make a better
effort to practice what it preaches in its title.
Sharp Points
Written by the Washington Post’s copy chief for the national desk, this blog reproaches
careless writers and pedantic editors with equal vitriol.
The Tongue Untied
Conceived as a study aid for aspiring journalism majors at the University
of Oregon, this website instructs students on grammar, punctuation and style (following
the Associated Press, of course). Especially valuable are the many quizzes, which
make sure that you do, in fact, know a coordinating conjunction from a subordinating
one and when politics is used as a singular or a plural noun.
Style guides
alt.usage.english
The website of this newsgroup features collections of FAQ files on usage disputes,
word origins, and phrase origins.
American Heritage Book of English
Usage (1996)
Sections on style (parallelism, passives, wordiness,
redundancy), word choice (308 problem words), and gender, plus a rapidly aging essay
on the hazards of email and more than you ever wanted to know about emoticons.
APA
Citation Style
To be frank, APA citation style isn’t the favorite
of anyone here at ClearWriter. But if you must use it, it’s far better to use it
correctly. This guide from Nova Southeastern University is a helpful reference for
those who don’t want to pay $30 for the APA Publications Manual.
APA Electronic Reference
Formats
Answers to commonly asked questions on citing electronic
sources, from the 5th edition of the APA Style Manual. A brave attempt to codify
evolving usage.
The
Economist Style Guide
Seldom is stylistic advice as welcome as
when delivered with sharp British wit. Note, however, that it follows British style.
Government Printing Office
Style Manual 2000
The Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Style
Guide aren't available online, alas, but the GPO manual is available in both HTML
and PDF formats. In addition to copious arcana from the days of hot lead, the GPO
manual devotes an exhaustive chapter to the geographic divisions of U.S. territory.
MLA Formatting
and Style Guide
This useful quick reference for MLA citation style
includes formats for troublesome online resources.
Turabian (Chicago) Citation Style
A quick reference sheet to Kate Turabian’s guide to Chicago citation style,
this website should address most questions for compiling a basic Chicago-style bibliography.
Web Style
Guide (1999)
Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton's Web Style Guide contains
excellent advice on preparing text for the Web. New edition on the way.
Writing with Sources
Harvard's student guide to documenting sources
contains a section on formatting references that compares MLA, APA, and several
other common styles.
Dictionaries
Cambridge Dictionaries
Five are online, including the Cambridge International Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
Phrasal?
Dictionary.com
Dictionaries, plus a store, language forum, ask the expert, and index of writing
resources.
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
The online version gives you everything the printed volume does, plus it will pronounce
your word and link you to sites where it's used. Merriam-Webster is the dictionary
of choice for countless editors. It’s the best way to resolve questions about spelling,
meaning, and usage.
OED Online
If you've got
$550 handy, subscribe and watch the ongoing revision of the world's largest dictionary.
Etymologies, pronunciation, quotations, and spelling variations can be toggled on
and off.
yourDictionary.com
With 1,800 dictionaries in 250 languages, yourDictionary has a credible claim to
being "the language portal of record." You can check the spelling of "supersede,"
but if you need a Breton or Chamorro grammar, they're there, too.
Glossaries
Babylon.com
Browse through thousands of glossaries. Build your own specialized multilingual
glossaries for business and professional use or download what you need from the
site. The site also does quick multilingual translations of single terms.
Translation tools
Babelfish Translations
Hours of fun running texts back and forth through the translating machine. Try forcing
a paragraph from Finnegan's Wake into Korean and back again. Hey, now it makes sense!
FreeTranslation.com
Free, yes, but the popup ads fly thick and fast. Sometimes too busy to translate
for you.
SYSTRANet Translation
Technologies
Improve translation accuracy by using one of 21 subject-specific
dictionaries. Enterprise language solutions, including website translation.
Word origins, word play
Banned for Life
Few things draw the ire of editors more quickly than clichés. Tom Mangan nominates
phrases to be banned.
Oxford English Dictionary’s
Word of the Day
With definitions for nearly 300,000 words, the
Oxford English dictionary is a stunning repository of useful (and useless) knowledge.
Their Word of the Day offers a preview for those who don’t want to pay the $300
price for full access.
Take Our Word for It
"The weekly word-origin Web-zine," including an "etymology book store."
The Word Detective
Online version of Evan Morris's witty newspaper column.
Wordorigins.org
The highlight of the site is a lively, well-organized discussion forum.
World Wide Words
For those tickled by word trivia, Michael Quinion details the origin of words as
diverse as macholation (an opening between supports on a castle parapet for dropping
missiles on an enemy) and McJob (low-paying, dead-end work).
Search engines for editors and writers
Britannica.com
Quick, encyclopedic access to articles, related maps, illustrations. Index feature
gives you quick access to related content. Free, but the popups swarm like gnats.
Subscription site (www.eb.com) is gnat-free.
Library of Congress Online Catalog
That's right, the entire catalog is online. Amazing depth and scope, plus great
advice on effective searching.
LibrarySpot.com
Quick access to libraries of all stripes (academic, film, law, government) and a
reference desk with everything from acronyms to zip codes. Plus lists, shortcuts,
FAQs, news—all compiled with the perspective and acuity of a reference librarian.
Refdesk.com An effort—promethean and quixotic—to present links to everything you might conceivably need to know. The alphabetization emphasizes the heterogeneity. The best stuff's below the fold.
Power tools for writing
Abbreviations.com The
next time you have to work with government documents or other writing larded with
obscure acronyms, Abbreviations.com can help unwind ambiguous terms.
ClearInk SpellWeb
Can't decide between alternative spellings of "e-mail"? Turn style into a popularity
contest by seeing how words are spelled on the Web.
Copyrights
>From the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress Information System,
learn how to search records for materials registered for copyright since January
1978.
A Handbook of Rhetorical
Devices
Whatever you want to say, it’s likely that someone has
discovered a cleaver way of saying it. And it probably has a Greek name. So if you
can’t tell your analepsis from your hypophora, you might want to browse this guide—or
perhaps visit a doctor.
Invisible Web Revealed
Find out how to locate Web material that
conventional search engines are blind to. Also see Gary Price's direct search [http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm],
which provides links to the search interfaces of resources that contain data not
easily or entirely searchable using general Web search tools.
Online Conversion
Distance, weight, temperature—yeah, yeah, we know. But torque, viscosity, and flow
rate? Hey, these are serious conversions. Also Morse code, download times, and other
exotica.
Plagiarism
Learn more about plagiarism and how to avoid it—and detect it—in this collection
of articles.
Questia
Student subscribers "write in the margins" or highlight their personal online copies
of Questia's full-text library. The tool automatically creates footnotes and reference
lists conforming to APA, MLA, and other popular styles.
RhymeZone Rhyming Dictionary and
Thesausus
This rhyming dictionary organizes results by syllable
or alphabetically. If you’ve never considered rhyming prayer with Asiatic black
bear, it might prove useful in your poetic endeavors. We’d discourage you, however,
from using this tool to compose your next interoffice memo in rhyming couplets.
Statistics Help for Journalists
Often cited to support arguments, statistics are used to conceal and mislead as
often as to clarify and explain. Learn the basics so that you won’t be duped.
ThinkExist.com
This website boasts a searchable collection of more than 300,000 quotations by 20,000
authors, indexed by topic, keyword, and author. Never have so many pithy sayings
been gathered in one place.
Trademarks
Search for trademarks at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Turnitin.com
Generates
color-coded "originality reports" after comparing submitted text to internet sources
and a growing database of student papers. Coming: an online grading system!
Lists of links on writing, editing, publishing
Alt.usage.English Language Resources
Hundreds, nay thousands, of links.
Garbl’s
Fat-free-writing Links
If there’s one topic worth addressing at
length, it’s brevity. Garbl’s page does admirably, offering links to nearly 30 websites
with techniques for cutting the fat from your writing. Or you could just complete
our online training.
Purdue Online
Writing Lab
Links page of a leading academic writing center.
Writers' forums and market intelligence
Associated Writing Programs
An association of 320 member colleges and universities and 60 writers' conferences
and centers. Competitions, events, jobs.
Contentious
Amy
Gahran�s news and musings on how we communicate in the online age. A one-woman show,
and a good one.
The Editorial Eye
A publication of EEI Communications, The Editorial Eye is a monthly newsletter for
writers, editors, and anyone else in communications and publishing.
Fathom
Rarefied online
forums, courses, lectures. A cast of thousands.
Plain Language Network
Volunteer civil servants who aim to improve communication from the federal government
to the people. Resources include before-and-after samples of forms, memos, regulations.
Scriptorium
"A virtual room for writers." Cozy.
Thesis/Dissertation
Guide
Writing a thesis or dissertation is a challenge—intellectually,
organizationally, emotionally. But learning about the process can help you manage
it better.
Travelwriters.com
Business-like site for buying and selling travel writing.
Wooden Horse Publishing
"Market facts for writers." Comprehensive and very well organized.
Worldwide Freelance Writer
Writing is great. Getting paid for it is better. Worldwide Freelance Writer offers
resources for those inclined to strike out on their own.
Writers Write
News, jobs, reviews, events—for and about writers.
Writer's Digest
The online version of the magazine about writers' markets.
Writers.Net
Find an
agent, find an editor, find a publisher, commiserate.
Writing That Works
For people who "write, edit and manage business communications for a living." Online
version of print newsletter.
Discussion lists and newsgroups
ADS-L
An e-mail discussion list on the dialects of North American English, operated by
the American Dialect Society.
Alt.usage.English
A newsgroup on the English language.
Copyediting-L
A very busy list for professional parsers of verbal fine points.
dcpubs
In the Washington, D.C., area dcpubs extends its scope to design and production
issues, as well as editing.
Literature online
Bibliomania
The full text of 800 classics, plus study guides, summaries, and a shop.
Bartleby.com
Full-text
editions of such works as the Oxford Shakespeare, Strunk’s original 1918 Elements
of Style, and the King James Bible are highlights of this electronic repository
of public domain books. Those looking for a guide to wireless networking will find
little to interest them, but if you want the classics, this is the place to find
them—free.
Electronic Text Center
Over a recent nine-month period, the center, located at the University of Virginia,
"shipped" 2.5 million e-books, an average of 9,259 each day.
Project Gutenberg
Recruits volunteers to create e-texts from their favorite public domain works. The
project publishes a new work every day.