Style guides are used by writers to keep up with changes to the language. Also for improving their own use of the language (words, phrases and grammar) in their writing. Often newspapers put out a style guide for their writers and editors.
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Sites 77
- Purdue OWL The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and they provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue.
- Web Style Guide A manual covering graphic and information design, page layout, graphics, site navigation, and multimedia content. By Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton.
- Dr. Abel Scribe PhD - Research Style Guides Free guides to APA, ASA, CBE, Chicago-Turabian, and MLA show how to document and format college research papers.
- APA Reference Style Detailed assistance on APA formatting including many examples and exercises. By David S. Baker and Lynn Henrichsen.
- APA Style American Psychological Association rules for formatting papers, in-text citations, and end references. Examples based on the sixth edition of the Publication Manual from the APA.
- Speaking Writing Articles on speaking and writing, spelling quiz questions, grammar questions and writing and speaking rules.
- Word Focus Words, literature and a word of the day.
- WordWizard Portal for word lovers. Learn about word meanings, slang, quotations, insults, and famous authors. Wordwizard offers a round trip across the English language.
- Cliche Finder Special tool word-searches 3,300 cliches.
- Cliche and Word Journey List of 2000 English cliches with some statistical and literary notes on their use. By Dan Scorpio.
- Online Classes in Rhetoric, University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota offers a number of Internet correspondence courses in rhetoric. Sign up 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 words, names, titles, coinages, puns, phrases, slogans and slang.
- Modern Language Association The MLA is the official guide to non-fiction writing. Includes a guide to MLA style.
- 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.
- Plain English Campaign An independent group fighting for plain English in public communication. We oppose gobbledygook, jargon and legalese.
- Guides for Better Science Writing Bibliography of style manuals for scientific research, writing, and presentation. Guides for biology, medicine, chemistry, engineering, geology, and mathematics.
- The Sports Cliche List A large, searchable collection of sports cliches, lingo, and jargon.
- Exploring English An online tutorial for the parts of speech with style notes for the English Language.
- A.Word.A Day The website for the mailing list A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), which sends a vocabulary word and its definition to the subscribers every day.
- 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.
- Word Quests Word lists that provide thematic units of English words derived from Latin and Greek sources.
- G. Kim Blank's Wordiness, Wordiness, Wordiness List A list of words and phrases to purge from your writing.
- 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.
- Wordelizer Delve deeply into a word or subject. Quick search of several word and language related sites.
- Writer's Dreamtools A series of useful tools to enhance writers' and students' creativity, spark ideas and fight writer's block.
- Lingo Factory A cooperative effort to coin useable terms and then trick people into using them regularly as though they are real words.
- 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.
- Slang City Writing about American slang.
- Lousy Writer 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.
- The Word Detective The online version of the newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language. An extensive column and word archive. Written by Evan Morris.
- 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.
- WritingDEN Interactive site created to help students improve English reading, writing and listening skills.
- Word Spy The word lover's web site by Paul McFedries.
- 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.
- The Well Bred Sentence Online book offering an intensive course in sentence construction and punctuation.
- Linguistic Phenomena/Devices A list of lesser-known features in English writing. Hendiadys, holonyms, and hypernyms.
- Bartleby.com: The Columbia Guide to Standard American English Kenneth G. Wilson's handbook includes descriptive and prescriptive examples with hyperlinked cross-references.
- Pseudo Dictionary The dictionary for words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries.
- 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.
- The Archive of Endangered, Special, or Fun Words Writing about and classifying words and language.
- 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.
- The Economist Style Guide Guide based on the style book given to all journalists at The Economist.
- The Guardian - Style Guide Guide to word usage, grammar and punctuation for The Guardian and Observer. UK.
- The Tongue Untied Grammar, punctuation and style for journalists.
- Simile Stack Collection of searchable similes. Useful for writers, editors, bloggers, and anyone looking to add some depth to their writing.
- Adjectives Starting A large collection of adjectives listed by their starting letter.
- MLA Style Center Guidelines and examples for current MLA procedures. First page format, presenting quotations, and citing books, websites, and nonprint sources.
- The Chicago Manual of Style Online Provides recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices for the digital age.
- Garbl's Editorial Style Manual Provides advice on abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, numbers, plurals, possessives, punctuation, spelling and word usage.
- 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.
- Using the Right Words A site by Lee Barnathan that informs which word is the proper choice in any given situation.
- Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature Contains articles on grammar, usage, word origins, and other subjects of interest to language lovers.
- How to Write an Explication Essay - eHow Step-by-step directions to writing an explication.
- Dr. NAD's Prig Page Tests of usage, built interactively.
- 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 Punctuation Guide A brief guide to correct English punctuation.
- CBC News: Words, Woe & Wonder An in-depth look at the words we use from CBC News. By Blair Shewchuk.
- Seldom Used Words Listed by most recently added words in the database.
- Center for Plain Language A non profit organization promoting plain language and helping government agencies and businesses write clearly.
- Food for Translators To explore different translation-related techniques and resources, disseminate helpful information, and provide useful tips and insights to those who work with words.
- Cliche Web Thousands of cliches. Fully searchable and interactive. Formerly Steve's Cliche List. Since 1995.
- NLRB Style Manual A guide for legal writing in plain English.
- US City Name Misspellings A comprehensive list of the most common misspellings for US cities.
- How do you Spell A simple website offering the correct spellings of commonly misspelled words.
- Glossary of Rhetorical Terms From alliteration to zeugma, and everything in between, all the figures of speech are here.
- English Speaking Free English speaking tips and daily lessons for beginners.
- Literary Devices Literary terms and techniques.
- Papercheck Style Guide From the editors of Papercheck, agreed upon standards in this style guide.
- A Research Guide for Students Research, writing, and style guides by I. Lee.
- Knol Dictionary An interactive dictionary to define every word and every situation by its authors.
- Honor & Respect: Guide to Names, Titles, and Forms of Address Forms of formal address to use on correspondence directed to officials in government, armed services, clergy, diplomacy. Forms for current as well as former officials.
- The Briticiser Will convert US English spelling to UK English. Alerts when it finds words which can be spelt two ways.