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Punctuation, Grammar, and Mechanics
Grammar for Advanced Study
Help With Essays and Papers
Specific Style Issues
Vocabulary and Correct Word Choice
Modern Language Association (MLA) Style
American Psychological Association (APA) Style
ESL/EFL Help
Punctuation, Grammar, and Mechanics
Professor Dumler's Brief Guide to Punctuation reminds you of the basics that I cover in class lectures.
Eleven Rules for Writing is a "concise guide to some of the most commonly violated rules of writing, grammar, and punctuation. It is intended for all writers as an aid in the learning and refining of writing skills."
Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL): Handouts on Punctuation, Grammar, and Spelling are widely-recommended.
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, by Jane Straus, offers useful sections, including "Grammar Rules," "Punctuation and Capitalization," and "Rules for Writing Numbers" (however, the first rule is the last section in inconsistent with MLA format, which requires all numbers under 100, not ten, to be spelled out).
HyperGrammar, produced by the Writing Centre at the University of Ottawa, is a very thorough site with sections on a wide variety of basic topics, such as pronoun usage and sentence building. Its section on punctuation thoroughly describes the proper uses of the comma, the semicolon, the colon, end punctuation, quotation marks, the apostrophe, and the dash.
Garbl's Editorial Style Manual answers many questions about subjects like abbreviations, addresses, capitalization, English grammar, Internet terminology, numbers, plurals, possessives, punctuation, spelling and word usage. However, it "mostly follows Associated Press style," so its advice on some topics, such as writing numbers, does not conform to MLA format. In general, however, it is very useful.
Grammar Bytes is a fun site with definitions, rules, and interactive reviews.
Grammar Slammer! offers a lot of guidance, as well as a very useful Grammar Glossary.
The Grammar Handbook explains and illustrates the basic grammatical rules concerning parts of speech, phrases, clauses, sentences and sentence elements, and common problems of usage.
The Loft Grammar Handouts from North Seattle Community College offer help with adjectives, prepositions, punctuation, sentences, and verbs
Grammar Help by Ruth Vilmi includes definitions, examples, and interactive exercises.
The Style Elements section of Exploring English describes the mechanics and choices involved in writing well, and includes "Style Overview," "Capitalization," "Spelling," "Punctuation," and "Elusive Words."
The Modern English Grammar Hypertextbook by Daniel Kies is for advanced students.
Traditional English Grammar: Description and Use, by Donald E. Hardy is for students who would like to pursue an advanced understanding of grammar.
Writing in the Arts and Sciences at Marquette: A Sampling of Advice from Faculty provided a department-by-department reference guide that is of value to students no matter what college they attend.
Papers: Expectations, Guidelines, Advice, and Grading from the University of Toronto--a very detailed guide to writing papers about literature.
CollegeWriting.info is billed as "the most complete and practical writing textbook on the free Web," and it offers advice on virtually every step of writing an essay or paper.
"Writing to Literature" is a chapter at the CollegeWriting.Info site, with sections on reading literature, literary analysis, the interpretive thesis, and more.
"Writing about Literature" and " Writing about Fiction" from Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) are recommended.
Online Grammar Handbook: Links to College and Professional Guides provides links to a variety of different sites offering help in different areas, including a lot more than just grammar.
The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., is a complete online version of a classic style manual popular for decades.
Papers: Expectations, Guidelines, Advice, and Grading, by Jeannine DeLombard and Dan White, is a very thorough guide.
Guide to Grammar and Writing is an excellent site considered by many to be the best guide on the web, with help on several levels, including "Word and Sentence Level" and "Essay and Research Paper Level."
The Guide to Grammar and Style, by Jack Lynch, is a useful, easy-to-read guide by an English professor and author, who says, "These notes are a miscellany of grammatical rules and explanations, comments on style, and suggestions on usage I put together for my classes. Nothing here is carved in stone, and many comments are matters of personal preference — feel free to psychoanalyze me by examining my particular hangups and bętes noires."
Getting an "A" on an English Paper is a another online resource by Jack Lynch. It offers suggestions on "close readings" especially helpful to students in literature classes, but his advice and links on subjects like the thesis statement, style, mechanics, and research are very helpful to any English student. He also suggests the following sites:
"Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis," by Erik Simpson.
"Writing a Thesis," by Michael Barsanti.
"How to Be Original," also by Michael Barsanti.
"Thesis and Introduction Worksheet," by Katherine Milligan.
"The Thesis Statement," by Sam Choi (a handout focusing on common problems to avoid).
"Thesis Writing" by Craig Waddell is also useful.
"Using Transitions" is from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Writing Center.
"Writing Effective Transitions" offers additional information and examples.
"Parallel Structure vs. and Faulty Parallelism," by Dennis G. Jerz, is useful.
"Parallelism" from the Hamilton College Style Sheet offers a clear definition and examples.
"Faulty Predication," "Faulty Comparison," and "Mixed Construction" are pages that will help you recognize and overcome these problems.
Here is a University of Idaho handout on "Avoiding Wordiness."
"Wordiness: Danger Signals and Ways to React" shows you how to recognize and avoid formulaic, over-used phrases.
"Gender Inclusive Language" is a handout I have made (with help from other sites) on how to avoid sexist language in your writing.
Vocabulary and Correct Word Choice
Words, Words, and More Words! is a page of links that I've collected to some great vocabulary sites and glossaries.
Words Commonly Confused is a good site to check when you are trying to answer such questions as whether (or weather?) to use "effect" instead of "affect," and why you should choose "affect" instead of using "impact" as a verb (which it isn't.)
Common Foreign Words and Phrase will help you to decipher some of the foreign terms that have become common in English, such as "bęte noire," faux pas," "schadenfreude,"and "Zeitgeist."
Some Rules and Suggestions about Spelling is from the Guide to Grammar and Writing.
"Gender Inclusive Language" offers suggestions and substitutions.
Modern Language Association (MLA) Style
Frequently Asked Questions about MLA Style is posted by the Modern Language Association.
Research and Documentation Online: The Humanities by Diane Hacker provides a great deal of information on research and proper MLA documentation style, as well as a sample MLA paper.
Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format is another useful site from Purdue's Online Writing Lab.
A Guide for Writing Research Papers Based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation is provided by the Humanities Department of Capital Community College.
American Psychological Association (APA) Style
The APA Style Workshop from Purdue's Online Writing Lab "offers a wealth of information about writing and formatting papers in APA style."
APA Style Essentials, by Douglas Degelman, Ph.D., and Martin Lorenzo Harris, Ph.D., of Vanguard University of Southern California, is very thorough.
A Guide for Writing Research Papers Based on Styles Recommended by The American Psychological Association is provided by the Humanities Department of Capital Community College.
This Guide to APA Style is by Jason Swarts from the Rennselaer Writing Center.
APA.org Style Tips offers help in these and other areas: "Removing Bias in Language" (disabilities, race and ethnicity, and sexuality) and electronic references. It also features the "Electronic Media Spelling Guide."
Last updated on 05/13/2008