100 Most Often Misspelled Words
http://yourdictionary.com/library/misspelled.html
Dr. Language has provided a one-stop cure for all your spelling ills. Here are the 100 words most often misspelled ('misspell' is one of them). Each word has a mnemonic pill with it and, if you swallow it, it will help you to remember how to spell the word. Master the orthography of the words on this page and reduce the time you spend searching dictionaries by 50%. (Use the time you save celebrating in our gameroom.) A service of yourDictionary.com. |
100 Words That All High School Graduates Should Know
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/100words/
The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know. "The words we suggest," says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, "are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language." |
Banished Words List (Annual)
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/
"Lake Superior State University proposes an exit strategy for 2006: the 32nd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness. On Dec. 31, 1975, former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and some colleagues cooked up the whimsical idea to banish overused words and phrases and issued the first list on New Year's Day. Much to the delight of word enthusiasts everywhere, the list has stayed the course into a fourth decade." |
Center for Digital Storytelling
http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html
"The Center for Digital Storytelling is a California-based non-profit 501(c)3 arts organization rooted in the art of personal storytelling. We assist young people and adults in using the tools of digital media to craft, record, share, and value the stories of individuals and communities, in ways that improve all our lives. We invite you to take a moment today to record a story from yesterday for tomorrow. Scribble a note on the back of a photo, print out and file an email that caused you to pause, stop and listen to a friend on the street. Story telling and listening not only helps the teller in the telling, it helps the listener in the hearing, even across great distances of space and time." |
Columbia Guide to Standard English
http://www.bartleby.com/68/
A vigorous assessment of how our language is best written and spoken and how we can use it most effectively, this guide is the ideal handbook of language etiquette: friendly, sensible, reliable, and fun to read. Its 6,500 entries contain thousands of examples, both descriptive and prescriptive, and feature 4,300 hyperlinked cross-references. |
Crossword Puzzle Games - Play Or Create
http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/
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This web site offers 32,400 free crossword puzzles and fun tools for people who
enjoy word games. Get some help with a puzzle or create your own, free. Crosswords are divided into four categories. Each category has a different grid size (extra-small to large). This makes some easier and faster to solve than others. Crossword puzzles for every occasion. Each crossword puzzle grid is unique, there are no duplicates. All words used are dictionary words. Every effort was made to use only family friendly words, suited for all ages." |
Do You Speak American? - PBS
http://www.pbs.org/speak/
Companion to a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) program that "examine[s] the dynamic state of American English — a language rich with regional variety, strong global impact and cultural controversy." Includes essays on topics such as vocabulary, pronunciation, the power of prose, language as prestige, and shifts in regional language. Also includes sound clips, examples of mispronounced words, a show transcript, quizzes, and links to related information. Searchable. |
Guide to Grammar and Writing
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Site covers virtually everything one needs to know about grammar and writing, including writer's block and how to overcome it, paragraph development, parts of speech, tense consistency, and much more. |
Highschooljournalism.org
http://www.highschooljournalism.org/
Included here as a resource for instructors: Presented by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, this site is designed to encourage and support high school journalists and journalism teachers. Students can find articles on journalism, post questions to professional journalists, take a journalism quiz, and find links to high school newspapers. Teachers will find journalism lesson plans, links to support organizations, and other resources for teaching the craft. Visitors can also check into scholarships and colleges that offer journalism degrees. --Kraynak, Best of the Internet (and category) |
Houghton Mifflin College: Communication
http://college.hmco.com/communication/students/
Companion site for many textbooks in communication (Intro, Speech, Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Mass Communication, Broadcasting), offer resource centers for speech, public speaking, mass communication, and broadcasting with supplementary materials. |
IPL: A+ Research & Writing for high school and college students
http://www.ipl.org/div/teen/aplus/
Guide from IPL (Internet Public Library) by Kathryn L. Schwartz offers a step by step approach to success on writing a research paper. |
Journalist's Toolbox - American Press Institute
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/toolbox/
This directory links to "more than 15,000 web sites helpful to the media and anyone else doing research. Use the pulldown menu or search engine to locate information from a variety of beats and news industry-related topics." Includes resources for crime, current events, entertainment, government, sports, women's issues, and much more. There are also "how to" type resources covering the mechanics of writing and editing. |
Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/
What's the difference between "affect" and "effect"? Jack Lynch has the answer, and he's offered it up on this site, an online guide to the complexities of English grammar. Lynch clearly explains the diferrences between commonly confused words, defines terms such as "dangling participle," and offers his own opinions on a variety of style issues. (Site now also mentions a work in progress: "Getting
an A on an English Paper.") --Kraynak, Best of the Internet |
Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/
Welcome to the Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, the online companion to the handbook from Hackett; offering sections on Thinking, Syle, Structure, Evidence, and Mechanics. |
Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/
"This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago. The dates beside a word indicate the earliest year for which there is a surviving written record of that word (in English, unless otherwise indicated). This should be taken as approximate, especially before about 1700, since a word may have been used in conversation for hundreds of years before it turns up in a manuscript that has had the good fortune to survive the centuries." A full list of sources used for the dictionary is provided. --Douglas Harper, 2001.
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Plain Language.gov
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/
"Improving Communication from the Federal Government to the Public--In 1995 a
group of federal employees began meeting to try to spread the use of plain language.
This group remains at the center of the movement in the United States. Now called
PLAIN—the Plain Language Action and Information Network—we created this website
to help others learn about and use plain language." Definition page description: "Many
definitions of plain language exist. Fundamentally, when we write in plain language,
we present information in a way that makes it as easy as possible for people to understand.
All definitions emphasize the importance of audience, clarity, and comprehension.
You can find common threads in the articles linked from this page." Site offers
Examples, How To/Tools, Why Plain Language, Using Plain Language, and Resources. |
Poynter Online
http://www.poynter.org/
"Everything you need to be a better journalist" -- Home of the Poynter Institute, "a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalism." You can learn about the institute's many seminars and conventions, access online journalism tutorials, read award-winning reports and commentary, and much more. (The resources provided for journalists on this site are exceptional.) |
WORDCOUNT - Tracking the Way We Use Language
http://www.wordcount.org/main.php
WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness. Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is. Name
Game is a fun way to make use of WordCount. |
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