Acronym Finder – Searchable database of 80,000+ acronyms and meanings. Covers: common acronyms, computers, technology, government, telecommunications, and military acronyms.
AskOxford.com – For questions on English grammar, spelling, and usage. Search a dictionary of words, names or quotations.
A.Word.ADay – The music and magic of words. This is the website for the mailing list A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), which sends a vocabulary word and its definition to the subscribers every day.
Bartleby.com: Strunk’s Element of Style (1918) – For use in English courses in which the practice of composition is combined with the study of literature. It aims to give in brief space the principal requirements of plain English style.
The Book of Cliches – A compilation of common phrases, euphemisms, and rationales for times of trouble. Organized by occasion.
Braintique: The Natural Way to Write – A process and system for helping people become better writers. The site includes exercises, examples, and information about descriptive writing and metaphors.
Cliche – List of 2000 English cliches with some statistical and literary notes on their use.
Cliche Finder – Special tool word-searches 3,300 cliches.
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.
Common Errors in English – Catalogue of writing or speaking mistakes and easily confusable words, with corrections.
Crazy Colour Writing Skills Handbook – Includes useful tips to help your spelling including homophones, words often misspelled, a dictionary search, an introduction to fingerspelling. Grammar, spelling and writing style guide.
Deadwood Phrases – Prune the deadwood phrases from your writing. Site lists the worst from A to Z.
The Economist Style Guide – Guide based on the style book given to all journalists at The Economist.
E-dition: Dictionary of Concise Writing – A look at word usage in popular culture. The Dictionary of Concision is a complete manual of several thousand wordy phrases.
Garbl’s Editorial Style Manual – Provides advice on abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, numbers, plurals, possessives, punctuation, spelling and word usage.
Glossarist.com – A searchable directory of thousands of glossaries and topical dictionaries containing terms and definitions on hundreds of subjects.
Good Grammar, Good Style – Articles and answers to frequently asked questions about grammar, mechanics, and style. Links and bibliography.
Grammar Slammer – This help file indexes style and usage, capitalization, abbreviations, punctuation, letter writing, common mistakes and a grammar glossary.
Guide to Grammar and Style – The information ranges from copy editing to elements of style to discussions. Practical information about the writing craft.
Guide to Grammar and Writing – Digital handouts on grammar and English usage. From subject-verb agreement and use of articles to exercises in parallel structures and argumentative essays. You can submit questions about grammar and writing.
Guides for Better Science Writing – Bibliography of style manuals for scientific research, writing, and presentation. Guides for biology, medicine, chemistry, engineering, geology, and mathematics.
How to Write an Explication – Step-by-step directions to writing an explication. Good and bad examples provided.
NoodleBib – The MLA Bibliography Composer – A free tool to create, edit, and save your MLA-style bibliography online, then publish it to a Web page, email it, or save it as RTF and open it in Microsoft Word.
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing – Popular, award-winning online writing guide. Authoritative help with research, style, structure, major citation styles, mechanics, and revision.
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.
Plain English Campaign – An independent group fighting for plain English in public communication. We oppose gobbledygook, jargon and legalese.
Plain Language Action Network – Promoting clearer communication between the public and government. This site has resources for writers to attain that goal.
Pseudo Dictionary – The dictionary for words that wouldn’t make it into dictionaries.
A Research Guide for Students – How to write research papers, and do presentations. Virtual library of links arranged by Dewey Decimal Classification.
Rhetorical Figures – From alliteration to zeugma, and everything in between, all the figures of speech are here.
11 Rules of Writing – Concise guide to some of the most frequently violated rules of writing, punctuation, and grammar.
SecretariesUSA.com – Reference for the home and corporate office, including capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, forms of address, abbreviations, letter styles, and business forms.
SoYouWanna Avoid Common Writing Errors – We compiled a list of the most common writing errors people tend to make. This is not a primer on grammar or essay-writing. This is a checklist of things which you might well do and which you must stop doing.
The Sports Cliche List – A large, searchable collection of sports cliches, lingo, and jargon.
Suite 101: Communications Skills – Archive of articles covering writing and speaking skills, with emphasis on clear communication, basic design, communicating with international and multicultural audiences.
Tribe: Word Freaks – Group for people who love discussing words and writing style.
Tribe: Words of Power – For people who love words, use them, feel them in their mouths as flavorful bursts of energy. This is the tribe for fun with words and receptive learning.
Verbage – If you are looking for just the right word, you may find it here. If not, you can suggest your own.
Verbivore – Richard Lederer’s page, with contact information and a handful of his language-loving articles.
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 Well Bred Sentence – This book offers an intensive course in sentence construction and punctuation.
Wired Style – Notes on the emerging language of technology. Reference and discussion tool. Last updated 1997.
The Word Centre – Consulting firm dedicated to training businesses to use plain English. Free newsletter and professional editing services.
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 unique words, names, titles, coinages, puns, phrases, slogans and slang.
The Word Nerds – A weekly podcast about words, language, and why we say the things we do.
Word Quests – Word lists that provide thematic units of English words derived from Latin and Greek sources.
Word Rogues – Tips on writing, English, and grammar. This site also contains active community college English syllabii and links to other writing, grammar sites.
Wordelizer – Delve deeply into a word or subject. Quick search of several word and language related sites.
Wordiness – A list of words and phrases to purge from your writing.
WordWizard – Portal for word lovers. Learn about word meanings, slang, quotations, insults, and famous authors. Wordwizard offers a round trip across the English language.
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.
Writer’s Dreamtools – A series of useful tools to enhance writers’ and students’ creativity, spark ideas and fight writer’s block.
Yale Style Manual – For the design of Web pages and Web sites. Covers graphic and information design, page layout, Web graphics, site organization, navigation, and Web multimedia content.
