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The following sites are recommended by your peers as helpful to all writers who want to improve their grammar or settle a punctuation or usage question once and for all.
A must to bookmark for any writing resource list: it's comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand. This online writing lab covers the basics of English grammar and usage, with examples of common mistakes.
While not terribly user-friendly to scan through, this site actually has some great resources for students looking to answer a broad range of questions, including basic grammar, when to use "I," gender-sensitive language, and help for writing specific types of papers for specific departments.
This site is detailed, easy to understand, and uses many clear examples, but you can't look anything up quickly on it. You can type in your question in natural language and chances are, Grammar Girl has answered it before. This site is good for those who are still confused after visiting a site like the Purdue OWL because it's more thorough than others. Also, I recommend reading the podcasts rather than listening to them (to avoid annoying ads).
George Mason University's Writing Center resource page is both extensive and friendly to use, and includes major-specific tips on writing.
An amusing site with interactive grammar exercises, as well as easy-to-access (though not the most comprehensive) lists of grammar rules.
Funny short films about grammar usage on YouTube.
Another comprehensive site that is easy-to-use and friendly-looking. Also includes citation and general writing tips, as well as another helpful list of links for English as Second Language writers.
The online version of the popular research guide, Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, by Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister. Everything you ever wanted to know about the nitty-gritty of research papers, including the MLA, APA, and Chicago citation styles.
Yes, there's more to writing in the digital age than word processing. Check out these cool tools real writers use.
This zooming presentation editor makes PowerPoint look totally passe. It's fairly easy to learn to use and can help you convey complex ideas and information in a fresh, dynamic, visual way. Check out the example prezis and explore the possibilities.
Based on the wiki concept, SpringNote is a free, intuitive, fun note-taking tool. It even has an iPhone application, because your best ideas often come when you're farthest from your laptop or the library. Taking notes on readings, lectures, convos, and meetings has never been simpler.
The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus that helps you discover the connections between words in a visual way. It can be especially helpful to those learning English to literally see how closely connected various synonyms are perceived to be.
Great for research papers of all kinds, including senior capstone projects. Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your workâin the web browser itself.
