Writing Effective Sentences and Using Effective Words
When you need more information on Writing Effective Sentences
and Using Effective Words:
- The Impact of Words
- Style
- Conciseness
For additional help beyond our companion site access:
The
Elements of Style
Use Strunk and White's classic work to improve your writing style.
The
UVic Writer's Guide
Sponsored by the Department of English at the University of
Victoria, this site includes extra coverage of word usage,
spelling, and gender-inclusive language.
Sentences
That Are Too Long or Too Loose
This site offers a short guide to fixing sentences that are too
verbose.
Some
Strategies for Improving Sentence Clarity
This site offers some good hints to help you focus the meaning of
your sentences.
Conciseness:
Methods of Eliminating Wordiness
This site offers tips on not wasting words.
Search
Roget's Thesaurus at ARTFL Project: ROGET'S Thesaurus Search Form
This site from the University of Chicago is an online searchable
thesaurus.
OneLook Dictionary
An index of almost 3 million words!
Avoiding
Gender Bias in Pronouns
From the site: "Biased language can cause your reader to
focus on how you say something rather than what you say. If your
language is free of bias, it should offend no one; ideally, no one
should even notice that you have made an effort to reduce sexually
biased words and phrases."
OED
Word of the Day
Get the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the day. The OED
provides the complete history of a word. The entire dictionary is
password-protected, but the word of the day is free.
Parallelism
This site explains how to write a good parallel sentence.
Parallel
Structure
This site, from the Purdue OWL, has a detailed explanation of
parallel structure with examples.
Coordination
and Subordination
This site presents in handy chart form the various options for
combining two sentences into one.
Independent
and Dependent Clauses/Walrus
Interesting graphical conceptualizations of clauses and their
relationships.
The
Order of a Sentence/University of Ottawa
Excellent contrast between the "loose" and
"periodic" sentence structures.
Independent
and Dependent Clauses - Definitions/Purdue University Online
Writing Lab (OWL)
Includes definitions of grammatical elements and examples.
Hypertext
Webster Gateway
This site has a searchable dictionary online.
Bartleby.com: Great
Books Online
This "preeminent Internet publisher of literature, reference,
and verse" gives writers and students fast access to several
important reference works on, and numerous classic practitioners
of the bon mot.
Common
Errors in English
This interactive site gives clear and entertaining explanations of
many common errors in word usage.
Spelling
This site offers a guide to spelling with exercises online.
Commonly
Misspelled Words
This site offers some good advice on spelling with a list of
frequently misspelled words.
Hypertext
Webster Gateway
Not sure how to spell it? Look it up in this searchable Webster's
Dictionary.
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