{"id":1030,"date":"2009-06-29T11:05:11","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T16:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bspcn.com\/2009\/06\/29\/50-helpful-resources-that-will-enhance-your-writing-skills\/"},"modified":"2009-06-29T11:05:11","modified_gmt":"2009-06-29T16:05:11","slug":"50-helpful-resources-that-will-enhance-your-writing-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/29\/50-helpful-resources-that-will-enhance-your-writing-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Helpful Resources That Will Enhance Your Writing Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Smashing Editorial<\/a><\/p>\n

Effective writing skills<\/strong> are to a writer what petrol is to a car. Like the petrol and car relationship, without solid skills writers cannot move ahead. These skills don’t come overnight, and they require patience and determination. You have to work smart and hard to acquire them. Only with experience, you can enter the realm of effective, always-in-demand writers.<\/p>\n

Of course, effective writing requires a good command of the language in which you write or want to write. Once you have that command, you need to learn some tips and tricks so that you can have an edge over others in this hard-to-succeed world of writers. There are some gifted writers, granted. But gifted writers also need to polish their skills frequently in order to stay ahead of competition and earn their livelihood.<\/p>\n

We collected over 50 useful and practical tools and resources<\/strong> that will help you to improve your writing skills. You will find copywriting blogs, dictionaries, references, teaching classes, articles, tools as well as related articles from other blogs. Something is missing? Please let us know in the comments to this post!<\/p>\n

1. Grammar, Punctuation & Co.<\/h3>\n

Ultimate Style: The Rules Of Writing<\/a>
The web’s ultimate guide to grammar provides a database of topics and an easy-to-search A-Z list of common questions (via<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Use English Punctuation Correctly<\/a>
A quick and useful crash course in English punctuation.<\/p>\n

HyperGrammar<\/a>
An extensive electronic grammar course at the University of Ottawa’s Writing Centre.<\/p>\n

Grammar Girl<\/a>
Mignon Fogarty’s quick and dirty tips for better writing. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Better Writing Skills<\/a>
This site contains 26 short articles with writing tips about ampersands, punctuation, character spacing, apostrophes, semicolons and commas, difference between i.e. and e.g. etc.<\/p>\n

The Guide to Grammar and Writing<\/a>
An older, yet very useful site that will help you to improve your writing on word & sentence level, paragraph level and also essay & research paper level.<\/p>\n

\"HyperGrammar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Writer’s Block<\/a>
A compact resource with over 20 articles that cover abbreviations, capitalization, numbers, punctuation, word usage and writing styles.<\/p>\n

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant<\/a>
This site contains some useful articles that explain common grammar mistakes, basic punctuation, basic sentence concepts etc. Worth visiting and reading. The Learning Centre<\/a> contains similar articles, but with more examples.<\/p>\n

Jack Lynch’s Guide to Grammar and Style<\/a>
These notes are a miscellany of grammatical rules and explanations, comments on style, and suggestions on usage put by Jack Lynch, an Associate Professor in the English department of the Newark campus of Rutgers University, for his classes.<\/p>\n

English Style Guide<\/a>
This guide is based on the style book which is given to all journalists at The Economist. The site contains various hints on how to use metaphors, punctuation, figures, hyphens etc. Brief and precise.<\/p>\n

\"HyperGrammar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Technical Writing<\/a>
An extensive guidance on grammar and style for technical writing.<\/p>\n

40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation<\/a>
“Purdue University maintains an online writing lab<\/a> and I spent some time digging through it. Originally the goal was to grab some good tips that would help me out at work and on this site, but there is simply too much not to share.”<\/p>\n

2. Common mistakes and problems<\/h3>\n

Common Errors in English<\/a>
A collection of common errors in English, with detailed explanations and descriptions of each error.<\/p>\n

AskOxford: Better Writing<\/a>
A very useful reference for classic errors and helpful hints with a terrible site navigation.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Grammar’s Frequently Asked Questions<\/a>
Answers to common grammar questions related to English grammar, with examples and additional explanations.<\/p>\n

English Grammar FAQ<\/a>
A list of common English language problems and how to solve them. This list was compiled through an extensive archive of postings to alt.usage.english by John Lawler, Linguistics, U. Michigan, Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n

3. General Writing Skills<\/h3>\n

Writer’s Digest<\/a>
Writer’s Digest offers information on writing better and getting published. The site also includes community forums, blogs and huge lists of resources for writers (via<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Infoplease: General Writing Skills<\/a>
Various articles that aim to teach students how to write better.<\/p>\n

\"Infoplease\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Elements of Style<\/a>
A freely available online version of the book “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk, Jr., the classic reference book.<\/p>\n

Poynter Writing Tools<\/a>
A blog dedicated to writers and journalists. Poynter also provides Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List<\/a>, a collection of podcasts related to writing.<\/p>\n

\"Poynter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

learning lab \/ writing skills<\/a>
This site offers over 20 .pdf-documents with main rules and common mistakes related to summarising, paraphrasing, referencing, sentences, paragraphs, linking words and business writing. Handy.<\/p>\n

Using English<\/a>
UsingEnglish.com provides a large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics. Browse our grammar glossary and references of irregular verbs, phrasal verbs and idioms, ESL forums, articles, teacher handouts and printables, and find useful links and information on English. Topics cover the spectrum of ESL, EFL, ESOL, and EAP subject areas.<\/p>\n

Online Writing Courses<\/a>
Free courses are a great way to improve your writing skills. The courses shown here focus on several types of creative writing, including poetry, essay writing and fiction writing.<\/p>\n

4. Practical Guides To Better Writing Skills<\/h3>\n

Copywriting 101: An Introduction to Copywriting<\/a>
This tutorial is designed to get you up and running with the basics of writing great copy in ten easy lessons. Afterwards, you’ll get recommendations for professional copywriting training, plus links to tutorials on SEO copywriting and writing killer headlines.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Guide to Writing Well<\/a>
“This guide was mainly distilled from On Writing Well by William Zinsser and The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Other sources are listed in the bibliography. My memory being stubborn and lazy, I compiled this so I could easily refresh myself on writing well. I hope it will also be helpful to others.”<\/p>\n

Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet<\/a>
The ultimate cheat sheet with various Web copy resources that copywriters can use to lean the best writing tips and ideas. More copywriting cheat sheets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Headlines and Trigger Words<\/h4>\n