Improving Your Writing

Grammar, Vocabulary, and Other Details

Fundamentals and Print Books

Dictionary.com Every writer needs a dictionary - we just also happen to be fond of this online one. Fast and cheap.

Thesaurus.com is occasionally plagued by popup ads, but it's the most thorough thesaurus out there. Will find synonyms for even outlandish words.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves, subtitled "the zero tolerance approach to punctuation" will come as a relief to anyone who has ever given an angry rant about a mis-apostrophed sign in a public place. A wonderfully comic call to arms.

Woe is I is an approachable guide for those of us who have forgotten our grammar. It walks a nice line between reviewing the fundamentals and exploring the more esoteric aspects of our language. In particular, it covers those rules which we've heard but never really understood, and the archaic constructions which have died a natural death.

The Most Common Mistakes in English Usage is a book which is old-school but thorough. It focuses not on the basics of grammar - verbs, clauses, participles - but on the common errors that arise from confusion. This may be confusion between two words - lay and lie, infer and imply - or it may be a confusion of logical sentence order. A resource for those of us who are worried we don't communicate as precisely as we intend to.

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager and the Doomed In this goth's guide to grammar, the nouns are as likely to be vampires as debutantes - and despite the title, the book is a surprisingly cheerful read. Like Woe is I and other humorous grammar books, what it lacks in breadth it makes up for in fun.

GRAMMAR SITES AND ONLINE STYLE BOOKS

The University of Calgary grammar guide focuses on defining sentence elements and parts of speech but includes sections on plural v. possessive, improper word use, overuse of euphemism, and subject-verb agreement. Site employs frames and features quick automated quizzes within each section. May be more useful as a dictionary than as a teaching tool.

OWL is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab. It is clear enough to help someone with almost no exposure to grammar, but comprehensive enough to be useful to a writer with a strong grammar background. Includes printer-friendly quizzes.

Big Dog's Grammar is simple enough that it may frustrate more technically proficient authors, but its non-technical word choice and straightforward approach may be particularly helpful to young authors or authors who speak English as a second language. The site has a decent sense of humor and is heavy on examples.

The American Heritage Book of English Usage deserves to be worshipped by any dedicated grammarian. This book goes well beyond basic grammar rules and into the arenas of style and current usage. It includes sections on gendered language, science terms, and e-mail conventions. Extensive. (Also our Associate Editor's favorite website.)

The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White, may be the book most frequently assigned to high school and college classes. Features quotes such as: "vigorous writing is concise" and "avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language." Beloved by editors, teachers, and anyone else who does a lot of proofreading. Will improve anyone's writing. For a hard copy of the book, go here.

The King's English, published by H.W. Fowler in 1908, still feels modern thanks to its emphasis on clarity and simplicity of language. It contains an extensive section on common malapropisms, but its main emphasis is on style choices which will stand the test of time. Relatively brief.



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