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Gary B. Larson
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Garbl's Online Grammar Guides is an annotated directory of websites where you can find answers to your questions about sentence structure and using the parts of speech correctly. You'll also find a separate section below featuring websites with advice on punctuation.
Reference books make great gifts. They're used again and again.
Garbl's Editorial Style Manual--This style guide can help answer your writing questions about abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, numbers, organization terminology, punctuation, spelling and word usage.
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Daily Grammar--Bill Johanson, junior high school English teacher, and Word Place Inc. of Orem, Utah |
Free service sends you email messages with a writing lesson five days of the week and a quiz on the sixth day.
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11 Rules of Writing--Junket Studies, a private tutoring service in northern New Jersey. |
A concise guide to the most commonly violated rules of writing, with examples of proper usage.
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EnglishClub English Grammar--Josef Essberger, Cambridge, England. |
This site is aimed at English as a Second Language students. Some lessons have grammar quizzes testing yourself. And there's a Help Desk if you still don't understand something.
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English Grammar 101--Marvin L. Van Horne of Learning by Design, author, instructional designer and former intermediate and high school teacher in Orange County, California |
Online English grammar tutorial with interactive exercises and tests covering word, phrase and clause patterns; verb tense and verbal patterns; and verb form and sentence patterns.
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English lessons and tests--Elek Mathe, EnglishLearner.com, Budapest, Hungary |
Interactive English tests, exercises and puzzles for English learners from beginning to advanced in grammar, vocabulary and reading.
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EnglishPage.com--Language Dynamics |
Free online English lessons and exercises for intermediate and advanced learners of English as a foreign language.
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English Rules--Jane Straus, author of the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, communications consultant and lecturer, Mill Valley, California |
An online English grammar and punctuation reference guide including exercises with answers to test your knowledge. New edition available in print through my association with Amazon.com.
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Exploring English--Greg Dixon, Knowledge Explorer Centre, published by Shared Visions Unlimited, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. |
"Explore the wonders and quirks of the English Language including the parts of speech, sentences, style guidelines, usage, punctuation, spelling, and more."
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Good Grammar, Good Style--Helen Moody, Ph.D., Professional Training Co., New Mexico |
Articles on acronyms, passive writing, and the serial comma, and answers to frequently asked questions about grammar terms, verbs, pronouns, spelling, punctuation and other topics.
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Grambo--John Russial, associate professor of journalism, School of Journalism and Communications, University of Oregon |
This is a test of the Emergency Grammar System, and it's an amusing but helpful test of your knowledge.
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Grammar Bytes! Interactive Grammar Review--Robin L. Simmons. |
Grammar explanations, handouts for teachers and students, and interactive exercises.
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Grammar Grabbers--Bill Cutler, freelance/contract writer/ editor, Toronto, Ontario |
Professional Tips for the Amateur Writer (a not-so-serious guide to English grammar
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Grammar Handbook--Writers' Workshop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
Explains and illustrates the basic grammatical rules for parts of speech, phrases, clauses, sentences and sentence elements, and common problems of usage.
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Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors--Mary K. McCaskill, Langley Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia |
The Grammar chapter addresses problems often encountered in technical documents while the Sentence Structure chapter addresses issues like parallelism, emphasis, brevity and comparison.
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Guide to Grammar and Writing--Dedicated to the memory of Charles Darling, professor of English/humanities, Capital Community-Technical College, Hartford, Connecticut. |
Handouts on grammar and English usage, more than 150 computer-graded quizzes, and recommendations on writing--from basic problems in subject-verb agreement and the use of articles to exercises in parallel structures and help with argumentative essays.
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HyperGrammar--Writing Centre, University of Ottawa, Canada |
Includes sections on the parts of speech and sentences; using pronouns, verbs and modifiers; building phrases, clauses and sentences; and writing paragraphs.
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Internet Grammar of English--University College London. |
Online course on word classes, phrases, clauses, sentences, form and function.
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The King's English, Second Edition--H.W. Fowler, 1908, published online by the Bartleby Project, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. |
The classic text covering vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, grammar and all the rest! Third edition available in print through my association with Amazon.com.
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Loft Grammar Handouts--Writing Center Plus, North Seattle Community College, Washington |
Explanations and examples on writing sentences, spelling and using punctuation, adjectives, prepositions and verbs.
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Modern English Grammar--Daniel Kies, Department of English, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. |
"Hypertextbook" covering English clauses, phrases, word structure, grammatical style, punctuation and even the Ebonics debate.
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Myths and Superstitions of Writing--Gary B. Larson, Garbl's Writing Center, Seattle, Washington. |
Eleven "rules" disputed by respected writing authorities through the ages--from splitting infinitives to beginning sentences with and or but to ending sentences with prepositions.
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The Online English Grammar--Anthony Hughes, projects and development director, Digital Education Network Ltd., Bristol, United Kingdom. |
You can find specific grammar points or subjects in this resource using its Contents or Subject Index pages, an alphabetical finder and a keyword search.
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OWL Handouts: Grammar--Purdue University Online Writing Lab, West Lafayette, Indiana |
These OWL resources will help you use correct grammar in your writing. This area includes resources on grammar topics, such as count and noncount nouns, articles (a versus an), subject-verb agreement, and prepositions.
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Sentence Sense--written by Evelyn Farbman and designed by Charles Darling, professors of English at Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut |
An excellent interactive online textbook that offers three approaches to learning basic writing: examining how sentences work, focusing on common errors in written English and suggesting techniques and topics for developing ideas in writing.
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Some Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them--Melisa Michaels of Hawaii, author of seven novels--six science fiction and one mystery. |
Commentary on the apostrophe, phrase matching, spelling, identifying pronouns and being consistent.
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The Tongue Untied--Kellee Weinhold, School of Journalism, University of Oregon. |
This site provides instruction in basic grammar, sentence structure and word choice, as well as rules for punctuation according to the Associated Press Style.
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The Writer's Complex Workshop--Empire State College, New York |
Scroll to the links with explanations and exercises on essay writing, punctuation, grammar and style
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Writing English--Proofreading and Copyediting Services, George Robinson, Montreal |
Writing tips, advice on writing cover letters and resumes, links, and an online glossary of English grammar terms.
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Writing Exercises for Engineers and Scientists--editors from Virginia Tech, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Texas at Austin |
Interactive writing exercises to help engineers and scientists with grammar, punctuation, usage, style and knowledge of written English.
Creativity | Writing Process | Grammar | Style and Usage | Reference Sources | Words |Fat-Free Writing |Plain Language | Action Writing | Word Play | Favorite Writers
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Punctuation
Besides the links below, some of the grammar sites above also provide guidelines for using punctuation--and so do most of the style manuals listed in the Style and Usage directory. Also check out punctuation in Garbl's Editorial Style Manual.
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Chapter 3. Punctuation from Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors--Mary K. McCaskill, Langley Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia |
This chapter addresses the marks of punctuation, in alphabetical order, presenting their functions, situations when the marks are required or incorrect and situations when the marks are appropriate but optional.
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A Functional Guide to Some Problems of English Punctuation--Tim Caudery, Department of English, University of Aarhus, Denmark |
Unlike guides that organize punctuation usage under various punctuation marks, this guide is organized according to the functions of punctuation, the different things that punctuation can be used for.
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Guides for the Grammatically Perplexed--Arnie Keller, Department of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
Focuses on one punctuation mark at the moment with The Comma Cruncher: How To Make Your Comma Behave Themselves and a step by step guide for where the comma goes and doesn't go.
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Punctuation Made Simple--Gary A. Olson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Illinois State University |
These articles will give you a sense of how to use colons, semicolons, commas, dashes and apostrophes in your prose.
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Punctuation--Purdue University Online Writing Lab, West Lafayette, Indiana |
Rules and exercises covering commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, hyphens and other punctuation marks.
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Punctuation--Frances Peck, Writing Centre, University of Ottawa |
Several sections can help you understand and use different types of punctuation more effectively in your writing. Includes exercises on identifying errors and adding punctuation.
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Punctuation Handout--Student Learning Assistance Center, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos |
Style guides and rules for using commas, semicolons, colons, dashes, italics, quotation marks, hyphens, parentheses and apostrophes.
Creativity | Writing Process | Grammar | Style and Usage | Reference Sources | Words |Fat-Free Writing |Plain Language | Action Writing | Word Play | Favorite Writers
[ Home ] [ Writing Resources Home ] [ Style Manual ] [ Plain English Guide ] [ Concise Writing Guide ] [ Writing Bookshelf ] [ What's New ]
Created by Gary B. Larson of Seattle, Washington, garbltoo@gmail.com.
Updated July 18, 2010.