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Online resources for writers
February 1, 2010
Is the correct spelling “embarass” or “embarrass”? Does the word “pants” mean the same thing in British English as it does in American English?
With the rapid evolution of language, PR pros are generating more questions about understanding and spelling unfamiliar terms.
Here are several resources to help you:
Dictionary.com — A reputable site that licenses Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary and The American Heritage Dictionary.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English — An excellent source for distinguishing meanings of American and British English words.
@JohnEMcIntyre Twitter feed — A Baltimore Sun copyeditor for more than 23 years, John McIntyre is the dean of copyeditors.
@Copyediting Twitter feed — A must for in-depth insights on the latest language issues.
Style & Substance blog — The Wall Street Journal’s language blog by longtime Journal copyeditor Paul Martin.
Grammarphobia blog — Written by renowned authors and former New York Times editors, Grammarphobia is one of the best language blogs available.
“The Elephants of Style” — In this book, Washington Post copyeditor Bill Walsh covers the most confounding language issues specific to journalism.
“Eats, Shoots & Leaves” — An instant classic by journalist Lynne Truss, who takes a hilarious look at punctuation.
The Chicago Manual of Style — The online version is only available by subscription, but a Q-and-A section is available free.
Other online resources to expand your English vocabulary and grammar:
Enso Words universal spellcheck
Orangoo free spellcheck
Verbix: conjugate verbs in 100+ languages
Visuwords online graphical dictionary
Merriam-Webster’s Visual Dictionary
OneLook — a re
This site searches hundreds of online dictionaries, encyclopedias and other references to find the word you are looking for. Type a concept, phrase or question into the search box and OneLook will return a list of words and phrases related to that concept. You can also find a specific word if you know its definition.
Definr — the incredibly fast dictionary
You can also add the Definr search extension to your Firefox browser for easy dictionary access and subscribe to the Definr Word of the Day RSS feed with your newsreader to expand your English vocabulary.
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