Language Arts Guide
Straight Resources
PDF a la American Book Review
Learn and be encouraged to write a novel in 100 days with daily encouragement.
Find out what those abbreviations stand for.
“World’s largest dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms.
All about the evolution of alphabets.
The classic from Daniel Beard, who went on to found the Sons of Daniel Boone; the Field and Forest Handybook; Camplore and Woodcraft; the Outdoor Handybook; and the Jack of All Trades. Along with Lina and Adelia Belle they also wrote the American Girls Handybook; On The Trail; as well as others such as Shelters, Shacks and Shanties; or Boat Building and Boating. The sisters went on to found Girl Pioneers of America which became the Campfire Girls.
Dictionary of American Regional English
Documents the varieties of English that are not found everywhere in the United States–those words, pronunciations, and phrases that vary from one region to another.
Aphorisms Galore feeds your wit; “A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.”
How to use an apostrophe, explained ad infinitum.
The complete notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci online, for free…plus more “classics” as well.
Ask the experts, plus lots of FAQ’s…such as what is the longest English word or what comes after once, twice, thrice?
Dalkey Archive has many author interviews; three of note are Samuel Delany, David Foster Wallace and William Burroughs.
The Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library at Yale University is a treasure trove of everything from papyrus to playing cards.
Find similar books to ones you like for length, writing style, suspense, etc.
Publishers Marketplace Bookstore Maps can help you find where the best bookstores are if you’re new in town.
Brief books are in style: Ackroyd’s Brief Lives, Penguin Biographies, Books That Changed The World, Eminent Lives, Canongate Myth Series, Art of…(Grayworlf Press), Great Generals, American Presidents (TimesBooks), National Geographic Directions, Very Short Introductions.
A la Readers Digest; 100 word abstracts of articles from 50+ magazines.
Now onliine, this venerable tool is as informative as it is entertaining.
That’s right. Like most every endeavor, slang grew up around and through those who worked the big tent.
Listing of collective nouns, such as “an absence of waiters” and “a whored of prostitutes.”
College Level Vocabulary Lists
Resource acts like a mini Thesauraus, with the overused word followed by alternatives.
A collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers.
Countries, Cultures and Gestures
Large directory of how to go about greeting people in different cultures is just the beginning.
Creative writing challenges from the Warwick.
Collection of old comics and strips from early 20th century. The curator, Steven Stwalley, has this to say on Race and Ethnicity in Early Comics.
Such as aught (all, nothing), by (multiplication, division) and clip (fasten, detach).
Read books by email or RSS feed, a chapter at a time.
Words or phrases which modify some other word or phrase in a sentence should be clearly, firmly joined to them and not dangle off forlornly on their own.
Dictionary, encyclopedia and thesaurus, plus games.
Wiki of links to digital storytelling, from resources to examples; e.g. Johnnie Walker.
Gary Halbert’s newsletter archive; and here’s the letter that made him famous.
Slang from the 1930’s - such as abercrombie (know it all) or juicy (enjoyable).
The lexicon of fringe English, slang jargon and new words.
NYPL digital archive of book dust jackets from 1926-1947.
William Strunk’s classic is available online in a searchable format at Bartleby.
Emoticon dictionary for those not in the know.
English Words of Yiddish Origin
An encyclopedic reference work cataloging the world’s 6,912 known languages.
Online etymology dictionary helps you find the origin of words.
Online generator lets you play with euphemisms.
Over 2000 classics, from Aesop’s Fables to Beatrix Potter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oscar Wilde, Louisa May Alcott plus a rich folk and fairy tale collection.
Author Paul Dickson’s book on Google; words start on page 9; featured on NPR’s A Way With Words.
The most bookmarked articles on Instapaper.
Ever since the second grade, Alan Cooper has been interested in words like caret and carrot.
a free, high quality, professionally published, in-depth index of close to 4,000 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world; Browse by repository, collection or subject.
Flappers were women in the 1920’s who, following the first world war, flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior.
Online social pronunciation guide (a la Wikipedia)
Linguistic geography, or what’s spoken where, plus capital cities, flags, etc.
PDF of David Meermanscott’s treatise on PR talk, and where it misses the mark.
How to say that simple word can be difficult, if you’re talking about greetings in more than 800 languages.
History of the English Language
General history, anthology, language families, linguistics…plus many, many links to sites of interest.
English pronouncing dictionary, which instantly converts typed words querries into voice.
Human Brain Cloud A game that’s an experiment that’s eventually going to be a large database of words and phrases that people associate with words and phrases.
Using English has a database of over 2400 English language idioms and idiomatic expressions, from ‘a bit much’ to ‘zip your lip.’ And then Idiomsite has a large database of idioms, and why we say what we say.
Collection of ancient, medieval and classic texts from all over the world; translations from Greek, Old Norse, Medieval Irish, Japanese, Incan, Old French, Medieval Latin; site also includes a linguistics section.
Heron and Crane’s site features podcasts from MIT, Harvard, Yale and University of California presses. They also do a podcast about management called Invisible Hand.
Free online sound integrated resources for learning foreign languages.
A collection of essays, tables, scripts and facts about the study of language.
Large resource of Latin phrases and abbreviations.
Imagine a library that collected all the world’s information about all the world’s books and made it available for everyone to view and update. They’re building that library.
Multilingual dictionary and language learning site.
The International House of Logorrhea at Phrontistery is a free online dictionary of unusual words; includes 2 and 3 letter Scrabble words, feeding and eating and color terms.
The meaning of words: analysed into words and unverbal things, and unverbal things classified into intellections, sensations, and emotions. By A. B. Johnson …
Dedicated to contemporary metaphor and written for those who love language; check out their top ten metaphors.
Paradise Lost is introduced for first or second time readers at Darkness Visible.
[n: a statement expressed in proverbial or sentential form but having no general application or practical use whatever.]
Listen to stories…
New Yorker
Best American essays (1895-Present), and best short stories (1925-Present).
The Dictionary of English Phonesthemes (the correspondence between sound and meanings of words). Here’s an overview of the subject, here’s Wiki on sound symbolism, but don’t confuse it with onomatopoeia.
Details each of the consonants and vowels of American English with a real-time Flash animated articulatory diagram of each sound, video and audio of the sound spoken in context and an interactive diagram of the articulatory anatomy.
Classic Poetry Aloud has over 200 poems, by over 80 poets, read aloud.
Home of the award for excellence in journalism, letters, et al, including archives from 1917-2007.
Helps you search by categorizing common search terms on the right hand side of the page with a cloud of related terms on the left; then click on one of the cloud items and it modifies your search results.
History’s greatest replies? Try this site, with quips from Groucho Marxs, Dorothy Parker, W.C. Fields, Mae West and Oscar Wilde, to name a few.
Bare bones but very useful; includes guidelines for technical writing from layout and style guides, plus links to other resources.
is a rhetoric primer, while the Rhetorica Network is a source for learning to implement rhetoric in your writing, and comes complete with a whole host of helpful links.
Mr Gradgrind’s literal answers to rhetorical questions.
Definitions and examples of over 60 rhetorical devices to help improve the effectiveness and clarity of writing.
The wooly thinkers guide to rhetoric.
University of Kentucky’s Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with examples.
Online rhyming dictionary and Thesauraus.
Author and illustrator has concerns beyond where the wild things are; the critics are never far away; a conversation with Maurice on Fresh Air.
Slang dictionary from Peevish.
First decade in America where youth culture (flappers) was emphasized.
90’s Slang
90’s slang and terms from InThe90’s
Design your novel before you write
Quintura is a visual search engine whereby your search term is centered in a cloud, and related search items are arrayed outside.
The shorter Thesaurus: enter a long word and receive shorter synonyms.
Thinkmap’s visual thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words.
Ethnologue is an online encyclopedia of Western signs and ideograms.
Translate words, phrases, even entire web sites into another language.
100 words all high school graduates and their parents should know, by American Heritage.
Enter a book you like and it will generate next read ideas
Top 10 Writers Blogs
CatalystBlogger; CopyBlogger; Copywriter Underground; copywritingmaven; FreelanceParent; Freelance Writing Jobs; Get Paid To Write Online; TheGoldenPencil; Heather Strang, Writer; Ink In My Coffee; TheRenegadeWriter; TheUrbanMuse; Web Content Writers Tips; WebWritingInfo; WriteFromHome; WriterMama; WritersResourceCenter; Writing For Writers; Writing The Cyber Highway.
Writers
P.J. O’Rourke; David Foster Wallace;
Links to articles about writing for the web, at Useit. Here you’ll also find their three main guidelines.
Yankee or Dixie
Harvard Computer Society Dialect Survey. North American Regional Vocabulary Survey. Dialect Map of American English.
Yiddish Handbook - 40 words you should know.
Alternative Resources
A place to learn how to speak as if it were the 19th century.
Can you guess where my accent is from?
Slang, profanities, insults and vulgarisms from all over the world.Animal Sounds“World’s biggest multilingual list of animal sounds.”
25 words you didn’t know, by List Universe.
38 ways to win an argument
Aptonyms are words aptly suited to their owners
changethis has an archive of modern manifestos, from Seth Godin’s charge to rise above mediocrity to Hugh MacLeod’s encouraging “How to be creative.” (Thoughtplay)
A clearinghouse for a dizzying amount of articles on various subjects (that’s literal . . . the text-heavy page can actually induce dizziness).
Download books, magazines, newspapers and radio shows (35000+).
What are the best words of the English language? It’s open for any additions you may wish to recommend.
Ship of Fools insult generator: “I pray thou shalt be mocked by eunechs, thou child of Jezebel!”
“Books, illustrations, science, history, visual materia obscura, et al.
Blogspot of the venerable Book Forum
whatshouldireadnext is an idea generator; type in the book you last read, and it will generate next-read ideas.
University of Delaware’s “200 Years of Children’s Books”
Explore the Etymology and Symbolism of the Constellations
Select crossword puzzles from multiple sources.
Then check out this free online service for figuring out that dang word.
Take a virtual tour in flash
Data Visualization Infosthetics is an amazing resource for data visualization and visual communication.
The dead letter office, a place where you write your own anonymous farewell letter, then store it
The work of Dr. C. George Boeree.
International Dialects of English Archive
Primary source recordings of native speakers from around the world.
Dictionary of Management Jargon
The empty statements, circular reasoning, negative declarations, opposite qualifiers, vacuous reasoning, et al of management by obscurity.
From soup jockey to maiden’s delight, it’s all here (and vanishing fast).
The famous punctuation book’s official website hosts a punctuation and comma interactive game (quibble all you want).
A Literary Weblog that’s a Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog , A Forbes “Best of the Web” Pick, a Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog and “Really brave … or really stupid” - NPR.
List of American English words not commonly used in Britian.
List of British English words not commonly used in American English.
Visual references to English idioms.
Common errors in English
List of 876 “essentialist explanations” of the form “Language X is essentially Language Y under conditions C.”
is the toughest word game on the web. What’s your score - 10 out of 10?
Growing compendium of made up words (e.g. “adversation: when you’re talking to someone and you realize they aren’t listening, they are instead just trying to sell you something.”)
you won’t learn in school: A-Z including, À boire ou je tue le chien! (Bring me something to drink or I kill the dog!)
The first letter of the alphabet is Aleph.
Read of humanistic ideas as they break through into history for the first time.
A place for humor writers and others to share words they believe are inherently funny.
Correctness is only the beginning; precision is the ultimate goal.
Words with identical spellings but different meanings when pronounced differently.
Site is a construction kit where you can weave your own historic tale by using images from the Bayeaux Tapestry.
The books of Thomas Jefferson at the Library of Congress.
The Hyde Collection Catablog is the greatest collection of Samuel Johnson, one book at a time.
Knights
In Camelot there lived Knight Errants who roamed the lands in search of good deeds in order to earn their salvation. The journey would be one of virtue and piety.
Linguistic blog
Linguistic blog and archive of the derivation of words.
Handy latin phrases you can’t live without
One person’s attempt to write a limerick for every word.
Coffee Break Spanish, from two Scottish wits, is never a bore.
Interviews with writers indexed at the Atlantic.
The definitive lolcats glossary; o hai! welcum to Speak LOLspeak! u has a place here for gathers and peeps LOL! nu memberz alwayz welcome!
Blog about magazines written by people who work in and on and love magazines.
The Postcard Crossing Project - don’t you just love to receive actual mail…how about postcards from complete strangers? Join and reap…
A writer’s internet tendency is a quarterly (kind of) written by nervous people in relative obscurity.
“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one,” and so MagCloud asks for a pdf, and they’ll print, take care of the mailing and manage subscriptions.
Source of the nearly 100 new words added in 2007, including “ginormous.”
The 100 most often mispronounced words.
Blogspot that’s not to be missed
Home to Blast, Poetry Magazine, Le Petite Journal des Refuses and a searchable biographical database.
Naciente.com
Source of Important Infrequently Used Words You Should know.
wattpad is the source of 33 names of things you didn’t know had names.
A resource to help you discover how popular your baby’s name is.
…in 520 languages.
Numbers from 1-10 in over 5000 languages.
Names of really large numbers can be found here.
The origins of words you hear in the office (Neatorama).
List of 15 palindromes (same spelling backward and forward), such as my favorite: Borrow or rob?
An anthology of many paradoxes.
Don’t you just love to receive actual mail…how about postcards from complete strangers? Join and reap…
A resource of over 17000 quotations.
Where made up words that don’t fit in real dictionaries find a home.
Punctuation Marks
Neatorama has “The origin of everyday punctuation symbols.”
Classic novels in Powerpoint form.
The Realist Archives project is a work in progress to reprint all 146 issues of Paul Krassner’s uncompromising magazine.
Rejected Letters To The Editor
Site selects letters that they believe will add to the public understanding of the pressing, and not so pressing, issues of the day.
Reviews on thousands of mysteries and thrillers by more than 30 reviewers in the US, the UK and Australia.
As you type, hold the alt key and click on a word to find a rhyme for it.
The only Scottish vernacular dictionary online, I think…
A dictionary of terms and phrases for the Seinfield fan.
Shakespeare
Words and phrases he invented, or rather, whose documented first usage occured within his works.
Over 2,000 short stories are available at the American Literature site.
Animated gifs of sign language.
The sorted books project, by nina Katchadourian, sorts individual book collections and features their own idiosyncracies…
5-ton (tactical vehicle weighing 5 tons) to sand box (Iraq, especially southern tip).
Insultmonger - and their swearasaurous - learn to swear in many languages (Warning: much female nudity).
Learn how to swear in any language.
Text to speech is something to play around with.
Titlepage TV is passionate talk about books.
Great Books. Good Stories. Every Day.
“I was in the hammer lane doing double nickles in my wiggle wagon when this county mounty shot me in the back.”
Contemporary Turkish literature translated into English; A Mid-Summer Night’s Story, Turkish Poetry (side by side translations) and selected stories of childhood and youth.
Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means “stereotyped and trite”. In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.
Twittering the first line of books (strangely addictive).
Site of the creative word challenge; such as sloliloquist (slow talker).
Photographs of advertising, graffiti, signage, tattoos, etc. (”words taken from the real world”).
A visual categorization (periodic table) of techniques for visualizing data, concepts, strategies and metaphors.
Online graphical dictionary that provides a mouseover definition, and network of associations and related concepts.
Estimate Size of your Vocabulary
Ten minute test from a reduced sampling (100) of 15,000 words.
Want to vent on your least favorite weasel words?
Make lists of your favorite words, words you hate, words you wish others wouldn’t use…………..
A blog dedicated to its history, the origins of words and it’s modern characteristics. Read author Suzanne Kemmer’s A Brief History of English, With Chronology.
Woogle is words in pictures.
Delicious nonce words; an excellent article by the author entitled Fan-diddly-damn-tastic!
More than 1600 pages on the origins, history, evolution and idiosyncrasies of the English language worldwide.
Life and works of William Butler Yeats online via National Library of Ireland.
Yiddish words and expression collection
Free Books
Audio book reviews.
Read over 2000 classics, book reviews, study guides, and reference books.
Free online book club and book lover community
Exchange used books with Book Mooch, using a points system.
‘Library to the world” with over 15,000 books, 39,000 web links, 4,000 news and blog links and access to hundreds of online libraries with over 800,000 ebooks.
Read books via eMail.
Download plain text novels.
Read the classics online; select “full view books” under the options page for best effect.
Project Gutenberg offers the largest online resource of free books (20,000+), including “The notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci” to “A History of China” by Wolfram Eberhard.
Archive of open source text material.
Free online audio books archive
Audio liberation of books in the public domain.
Free ebooks for your pda, ipod or ebook reader.
UPenn site of over 30,000 English works free for non-commerical use.
Free booknotes, study guides, and book reviews.
Free online podiocasts of serial audio books
Free, Creative Commons library of spoken books.
What are all of the names people have given to wind? Well….
Legally download high quality copyrighted ebooks free, including popular fiction and non-fiction, classics, college text books and comic books.