• Photographic dictionary: Very sleeky and useful. I know the word “blurry” too well.
• Social Butterfly Does bad grammar make you [sic]? [Yes!]
• Your Writing Is Killing Your Writing: I’m a perfectionist, hear me whimper. But I’ve learned to let go. Even if the topic doesn’t interest you, check out the picture.
• How to Handle Monumental Screwups When They DO Happen.
• How to Increase Revenue Fast! See #6 for an amazing and creative tip. Another goodie from same blog (TPE guy is awesome!): 163 Ways How To Become An Entrepreneur.
• RevenueTwoPointZero: Offers four strategies for funding journalism.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Photographs of residents in their flats in Hong Kong’s oldest public housing estate: 100 rooms, each 100 square feet in size. And to think some of us complain about 2,000+ sq. feet homes?
• FunPhotoBox: Easier and funner than Photoshopping your photos.
• Font Game: Can you figure out the fonts?
• Illusions Database: A new illusion every day.

• Getting Things Done with Twitter: Don’t like the idea of paying through Twitter.
• Twitterfall: A New Twitter Tool for Journalists: I get nervous about new twitter tools because they can boost your addiction and time spent on twitter [Link: Esther]. And a link to Twitterfall.
• Becoming a Great Programmer: Use Your Trash Can by Esther Schindler.
• What the Hashtag? Can’t figure out what the # means in twitter? Wonder no more.
• Word Count Plus FireFox Plugin: Counts number words in selected text and total.
• How to Be Likeable: 10 Things You Can Do Today [Link: GL Hoffman]
• SPOGG: Society for the Promotional of Good Grammar
• Poll: What is the first media outlet you look/listen in order to get your news on a daily/consistent basis? Saddened (but not surprised) to see print low on the list. Created with twtpoll (multiple choice only).

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 12 Awesome Foosball Tables: WOW. Hubby would love one of these, but they’ll remain admired from afar just like his favorite Corvette ‘61.
• The Great Pyramid PC Mod: Cool.
• 10 tips to give up Facebook during Lent
• Evaluate tech purchases: Retrevo and Wize [Link: Web Worker Daily]

Just had to share this grammar blooper from PC Magazine’s Mother’s Day article. Perhaps, the magazine wanted to emphasize Mom belongs to you in superlative terms.

Of course, I wanted to know what gadgets they recommended for us geeky moms.

I had planned on putting this list up ages ago, but kept adding more. It could take a long time to capture many resources, so this is a living entry that I’ll update as soon as I get new resources.

Blogs

1. About Freelance Writing
2. All Freelance Writing
3. Be the Story
4. The Blood-Red Pencil
5. Bob Bly
6. Book Marketing Bestsellers
7. The Book Sistah
8. C. Hope Clark
9. CatalystBlogger
10. Confident Writing
11. Copyblogger
12. The Copywriter Underground
13. The Copywriting Maven
14. Copywriting That Sells High Tech
15. Crime Fiction Dossier
16. Daily Writing Tips
17. Diary of a Wordsmith
18. Evil Editor
19. Freelance Parent
20. Freelance Writing
21. Freelance Writing Jobs
22. Get Paid to Write Online
23. Grow Your Writing Business
24. How Not to Write
25. I’d Rather Be Writing
26. Inkwell Editorial
27. Jane in Progress
28. Joel Falconer
29. Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog
30. JohnAugust.com
31. PoeWar
32. Macabre Ink
33. Mad Young Thing
34. Men with Pens
35. Mike’s Writing Workshop
36. Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
37. Paul Conley on trade journalism
38. Poewar List of Bloggers Writers Should Read
39. Publishing Careers
40. Problogger
41. Robust Writing
42. Quiet Rebel Writer
43. Quips and Tips for Freelance Writers
44. The Renegade Writer
45. Remarkable Communication
46. Rogue Ink
47. Sites and Soundbytes: Library blog that began as a list of cool places online now features many resources and online references that would prove useful to writers.
48. StoneWriter
49. Storytellers Unplugged
50. The Struggling Writer
51. Tumblemoose
52. Urban Muse
53. The Wealthy Freelancer
54. The Web-Savvy Writer
55. Web Writing Info
56. The Well-Fed Writer
57. WOW! Women on Writing
58. Words for Hire
59. Words on the Water
60. Word Sell Blog
61. Write from Home
62. Writer Beware
63. Writer Dad
64. Writer Mama
65. Writer’s Digest Writing Blogs
66. A Writer’s Words, an Editor’s Eye
67. Writer’s Helper
68. Writer’s Notes
69. Write to Done
70. Write Well Me
71. The Writing Journey
72. The Writing Life
73. Writing on the Web
74. Writing White Papers Blog
75. Written Road

Resources

1. 100 posts and articles worth link love: Great selection of articles and content related to writing, business, blogging, and freelancing.
2. 150 Writing Resources: Organized by categories.
3. 1000 Keyboards: Community where writers share, critique and discuss.
4. A to Z of Alternative Words [pdf file]: Why “utilize” when a simple “use” will do?
5. AbiWord: Open source Word
6. About Freelance Writing: Job postings, articles, and more.
7. AbsoluteWrite: The first place I recommend to wanna be writers. Of course, it’s great for experienced writers.
8. Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts: Collection of about 14,000 “classic” public domain documents from American and English literature as well as Western philosophy.
9. American vs. British Grammar: Differences go beyond color vs. colour, optimize vs. optimise.
10. Authors of Historical Fiction resource
11. Bartleby: Resource has been around for a long-time that contains reference and verses for writers, researchers, and the “intellectually curious.”
12. CARRIE: Internet’s first full-text online electronic library.
13. Community Mottos and Nicknames. Great info for stories and inspiration for names.
14. Confusing Words: Over 3000 troublesome words.
15. Digital Library of the Commons: An archive of full-text articles, papers, and dissertations; the Comprehensive Bibliography of the Commons; a Keyword Thesaurus, and links to relevant reference sources on the study of the commons.
16. Disability Writes: Site to help people with disabilities overcome barriers in getting support and encouragement to write.
17. e-write: newsletter, courses, articles, tools, resources, challenge.
18. Etymology: Study of word origins.
19. For Copywriters Only: Articles and newsletter.
20. The Free Dictionary: Dictionary, encyclopeida, thesaurus, and more. Huge resource.
21. Freelance Folder: More about the business of freelancing, but writers benefit greatly.
22. Freelance Writing Success: Articles and resources.
23. FundsForWriters: Articles, newsletters, and more.
24. Fun with Words: Wordplay
25. Google Book Search: Access thousands of books based on your keywords. How much you get depends on the book and its copyright.
26. Guide to Grammar and Writing: Guidelines and resources for writing proposals.
27. Little Known Online Research Sites: List of online research sites and apps.
28. Long Story Short: Ezine with book reviews, excerpts, interviews, articles, poetry, writing school.
29. Luciferous Logolepsy: Collection of obscure English words.
30. Manuscript Analyzer can help dump those trouble words and phrases. It looks for frequently-used words and “identify junk phrases, ‘frequent offender’ word patterns, and adverbs.”
31. NewsTrust.net: Discover good journalism based on quality not popularity.
32. OnceWritten.com: Introduces new fiction writers, contains a community, and provides resources for contests and marketing.
33. ParaPublishing: Newsletter and resources.
34. Phrase Finder: “Search beginnings and endings of phrases.”
35. Publication Coach Newsletter: Power Writing newsletter provides quick tips.
36. Publishing Central: Find articles from around the Web on just about every topic related to publishing.
37. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): Superb resources covering writing, research, grammar, and MLA and APA style.
38. ResearchCopyright.com: Learn about copyright law in simple language.
39. Research Guides from New York Public Library: New York Public Library research guides in alphabetical order by topic.’
40. That What Paper Guy: Articles, FAQ, and other great white paper writing resources from Gordon Graham.
41. The Ultimate Writing Productivity Resources: Top ten lists for free apps, online apps, bookmarks, communities.
42. Visuwords: Online graphical dictionary.
43. The Well-Fed Writer: Site behind the books of the same name. Sign up for the free newsletter.
44. Writing for Dollars: Articles and newsletter
45. WhitePaperSource: Excellent resource for white paper writers.
46. Worldwide Freelance Writer: Markets, newsletter, and articles.
47. Writing White Papers: Everything white papers including a community, blog, links, and newsletter.
48. WritingSpirit.com: Resources, strategies and support for writers.

Tools

1. About Writing Tools: Best writing tools on the Web.
2. Abbreviations: Search and browse abbreviations.
3. Anagram Genius
4. Charteous: Track Amazon sales ranks — especially for books.
5. Cliche Finder: Identify and kill cliches.
6. ClicheSite: Cliches, euphemesms, and figures of speech.
7. Chris Pound’s Name Generation Page: Includes fantasie, parodies, and more links.
8. The Editorium Freebies: Tools and templates for Microsoft Word.
9. The Free Dictionary: Includes English, Medical, Legal, Financial, and Computer Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Acronyms, Idioms, Encyclopedia, and a Literature Reference Library.
10. Freelance Switch Hourly Rate Calculator: How much should you make an hour? Complete this form to find out.
11. Global Acronyms: Search for acronyms.
12. Good Keywords: Find the right keywords.
13. Google Docs: Online-based word processor
14. Instant Anagrams
15. Instant Rhymes
16. Microsoft Word Shortcuts: Exactly as it sounds.
17. The Naque: Tools for coming up with names.
18. NetLingo: Online text and jargon.
19. The Passivator: Eliminate passive phrases.
20. Phrase Finder: Find phrases and their meanings.
21. Reference.com: Dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, reference material Wikipedia and Lexico’s On This Day.
22. Rhymezone: Tool for finding words that rhyme. Also includes other resources such as Shakespeare, quizzes, quotations, Mother Goose, and famous documents.
23. Scrivener Gold: Helps writers organize projects — for Macs. Apple Matters review gives it a rating of 9 out of 10. Scrivener requires a Mac running OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
24. Seventh Sanctum: Name generators (look on the left).
25. Text Block Writer: A virtual index card program.
26. ThinkFree Office: Free “Office” application.
27. Tools for Creating Ideas: Nice list of ideas of what you can do to brainstorm and come up with new things.
28. U.S. Newspapers: Find Web sites for US newspapers.
29. VocabTest.com: Boost your word power.
30. Wordsmith: Love the site’s anagram server. Also has A Word a Day, Wordsmith Chat, Wordserver and more.
31. World Newspapers, Magazines, and New Sites in English: Nice resource that sorts resources by categories.
32. WordWeb: Thesaurus and dictionary accessed with one click.
33. Zoho Writer and other apps

Updated: 17 April 2009 (100+ resources)

Came across this unfortunate spelling error that I see often (click the little green box below to view larger). This could happen out of habit since we’re used to simply adding “ed” to change a word from present tense to past tense. I’ve caught myself doing this on occasion. Sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own. I’d be thinking, “You won’t find any there.”

My fingers decide to type, “You won’t find any their.” Eww. I immediately catch my error most of the time, but when I don’t — talk about horrified. No spellchecker can save me hear (yes, pun intended).

We’ve discussed apostrophes many times here, and we’re not going to stop anytime soon as long as the abuse continues. WikiHow’s How to Use Apostrophes mentions the frequent use of “photo’s” and it’s true. I know a few PTA parents who add an apostrophe in photos. I don’t understand why. It’s not as if it looks weird like saying your child gets straight A’s. Never been a fan of A’s, B’s, C’s… but As can be hard to distinguish.

Ew. Is anyone bothered by this recommendation? “Similarly, apostrophes can be used when talking about a word (e.g., this list contains a lot of do’s and don’t’s) but quotation marks can make it clearer (“do”s and “don’t”s).” I think the use of “” looks worse than without it. Typically I use “dos and don’ts.” The adding of an “s” to indicate a plural on a one or two letter word looks awkward, but “do”s is horrific. Other than that nitpick, the article contains helpful advice.

Be careful when using here’s especially when you’re referring to more than one item. Here’s does not represent “Here are…” I’ve been guilty of this one — habit!

A sign in Beijing’s airport says, “Careful Landslip Attention Security.” With the Olympics coming to Beijing in 2008 and over 500,000 foreigners, officials promise to take care of the bad grammar according to this CNN article. They’ve gone so far to ask for help from the public to watch for poor grammar. Other poorly translated signs:

* On a billboard, “Shangri-La is in you mind, but your Buffalo is not.”

* In an elevator, “Please lead your child to tare the life.”

* Danwei (top 10 volunteer for helping correct poorly worded signs) has a photo of a sign that says, “Racist park.” Yikes! Beijing International explains it’s the Park of Chinese Ethnic Minorities along the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing.

* “Oil Gate,” “Parking this way,” “Export” and “Goods Return” from CCTV.

This podcast with David Tool, also known as Du Danwei, discusses his helping with English and putting the spotlight on the issue of more wheelchair accessibility.

Pick the Brain nicely abstracts George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing and provides the link to the original essay. I just came across this tool that helps you eliminate cliches from your writing. This helps with Orwell’s first rule of avoiding the use of metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech that you’ve seen in print.

Rule #2, use short words instead of long — “use” works better than “utilized.”

Rule #3: Cut out a word. Less is better. So eliminate “very,” “really,” “so,” and “much.” Really, the sentence sounds better without them.

Rule #4: Active not passive voice. Came across another tool to help with this: The Passivator.

Rule #5: Use everyday English instead of jargon, foreign words or scientific terms. Many of us had the flu works fine. Using “influenza” won’t go over well.

Unless you’re following specific rules for a college paper or a technical paper, keep it simple. No one thinks less of you for using simpler words and shorter sentences. These rules help smooth the reading experience.

As if the daylight savings time change wasn’t enough to contend with, Microsoft picked a bad page to have a typo. A page that many people have been accessing. What’s verion? What happens when you get two verions?

Also found this typo on a kids sports program information page. Do we get to take two classes for free? What class complements this one?

Two simple writing tips

**Stop with the Overdone Modifiers**

On Writing Well taught me to cut the use of modifiers such as “really,” “very,” “so,” and “quite.” I save those for when I *really* mean something It’s amazing how many articles I’ve edited that abused these words that they lose meaning.

**Using Only in Sentences**

An Ode to Only shows how the placement of “only” in a sentence can change meaning. For example:

She was the only child who sang in the talent show.

She was the child who only sang in the talent show.

The first one indicates no one else sang in the talent show. The second one implies others did more than sing. The advice is to “place ‘only’ as close as possible to the word or phrase it modifies. The article cites examples of reputable newspapers misuse of “only.”

Imagine how different the James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only would be had it been “For Only Your Eyes” or “Only for Your Eyes.” All three say the same thing with the sentence having one phrase to modify. But these two don’t “sound” as good as the original title.