As this is a recap, I’ll do just that. As previously mentioned, on New Years Eve Bangkok was bombed. Now, I’m not a resolution type of person. But, I was between two of the bombed sites so the event gave me pause to think.

You see, late last year I took up the kind offer to be mentored. Learning to write has been a goal for a long while, but a loose goal, an out there goal. One I talk about but never got around to the full commitment.

By making contact to inquire about a spot for the mentor program, I took steps towards making it a reality. The bombing took me fast and public into my resolve (by far a much better description than resolution) to write better. Having a mentor will keep it flowing (edit, the mentor program didn’t happen).

Below is a quick rundown of the series. Apologies to all of you who have DWB on your feed readers. This was not a planned series so I had to edit to pull everything together. In the future I’ll use a proper plugin. I promise. And I’ll plan ahead. That’s an additional promise.

The Writing Resolution: Learn to Write series.
Part 1: New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write
Part 2: Helpful Writing Books
Part 3: Online Writing Guidelines
Part 4: Online Dictionaries
Part 5: Online Writing Tips: Individual articles
Part 6: Online Writing Courses
Part 7: Writing: The Plan
Part 8: Writing: The Writing Resolution
Part 9: Writing: Additional Writing Resources
Part 10: Article: Why Designers Should Be Writers

A personal thanks goes to the writers who helped in the series, either during the series with kind responses and / or photos for their banners, or by previous features.

A special thanks goes to Roger C. Parker, who wrote the finishing article, Why Designers Should Be Writers. His writing put it all together for me in one, clear package. Learn to write and you’ll become more marketable.

It’s writers like these I aspire to emulate.

Writing Blogs Featured
Away With Words by Nancy Friedman
Business Writing by Lynn Gaertner-Johnston
Poynter Online – Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark
Roger C. Parker Design to Sell Blog by Roger C. Parker
Successful Blog by ME Strauss
The Copywriter Underground by Tom Chandler
The Grammarphobia Blog by Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman
Triangle Grammar Guide by Pam Nelson
Weinberg on Writing by Jerry Weinberg
Writing, Clear and Simple by Roy Jacobsen

To help keep to my resolve to write, I created three pages (not posts). In A Designer’s Resolve I carefully selected from the resources I researched. A Designer’s Resolve: Resources is the full list of the research. A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list houses the books I started out with before I decided what I could easily read in the next year.

Hopefully, these resources will be used by others aiming to acquire the skills necessary to write well.

Now I’m off to get prepared for the ‘Eric Clapton Live’ concert in Bangkok. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with the bombings on New Years Eve, but apparently the group I’m going with has a police escort all the way to the concert and back. Should be interesting. As was (for me) doing this impromptu series. Tomorrow DWB will be back to normal. Whatever that is. I’m ready.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Roger C. Parker

Why Designers Should Be Writers
By: Roger C. Parker

Classic branding and marketing favors specialization. According to the conventional wisdom, the narrower you define your area of expertise, the higher the perceived value of your expertise.

But, in practice, conventional wisdom creates serious limitations. In actuality, designers who are able to write enjoy a major advantage over their competition. Being able to write as well as design offers graphic designers numerous practical and profitable dividends.

Writing and trust
The ability to write permits you to create a presence that promotes your ‘obvious expert’¯ status and creates familiarity and trust that translates into more sales opportunities and less buyer resistance for your design business.

As a designer, your biggest ‘competition’¯ is not the designer across the street–or across the Internet. Rather, your biggest competitors are anonymity and your prospect’s fear of making a mistake. Writing eliminates both obstacles by giving you a way to demonstrate your expertise before you talk to, or meet, a prospective client. Writing attracts new prospects, pre-sold on your expertise. You’re not a stranger, you’re a trusted advisor.

Books
Books are the most powerful form of ‘writing as promotion’. There’s magic to your name on a published book. A book becomes your most effective business card, attracting attention from like-minded prospects around the world. A well-written book does more than communicate facts, it communicates a style that projects your personality to prospects before your opening words.

I became aware of the power of a book to project an author’s ‘likeability’¯ through exposure to Jan V. White’s classic Editing by Design. Editing by Design was a ‘high personality’ book that not only communicated a design philosophy, but did it in a way that made it mandatory that I meet Jan face-to-face.

Roy Paul Nelson’s books Publication Design and Advertising Design reinforced the power of a book to encourage a face-to-face relationship, as do books by designers such as Doyald Young, Alex White, and Jim Krause.

Do books do more than create clients? Well, check out the size of the audience the next time Edward Tufte, author of Envisioning Information and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information comes to town! His day-long seminars fill huge hotel ballrooms, several days in a row.

Consider the task of choosing a designer from a prospect’s point of view. They can hire a familiar face who has established their expertise and style by writing a book, or the prospect can hire a stranger who may have an impressive portfolio, but, ‘Who are they, really?’

Articles and speaking
The next best thing to a book is an article, or series of articles, that communicate your style and position you as an expert. If you have a type problem, and are a reader of publications like How or Print, why not go right to the best and hire Allan Haley, whom you also remember from his articles in U&lc.

One of the nicest things about writing books and articles is that they inevitably lead to speaking opportunities. And, when you’re in front of a room, displaying examples of your work, your desirability as a designer shoots through the roof! After your talk, prospects will come to you with business card in hand, asking how they can contact you to discuss upcoming their projects. This is a far different scenario than the typical struggle for new business.

The power extends beyond the walls of the room where you are presenting. The mere fact that you are a speaker at MacWorld, a How Design Conference, or any of dozens of other events positions you to prospects–even though they may never attend one of the events, themselves.

Preparing better marketing materials
The ability to write pays off in the ability to prepare better marketing materials for yourself. Designers like Canada’s Maria G. Nozza’s website is an example of effective writing in action. Her downloadable PublicationWise newsletter and her DesignWise blog, available at www.mygraphicsnotebook.com, showcase her expertise in a way that proves her competence better than any amount of conventional marketing could ever do.

Once you become comfortable as a writer, you’ll find it easier and easier to maintain an up-to-date website, promoted through short, frequent e-mail tips. Between the quality of your newsletters and the frequency of your e-mails, your career trajectory will take flight.

Additional income sources
Consistent monthly cash flow can transform your attitudes as much as your business. When you begin the month without needing to worry about meeting the rent and health insurance payments, your stress level will drop. This enables you to create better designs in less time.

Although books and articles, by themselves, will rarely provide consistent monthly cash flow, enterprising designers can easily come up with other ways to turn them into cash. John McWade, for example, plus Before & After, www.bamag.com, a subscription publication available on line and in print.

Other opportunities include creating back-end profits through special reports, tutorials, audio recordings, and Camtasia training videos delivered as downloadable e-books, CD-ROMs, DVDs, or website streaming content.

The goal, of course, is not to succumb to the ‘publishing’ model, but, rather, use ancillary profits from publishing to provide a cushion freeing you from the need to spend every hour on billable client projects.

Writing, better design, and more money
As your writing skills improve, you’ll inevitably become a better, more profitable designer. Although design should remain your primary task, your ability to provide ‘design-plus’¯ services can increase your earning power while helping you deliver better projects.

Designing from a writer’s perspective, or writing from a designer’s perspective, breaks down the walls that often arise between writing and design. At minimum, your comfort with words helps you offer a ‘total solution’ to those clients who will appreciate the convenience and unified perspective of “one-stop shopping.”

More important, as a designer/writer, your designs will improve to the extent that you feel comfortable tweaking copy at the last minute so it will better fit available space. Slight edits can often convert three line headlines into two line headlines. Likewise, minor word substitutions or transpositions can often eliminate distracting widows and orphans.

In short, the ability to write will result in a better partnership between design and message.

Where do you start?
The starting point is to recognize that there are numerous transferable skills between design and writing. Design is often based on communicating hierarchy and sequence; so is writing. Successful designs are based on simplicity and a lack of clutter; so is writing. Design is also based on taking changes, thinking outside of the box; so is writing.

Design is also based on craftsmanship, an unwillingness to accept ‘good’ in order to get the job done, when you know that by taking a little more time and fine-tuning the details, you can make the project considerably better. Attention to detail, and an unwillingness to compromise standards, is also a writer’s trait.

By analyzing the skills and abilities that contribute to your design success, and transferring them to writing, you’ll be able to do a better job of promoting yourself and creating endless new profit opportunities.

Roger C. Parker is the author of Design to Sell and the Content Catalyst and Planning Catalyst. Subscribe to his free Design to Sell newsletter at www.designtosellonline.com.

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Yesterday, after writing the post for Pam Nelson’s Triangle Grammar Guide, I started following advised links from her site as well as Roy Peter Clark’s Poynter Online – Writing Tools ( featured this week on DWB).

One link led to another, then another, until I ran out of time. Some I came across when I first started putting together the writing resources (but didn’t appreciate at the time). Some are new. All of the writing blogs have been added to my new toy, netvibes. Enjoy.

Blogs

A Capital Idea
A copy-editing blog covering grammar and newspapers like they’re going out of style.

Bill Walsh’s Blogslot
The blog accompaniment to The Slot: A Spot for Copy Editors

English, Jack
Second thoughts on English and how she’s taught

Evolving English II
We observe the language changing all around us. We don’t opine (much) about these changes; we just note them as we see them …

Grammar Catastrophes
A blog about catastrophic failures to deploy English grammar effectively.

Language Log
Language Log, the book. Far from the Madding Gerund.

Pain in the English
PainInTheEnglish.com encourages discussions of such gray areas of the English language, for which you would not find answers easily in dictionaries and other reference books.

Verbal Energy
What’s up with words

Wordlustitude
This blog is a growing dictionary of ephemeral words–also known as nonce or stunt words.

Wordmail
A blog about the English language.

Msc Websites

Common Usage Errors

Diagramming Sentences
One Way of Learning English Grammar

Ftrain.com | Language Machines

Ftrain.com | The Passivato
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY–DOES NOT REPLACE REAL GRAMMAR KNOWLEDGE.

purdue.edu | Active and Passive Voice

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing is for anyone who wants to write better.

Websites: Dictionary / word / thesaurus / phrase

Double-Tongued Dictionary
Slang, jargon, and new words from the fringes of English.

Hyperdictionary
HyperDictionary.com is a continuation of an educational project to provide free dictionary services to any user on the web.

HyperDictionary Search Box

Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid

Lexical FreeNet
Connected thesaurus

Just The Word
Based on the latest advances in statistical linguistics, and exploiting Sharp’s patented contextive technology, JustTheWord combines the advantages of thesaurus and dictionary, and enhances the usefulness of both.

LDOCE Online
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

pseudodictionary
The dictionary for words that wouldn’t make it into dictionaries

pseudodictionary randomerizor
Generates random words from our dictionary

Simple English Wiktionary
An online dictionary that uses simple words so it is easier to understand.

The Phrase Finder
Meanings and origins of sayings and phrases

VIEW
Mark Davies / Brigham Young University. Variation in English words and phrases.

Wiktionary
A collaborative project to produce a free, multilingual dictionary with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations.

Wordcraft
A community of linguaphiles

Wordcraft Dictionary

Wordcraft Eponyms
The net’s biggest collection of general eponyms

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

Unplanned, I started out with a New Year’s Resolution: Learn how to write: Part 1, where I stated why and listed writing blogs I’ve collected. I followed it up with Part 2, culling through the books I’ve bought and listing only those I believed would help in this quest. Part 3 shared online writing guidelines, Part 4 online dictionaries and the odd resource, Part 5 online writing tips (individual articles), Part 6 online writing courses (and one CD writing course).

And now comes the plan for my resolution to write – to work my way through the majority of the below resources before the end of 2007.

In the hopes that good writing rubs off …

Vocabula
Vocabula is loaded down with articles, quizzes, advice and more. Highly recommended, a membership has been on my wish list for several years. Vocabula updates monthly so it’s manageable. As I now have a membership I can also read over the back issues.

Coursework: Books and CD
I searched a long time to find a decent course that fit my lifestyle and temperament. I’ll miss having a flesh and blood teacher, but Diana Hacker’s Rules for Writers is well suited for self study. It’s well designed (a must for a designer), the lessons are short, and it has an online website loaded down with more lessons and resources.

I’ve played around with The Electronic Writing Course and although it is not as extensive as Rules for Writers, it’ll be needed when I’m ready for a change. StyleWriter has been great in teaching me to edit out passive voice. Do I think writing software will write my posts for me? Not at all. Garbage in = garbage out. It’s a help is all.

Rules for Writers (Spiral-bound) by Diana Hacker

Developmental Exercises to Accompany Rules For Writers by Diana Hacker and Wanda Van Goor

Diana Hacker – Rules for Writers companion website

The Electronic Writing Course
(Goes with StyleWriter)

Writing Guides: Books
I’m of the mindset that one cannot have enough writing guides. The Collins Good Writing Guide was my first and an easy read (for the short parts I did read). The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing is similar. For the moment, the New Hart’s Rules will be less for reading from cover to cover, and more for grabbing when I have a specific question. The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors stays right by my side as I’m always wondering when two words are combined, and when add a hyphen. Spunk & Bite is written in a hilarious tone and is a good balance for the strict (but valuable) Elements of Style.

Collins Good Writing Guide (Paperback) by Graham King

New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors (Hardcover) by R. M. Ritter (Adapter)

New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors: The essential A-Z guide to the written word by R. M. Ritter (Editor), Angus Stevenson (Editor), Lesley Brown (Editor)

Spunk & Bite by Author Plotnik

The Elements of Style (Paperback) by William I. Strunk

The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane

Writing Advice: Books
Some of the below I’ve read partially through, some all the way. All will be repeatedly gone over during the next year.

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (Mentor S.) (Paperback) by Gary Provost

1000 Most Important Words (Mass Market Paperback) by Norman W. Schur

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (Paperback) by Lynne Truss

Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (On Writing Well) (Paperback) by William K. Zinsser

The Careful Writer (Paperback) by Theodore M. Bernstein

Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method (Paperback) by Gerald M. Weinberg

Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English (Hardcover) by Patricia T. O’Conner

Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing (Hardcover) by Patricia O’Conner

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark

101 Elegant Paragraphs ā€” A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook, written by Robert Hartwell Fiske, Editor and Publisher of The Vocabula Review.

Blogs: Grammar, writing and language

Away With Words
Nancy Friedman keeps a steady flow of information on words and usage. Although I’ve had Nancy on my bloglines for awhile, I didn’t meet her until recently. I featured Nancy’s Away With Words for this series as it’s a perfect fit. I know I’ll depend reading AWW daily.

Baltimore Sun: You Don’t Say: Language and Usage
John McIntyre has a similar stance, but it’s tied in with The Sun. John Looks at issues of language and writing, particularly grammar and usage, as they come up in The Sun’s reporting¯.

Grammar Girl
The more I read about grammar, the less I believe I know. With Grammar Girl I can download podcasts to my i-pod for the long walks I’ll be taking (starting next week).

Grammar Hell
A mix of humour and enlightenment, with Grammar Hell it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one.

Grammarphobia
Patricia T. O’Conner and Stewart Kellerman are authors and co-authors of two books on my final list – Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English and Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing. You Send Me: Getting It Right When You Write Online has been added to my wishlist.

News Observor | Triangle Grammar Guide
Pam Nelson reminds me of my high school English teacher. She dishes on language use and misuse and answers questions about grammar and style.

Successful Blog
Liz is an amazing blogger, juggling many projects (I’m addicted to her Open Mic Night). Amongst it all, Liz keeps a healthy dose of writing advice sprinkled throughout her posts on Successful Blog. I gratefully featured Liz back in June, 2006. I owe a lot to Liz: her enthusiastic energy, her kindness, her support of my aim to learn has helped in many ways. Thanks Liz.

Poynter | Writing Tools
As you’ve read above, Roy Peter Clark is the author of Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer which I’ll be using on my quest. The blog is … well, Peter says it best ¯In the beginning was the word, then came the book, then came the blog.

Writing, Clear and Simple
Written by Roy Jacobsen, write clear and simple is exactly what I aim to do. I’m a fan of Roy’s so I featured Writing, Clear and Simple back in September of 2006.

Daily Grammar and Word Tips

A.Word.A.Day wordsmith.org

Daily Grammar Tips dailygrammar.com

Word of the day dictionary.com

Still to Purchase

Visual Thesaurus
(helped along by our very own swissmiss, tina roth eisenberg)

Well, that’s it. Mostly. After getting this far I’m not sure I can get away without explaining how I’m going to pull this off. As this has been an extensive and time consuming project up until this point, my little voice keeps repeating RUN cat RUN! … but the golden rule let no project remain unfinished pushes me to complete ‘Learn to Write’ with Part 8: The Writing Resolution. Yes, I’m coming full circle.

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

If you are new to this series, the first post is New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write: Part 1, followed by Part 2: Helpful Writing Books, then Part 3: Online Writing Guidelines, Part 4: Online Dictionaries and Part 5: Online Writing Tips: Individual articles.

As mentioned before, my connection is a bit weak due to a quake messing with undersea cables, so I won’t double check the resources until I create the final review.

There are hundreds of online writing courses available. Some are free, some with a small fee, some require a financial commitment. Some are short, others will take a week, most are a time commitment (some considerable).

Below is a mixture (I’ve added one course on CD).

Absolute Write University

A Free Course in Technical and Business Writing

BBC: Get Writing

Breaking into Print Writing Course

Coffee House for Writers

Copywriting course

Diana Hacker – Rules for Writers companion website

E-WRITE – Writing For Online Readers

Grammar Tutorials, University of Calgary

How to Write: Freelance Writing Courses and Reports (Copywriting)

Lousy Writer

One of Us; Creative Writing Workshop

online-learning.com

‘Round Table’ Creative Writing Group

Suite101.com

Tameri Guide for Writers: The Workshop

The Internet Grammar of English

trAced Links: Writing Courses

UCLA Extension – Lifelong Learning

Write 101: Know how to write well, 5 free writing lessons

Write 101: Online Writing Course

Writer OnLine – Learning Center – Courses

Writers Bootcamp

Writers Online Workshops: Business writing

Writers Weekly

Writers.com: Basic Writing Skills

Writing Classes: Gotham Writers’ Workshop

Writing Courses (CD)

The Electronic Writing Course
(Goes with StyleWriter)

Following will be Part 7 The Plan

For a good read, go to Boris Kortiak’s Why Write?

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

If you are new to this series, the first post is New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write: Part 1, followed by Part 2: Helpful Writing Books, then Part 3: Online Writing Guidelines and Part 4: Online Dictionaries

Below is a collection of short articles with advice on grammar, language usage, proofreading, general writing, copywriting and voice.

40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation

Adding Action and Clarity to Writing

Cleaning Up Your Copy

Common Writing Mistakes

Copyblogger: Copywriting 101

Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List

Finding Your Voice

Geek to Live: Write effectively for the Web

How to improve your writing

How to Make Sentences Clear and Concise

How To Proofread Your Own Writing

How To Win The Grammar Game

How To Write

Judy’s Writing Tips

Power Of The Written Word (Part I ) – Need of Expression

Power Of The Written Word (Part II) – Constructing A Sentence That Produces Impact

Power of The Written Word (Part III) – Developing Your Own Writing Style

Power of Written Word (Part IV)ā€“ Writing for Internet

Proofreading your own document

Proofread like a pro

Stephen King : Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully – in Ten Minutes

Study Guides 1: Writing basics Research, etc.

Study Guides 2: Prewriting

Study Guides 3: Rough drafts

Study Guides 4: Revising/editing

Study Guides 5: Proofreading

Successful Blog: Editing

Successful Blog: Word Choice

Successful Blog: Sentence Fluency

Successful Blog: A Writers Voice

Successful Blog: Your Authentic Writing Voice

Successful Blog: How to Make Your Writing Unforgettable ā€” Using the Music of the Gettysburg Address

Top Ten Writing Time-savers

To write effectively, go with the flow of ideas

Web Copywriting Tips

Web writing

Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer’s Shortcut to Stronger Writing

Writing better articles

Writing, Clear and Simple: Entries in Punctuation

Writing, Clear and Simple: Keep it simple: Word choice

Writing, Clear and Simple: One vital bit of writing: your resume

Writing, Clear and Simple: Passive-aggressive, Part 1

Writing, Clear and Simple: Passive-aggressive Part 2

Writing, Clear and Simple: Redundancies: Does it bear repeating?

Writing, Clear and Simple: Square pegs into round holes, or, Turning verbs into nouns

Writing, Clear and Simple: Watch out for sound-alike words

Writing For the Web

Writing in a compelling way is all up to you

Writing that works: Writing Techniques

Writing that works: Styles and Usage

Following will be Part 6 Online Writing Courses and Part 7 The Plan.

What does HOWmag say on the subject? Designers of the World, Write

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

If you are new to this series, the first post is New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write: Part 1, followed by Learn to Write: Part 2: Helpful Writing Books, then Learn to Write: Part 3: Online Writing Guidelines.

Below you find more online dictionaries then most anyone could use in a week. Some serious, some fun, some with multi offerings. All should be useful for the curious. At the bottom of the list is a ‘Word of the Day’ section. I’ve signed up for two which fill my inbox with words I know (but could use more often, like hullabaloo) and some I don’t (like borborygmic). The list ends with the ‘Grammar Girl’ podcasts, with her updates getting sucked into my feeder (bloglines).

AllWords.com

AskOxford: Jargon Buster

Answers.com – Online Dictionary, Encyclopedia and much more

BambooWeb Dictionary!

Biographical Dictionary

BuzzWhack: The Buzzword Compliant Dictionary

Cambridge Dictionaries

Collins

Dictonary.com

Dictionary of English Usage

Fictionary

Google’s Glossary tool

Ninjawords – a fast online dictionary

lookwayup.com

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Thesaurus

Onelook.com: Reverse Dictionary

Online Etymology Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus

The Brainy Dictionary

The Free Dictionary

Thesaurus.com

The Word Detective

The Writers Portal: Word Power

Urban Dictionary

Word Assault

Wordsmyth!

Word Spy

yourDictionary.com

and some extras …

Words of the day emails:

Cambridge Dictionaries Online

Dictionary.com

Merriam-Webster Online

New York Times

Onelook.com

Oxford English Dictionary

Wordsmith.org

yourDictionary.com

Word of the day for your site

Podcasts

Grammar Girl

Following will be Part 5 Online Writing Tips: Individual articles, Part 6 Online Writing Courses, Part 7 The Plan.

In the meantime, please visit Change This: Calling All Designers: Learn to Write!

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

If you are new to this series, the first post is New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write: Part 1, followed by Part 2: Helpful Writing Books.

To help out those who are needy like I am when it comes to writing, below are a range of online resources – grammar, language usage, style guides, clichés, writing guides, punctuation, writing tips and suggestions. Btw I won’t recheck before posting since 1) a storm has messed with Internet connections in SE Asia, and 2) I’m a bit shagged from lack of sleep. Apologies if any are iffy in any way.

11 rules of writing

A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices

Ain’t Grammar Fun: Words to the Wise

APA Style Tips

Bartleby.com

Bartleby.com: The Elements of Style

Bartleby.com: The Kings English

Bartleby.com: The American Heritage Book of English Usage

Chicago Manual of Style Online

Chicago Manual of Style – Q&A

Clear English Grammar Resources

Cliché site

Colorado Uni Style Guide

Collective Nouns

Common Errors in English

Daily Grammar Tips

Doc Durden’s Guide to Good Grammar

Edit-Work.com Web Style Guide

English-Zone.Com: Grammar, writing, idioms …

Famous Quotes

Good Grammar, Good Style

Grammar Book: Grammer Rules, Punctuation and Capitalization, Rules for Writing Numbers

Grammar Bytes

inspired2write

Improving Writing Skills – Effective Writing & Written Communication

Jack Hart: Prevent punctuation and grammar errors that hurt credibility

Judy Vorfeld: Web Grammar

Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style

NICS Web style guide

Online English Grammar

OWL Handouts: Complete Index by Topic

ProofReadNOW: Grammar rules

Punctuation Made Simple

Quote Reference

Silva Rhetoricae: The Forest of Rhetoric

Spark Notes: Online guide to grammar

SUNY Geneseo Online Writing Guide

Tameri Guide for Writers

The Armchair Grammarian

The Blue Book of Grammar & Punctuation

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing

The Skeptic’s Dictionary

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Online Writing Lab

Times Online Style and Usage Guide

re: Writing

University of Calgary: Basic Elements Of English

University of Washington: Reference Tools – Citation & Writing Guides

uw-madison writing center writer’s handbook

Visual Thesaurus

Wordspy

Words: Woe and Wonder

Write Away – Learn how to become a better writer

Writers University

Writers Web

Writers’ Workshop: Grammar Handbook

Writers’ Workshop Writing Tips

Writing Guides

Writing resources from Study Guides and Strategies

Writing Tips

Following will be Part 4 Online Dictionaries, Part 5 Online Writing Tips: Individual articles, Part 6 Online Writing Courses, Part 7 The Plan.

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...

As mentioned in New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write: Part 1, back in 2002 I started collecting books to help with my writing goals.

Pretty much the whole list is elsewhere, but I’ve elected to share only those that are helping me at this stage (and if I’d be more diligent in my studies, they’d help even more). This doesn’t mean that they all aren’t a decent read (I really should go through that grammar CD). It just means I’ve selected these few for now.

Some of the books are resources, some give advice, some have lessons. I feel comfortable with all. Well, most all, as I did throw in some I MUST read.

100 Ways to Improve Your Writing (Mentor S.) (Paperback) by Gary Provost

1000 Most Important Words (Mass Market Paperback) by Norman W. Schur

Collins Good Writing Guide (Paperback) by Graham King

Developmental Exercises to Accompany Rules For Writers by Diana Hacker and Wanda Van Goor

Rules for Writers (Spiral-bound) by Diana Hacker

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (Paperback) by Lynne Truss

Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing by Claire Kehrwald Cook

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (On Writing Well) (Paperback) by William K. Zinsser

New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors (Hardcover) by R. M. Ritter (Adapter

New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors: The essential A-Z guide to the written word by R. M. Ritter (Editor), Angus Stevenson (Editor), Lesley Brown (Editor)

Spunk & Bite: A writer’s guide to punchier, more engaging language & style by Author Plotnik

The Careful Writer (Paperback) by Theodore M. Bernstein

The Elements of Style (Paperback) by William I. Strunk

The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing by Thomas S. Kane

Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method (Paperback) by Gerald M. Weinberg

Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English (Hardcover) by Patricia T. O’Conner

Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing (Hardcover) by Patricia O’Conner

Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark

101 Elegant Paragraphs A Vocabula 101 Series Handbook, written by Robert Hartwell Fiske

Following will be Part 3 with Online Writing Guidelines, Part 4 Online Dictionaries, Part 5 Online Writing Tips: Individual Articles, Part 6 Online Writing Courses, Part 7 The Plan.

This has been a part of my New Year’s Resolution: Learn to Write series. The index can be found at the Learn to Write: Recap.

Three pages were created from the series: A Designer’s Resolve, A Designer’s Resolve: Resources and A Designer’s Resolve: Complete book list.

Share this:

NEED MORE? Then get over to Designers who Blog to discover hundreds of blogs posting about graphic and web design, marketing, illustration, photography, advertising, branding, writing ...