Recommended Resource
- Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Provides extensive material regarding the use of APA Style. Offers information about writing papers, including formatting, citing sources, and avoiding plagiarism.
Writing Resources
- Oxford English Dictionary OnlineOxford English Dictionary is the authoritative dictionary of the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over 600,000 words past and present - from access the English-speaking world.
- Wordnik: All the WordsCompiles dictionary and thesaurus information from print and online sources. Includes billions of words—making it much bigger than an average dictionary—and makes extensive use of example sentences, allowing users to see a word in context.
- LexicoolDirectory of online bilingual and multilingual dictionaries and glossaries freely available on the Internet
Economist Style Guide
Advice from The Economist regarding writing style. Check out the website for the full style guide.
The first requirement of The Economist is that it should be readily understandable. Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible. Keep in mind George Orwell's six elementary rules ("Politics and the English Language", 1946):
- Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do (see short words).
- If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out (see unnecessary words).
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous (see Iconoclasm).