Directory of Style Guides Resources

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Style guides are used by writers to keep up with changes to the language. Also for improving their own use of the language (words, phrases and grammar) in their writing. Often newspapers put out a style guide for their writers and editors.

Subcategories

• Citations
• Grammar
• Web

Resources in This Category

• A Research Guide for Students

  http://www.bydewey.com/styleguides.html
  Research, writing, and style guides by I. Lee.

• A.Word.A Day

  http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/index.html
  The website for the mailing list A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), which sends a vocabulary word and its definition to the subscribers every day.

• Adjectives Starting

  http://adjectivesstarting.com/
  A large collection of adjectives listed by their starting letter.

• APA Reference Style

  http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/henrichsenl/APA/APA01.html
  Detailed assistance on APA formatting including many examples and exercises. By David S. Baker and Lynn Henrichsen.

• APA Style

  http://www.apastyle.org/
  American Psychological Association rules for formatting papers, in-text citations, and end references. Examples based on the sixth edition of the Publication Manual from the APA.

• Bartleby.com: The Columbia Guide to Standard American English

  http://www.bartleby.com/
  Kenneth G. Wilson's handbook includes descriptive and prescriptive examples with hyperlinked cross-references.

• CBC News: Words, Woe & Wonder

  http://www.cbc.ca/news2/indepth/words/
  An in-depth look at the words we use from CBC News. By Blair Shewchuk.

• Center for Plain Language

  http://centerforplainlanguage.org/
  A non profit organization promoting plain language and helping government agencies and businesses write clearly.

• Cliche and Word Journey

  http://www.angelfire.com/nd/danscorpio/word3.html
  List of 2000 English cliches with some statistical and literary notes on their use. By Dan Scorpio.

• Cliche Finder

  http://www.westegg.com/cliche/
  Special tool word-searches 3,300 cliches.

• Cliche Site

  http://clichesite.com/alpha_list.asp?which=lett+1
  Clichés, sayings or phrases listed with definitions and explanations. Clichés are organized by subject and alphabetically and you can use the search function.

• Cliche Web

  http://www.clicheweb.com/
  Thousands of cliches. Fully searchable and interactive. Formerly Steve's Cliche List. Since 1995.

• Dr. Abel Scribe PhD - Research Style Guides

  http://www.docstyles.com/
  Free guides to APA, ASA, CBE, Chicago-Turabian, and MLA show how to document and format college research papers.

• Dr. NAD's Prig Page

  http://dursos.org/p_.htm
  Tests of usage, built interactively.

• English Speaking

  http://www.englishspeaking.org/
  Free English speaking tips and daily lessons for beginners.

• Exploring English

  http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/english/
  An online tutorial for the parts of speech with style notes for the English Language.

• Food for Translators

  http://www.foodfortranslators.com/
  To explore different translation-related techniques and resources, disseminate helpful information, and provide useful tips and insights to those who work with words.

• G. Kim Blank's Wordiness, Wordiness, Wordiness List

  http://web.uvic.ca/~gkblank/wordiness.html
  A list of words and phrases to purge from your writing.

• Garbl's Editorial Style Manual

  http://home.wavecable.com/~garblswritingcenter/
  Provides advice on abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, numbers, plurals, possessives, punctuation, spelling and word usage.

• Glossary of Rhetorical Terms

  https://mcl.as.uky.edu/glossary-rhetorical-terms
  From alliteration to zeugma, and everything in between, all the figures of speech are here.

• Guides for Better Science Writing

  http://www.indiana.edu/~cheminfo/14-05.html
  Bibliography of style manuals for scientific research, writing, and presentation. Guides for biology, medicine, chemistry, engineering, geology, and mathematics.

• Honor & Respect: Guide to Names, Titles, and Forms of Address

  http://www.formsofaddress.info/FOA_home.html
  Forms of formal address to use on correspondence directed to officials in government, armed services, clergy, diplomacy. Forms for current as well as former officials.

• How do you Spell

  http://www.how-do-you-spell.com/
  A simple website offering the correct spellings of commonly misspelled words.

• How to Write an Explication Essay - eHow

  http://www.ehow.com/how_6247401_write-explication-essay.html
  Step-by-step directions to writing an explication.

• Knol Dictionary

  http://www.knoldictionary.org/
  An interactive dictionary to define every word and every situation by its authors.

• Lingo Factory

  http://lingofactory.tribe.net/
  A cooperative effort to coin useable terms and then trick people into using them regularly as though they are real words.

• Linguistic Phenomena/Devices

  http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~szpak/ling-devices.html
  A list of lesser-known features in English writing. Hendiadys, holonyms, and hypernyms.

• Literary Devices

  http://www.literarydevices.com/
  Literary terms and techniques.

• Lousy Writer

  http://www.lousywriter.com/
  A free online resource to improve your writing skills. Learn how to write, how to use words, how to write sentences, and how to communicate effectively.

• MLA Style Center

  https://style.mla.org/
  Guidelines and examples for current MLA procedures. First page format, presenting quotations, and citing books, websites, and nonprint sources.

• Modern Language Association

  http://www.mla.org/
  The MLA is the official guide to non-fiction writing. Includes a guide to MLA style.

• NLRB Style Manual

  http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps44641/stylemanual.pdf
  A guide for legal writing in plain English.

• Online Classes in Rhetoric, University of Minnesota

  http://www.rhetoric.umn.edu/
  The University of Minnesota offers a number of Internet correspondence courses in rhetoric. Sign up here.

• Papercheck Style Guide

  http://writing-style-guide.papercheck.com/Writing_Style_Guide_Home
  From the editors of Papercheck, agreed upon standards in this style guide.

• Pataphysics, Pataphors and Pataphorology

  http://www.pataphor.com/
  An extended metaphor that creates its own context. A science invented by P.A. Lopez and derived from the science of 'pataphysics as described by Alfred Jarry.

• Phrases Thesaurus

  http://www.phrases.org.uk/phrase-thesaurus/
  A generator of headlines and copy for journalists. Enter a word and the database is searched to provide a list of phrases related to that word.

• Plain English Campaign

  http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/
  An independent group fighting for plain English in public communication. We oppose gobbledygook, jargon and legalese.

• Plain Language Action Network

  http://www.plainlanguage.gov/
  Promoting clearer communication between the public and government. This site has resources for writers to attain that goal.

• Pseudo Dictionary

  http://www.pseudodictionary.com/
  The dictionary for words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries.

• Purdue OWL

  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
  The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and they provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue.

• Seldom Used Words

  http://www.extelligence.co.uk/dictionary/
  Listed by most recently added words in the database.

• Simile Stack

  http://www.similestack.com/
  Collection of searchable similes. Useful for writers, editors, bloggers, and anyone looking to add some depth to their writing.

• Slang City

  http://www.slangcity.com/
  Writing about American slang.

• Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature

  http://www.ronlebar.com/spell.html
  Contains articles on grammar, usage, word origins, and other subjects of interest to language lovers.

• Speaking Writing

  http://www.speakingwriting.com/
  Articles on speaking and writing, spelling quiz questions, grammar questions and writing and speaking rules.

• The Archive of Endangered, Special, or Fun Words

  http://www.13d.org/esofword/
  Writing about and classifying words and language.

• The Book of Cliches

  http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/sybev/cliche/
  A compilation of common phrases, euphemisms, and rationales for times of trouble. Organized by occasion.

• The Briticiser

  http://www.us2uk.eu/
  Will convert US English spelling to UK English. Alerts when it finds words which can be spelt two ways.

• The Chicago Manual of Style Online

  http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/
  Provides recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices for the digital age.

• The Economist Style Guide

  http://www.economist.com/styleguide/
  Guide based on the style book given to all journalists at The Economist.

• The Guardian - Style Guide

  http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a
  Guide to word usage, grammar and punctuation for The Guardian and Observer. UK.

• The Philosophy of Punctuation

  http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/721833.html
  Paul Robinson's classic essay on periods, commas, semicolons, dashes.

• The Punctuation Guide

  http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/
  A brief guide to correct English punctuation.

• The Sports Cliche List

  http://www.sportscliche.com/
  A large, searchable collection of sports cliches, lingo, and jargon.

• The Tongue Untied

  http://www.grammaruntied.com/
  Grammar, punctuation and style for journalists.

• The Visual Thesaurus

  http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
  An exploration of sense relationships within the English language. By clicking on words, you follow a thread of meaning, creating a spatial map of linguistic associations.

• The Well Bred Sentence

  http://www.englishgrammartutor.com/grammar%20book.htm
  Online book offering an intensive course in sentence construction and punctuation.

• The Word Centre

  http://www.wordcentre.co.uk/
  Consulting firm dedicated to training businesses to use plain English. Free newsletter and professional editing services.

• The Word Detective

  http://www.word-detective.com/
  The online version of the newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language. An extensive column and word archive. Written by Evan Morris.

• The Word Nerds

  http://thewordnerds.libsyn.com/
  A weekly podcast about words, language, and why we say the things we do.

• Urban Dictionary

  http://www.urbandictionary.com/
  A veritable cornucopia of streetwise lingo, posted and defined by its readers.

• US City Name Misspellings

  http://www.offices.net/misspelled-city-names.htm
  A comprehensive list of the most common misspellings for US cities.

• Using the Right Words

  http://usingtherightwords.wordpress.com/
  A site by Lee Barnathan that informs which word is the proper choice in any given situation.

• Verbivore

  http://www.verbivore.com/
  Richard Lederer's page, with contact information and a handful of his language-loving articles.

• Web Style Guide

  http://www.webstyleguide.com/
  A manual covering graphic and information design, page layout, graphics, site navigation, and multimedia content. By Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton.

• Web Typography

  http://webtypography.net/
  The elements of typographic style applied to the web.

• Word Focus

  http://www.wordfocus.com/
  Words, literature and a word of the day.

• Word Fugitives

  http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/fugitives/index.htm
  An interactive column by The Atlantic's Barbara Wallraff. Discovers needs in our language and recommends new words to fill them.

• Word Lab

  http://wordlab.com/
  A message board where you can request and brainstorm words, names, titles, coinages, puns, phrases, slogans and slang.

• Word News

  http://www.wordnews.info/
  Efforts have been made to provide some of the best thoughts, ancient and modern, that are particularly appealing for our time and to promote a greater appreciation for the English language.

• Word Quests

  http://www.wordquests.info/
  Word lists that provide thematic units of English words derived from Latin and Greek sources.

• Word Spy

  http://www.wordspy.com/
  The word lover's web site by Paul McFedries.

• Wordelizer

  http://www.emse.fr/~yukna/kahula/wordelizer/wordelizer.html
  Delve deeply into a word or subject. Quick search of several word and language related sites.

• WordWizard

  http://www.wordwizard.com/
  Portal for word lovers. Learn about word meanings, slang, quotations, insults, and famous authors. Wordwizard offers a round trip across the English language.

• World Wide Words

  http://www.worldwidewords.org/
  Explores the history, evolution byways, quirks, and curiosities of the English language. New and recent words and phrases are often featured, as are books on aspects of English. A weekly newsletter is sent by e-mail and RSS.

• Writer's Dreamtools

  http://www.writersdreamtools.com/
  A series of useful tools to enhance writers' and students' creativity, spark ideas and fight writer's block.

• WritingDEN

  http://204.244.141.13/writ_den/
  Interactive site created to help students improve English reading, writing and listening skills.

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