Resources
This is a small sample of English resources online. There are others listed on the main Online Resources page, and your teachers will undoubtedly have their favorites as well. Don't hesitate to explore and find your own, and don't forget that online resources are not all there is -- there's a lot available only in hardcopy. |
|
|
|
| World Wide Words | "Investigating international English from a British viewpoint." This is not a dictionary. It is a web site devoted to exploring words and idioms, their origins, and the differences in usage in Britain vs. America and other parts of the world where English is spoken. You can even send in questions if there's an expression you're curious about and which isn't already covered. |
|
|
| Arts & Letters Daily | The people who run this site search newspapers and journals from all over the world every day to find articles on the arts, contemporary culture, and the way the world is. Then, they briefly summarize each piece and link to the original. There's some beautiful writing and pungent commentary here, often in the same piece. |
| The William Blake Archive | Not for the faint of heart or the slow of connection! Blake was an 18th century poet and illustrator. This archive is the next best thing to having original editions of his work in your hot little hands -- a primary resource that's searchable online. Well worth a look, but be patient with it. There's a huge amount of cross-referenced material in the archive and very high resolution images. Pour yourself a cup of tea, sit back, and enjoy. |
| London Review of Books | The online version of this well-known literary periodical. "The London Review of Books has been dedicated to carrying on the tradition of the English essay." First rate reviews, literary criticism, and essays. |
| Times Literary Supplement | The Times Literary Supplement offers essays and reviews on a wide range of subjects, including literature and the performing arts, as well as medicine, religion, and many other subjects. The online version of the Times Literary Supplement is available by subscription only but you can subscribe by subject -- and the range of subjects covered is broad indeed. Worth a look. |
|
|
| Bartelby.com | These are the folks who publish Roget's thesauri, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Fowler's King's English, and lots, lots more exciting references. They've made them available online for free, which is really pretty incredible when you think about it. And everything's searchable. So if you need a quotation, a quick biography, a poem to read, or help with grammar or usage, try this site. |
|
|
| MLA | The Modern Language Association. A major professional organization for teachers and scholars of modern languages, in particular, English. The MLA also publishes two of the most widely used style guides, the MLA Handbook and the MLA Style Manual.While these are not available online, a couple of useful exerpts are; for example, how to document materials from the Web in a works cited list. (Go to their FAQ page to see it.) |
| Poetrysoc.com | This is the website of the British organization, The Poetry Society. Membership is open to people from all over the world. Even without a membership, you can access Poetry Review online from here and enjoy excellent poetry and criticism. They also have an online poetry classroom with poetry links, interviews with poets, and downloadable poetry workshops. |
| Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America | A true professional organization -- you must be published to join. However, there is useful information on this website for you if you are trying to get a story published. |
| Society for Technical Communication | The STC is a professional society for technical writers. This includes technical documentation, help and online support systems, reference materials, technical training materials, and other technical writing. The STC sponsors competitions for high school (and college) students each year, and has a certain number of grants for high school teachers who wish to develop or improve their technical communications programs. |
