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Language Arts Resources
Acronyms & Abbreviations
Teaching Resources include general sites that are excellent and have lots of links, too many to include on each subject page such as this.
Searching the Internet
lists some seach engines and directory sites. Since each one has its own "flavor," try as many as you have time for --- each one should come up with different links.

Teacher Resources

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Reading

  • about.com: Language Arts (searcher & lots of links ... Alphabet Fun, Dictionaries Plus, Grammar Guide, Homework Help, Parents/Teachers, Parts of Speech, Reading Library, Spelling, Vocabulary, Writing Room, Authors, Books, Drama and Theater, Poetry and Verses, Quotes Collection, Songs and Music, Story Center, EFL/ESL for Kids, Foreign Languages, Sign Language, Comics & Cartoons, Crossword Games, Holiday Fun, Jokes and Riddles, Word Puzzles, Word Search)
  • America Reads ("We offer: {1} Free resources for parents, childcare providers, educators, tutors, community groups, and all concerned citizens. Resources include summer materials that help promote literacy during the months when children are out of school and most likely to fall behind.   {2} Access to the latest and best research on effective literacy practices.   {3} Information on how other federal agencies and organizations are helping to improve literacy, including the Corporation for National Service, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute for literacy
  • International Reading Association (mission is " to promote high levels of literacy for all by improving the quality of reading instruction through studying the reading process and teaching techniques; serving as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of reading research through conferences, journals, and other publications; and actively encouraging the lifetime reading habit")

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Writing & Grammar Resources

  • about.com: Creative Writing for Kids (searcher & lots of links)
  • about.com: Language Arts (searcher & lots of links ... Alphabet Fun, Dictionaries Plus, Grammar Guide, Homework Help, Parents/Teachers, Parts of Speech, Reading Library, Spelling, Vocabulary, Writing Room, Authors, Books, Drama and Theater, Poetry and Verses, Quotes Collection, Songs and Music, Story Center, EFL/ESL for Kids, Foreign Languages, Sign Language, Comics & Cartoons, Crossword Games, Holiday Fun, Jokes and Riddles, Word Puzzles, Word Search)
  • about.com: Technical Writing (searcher & lots of links)
  • Bartleby.com - Reference (Columbia Encyclopedia, American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, American HeritageŽ Book of English Usage, Fowler's The King’s English {commonsense rules of style and grammar}, Strunk's The Elements of Style, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Cambridge History of English & American Literature, Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Emily Post's. Etiquette ... search page)
  • Basic Guide to Essay Writing by kathy Livingston (rules and links)
  • Cinema - How are Hollywood films made? by Annenberg/CPB Exhibits ("Join us as we explore this creative process, from the screenwriter's words to the editor's final cut. Write your own dialogue for a scene or put yourself in a producer's shoes by managing the production of a film.")
  • Curmudgeon's Stylebook @ The Slot (Word Choice and Matters of Fact .. Capitalization, Compounds, Spelling and Style .. Punctuation .. Quotations .. Matters of Sensitivity .. Headlins, Captions and Newpaper Issues)
  • EducationWorld - Grammar (searcher and links ... part 2, part 3)
  • Elementary Grammar @ The English Institute
  • Elements of Style by William Strunk  @ Columbia U: Project Bartleby
  • Handbook of Selected Punctuation Marks by Sandra Penrose @ College of DuPage ("the usage of apostrophe, comma, ellipsis, italics, periods, and quotation marks")
  • Handbook of Selected Punctuation Marks by Doug Nygren @ College of DuPage ("the usage of colon, parentheses, question marks, and semicolons")
  • GrammarLady.com ("Grammar Hotline is a one-woman, free service ... the purpose is to answer quick grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other points about language" ... on-line grammar tips)
  • Grammar Slammer - English Grammar Resource (Abbreviations, Capitalizing, Common Mistakes and Choices, Letter Writing, Punctuation, Style and Usage, etc.)
  • Guide to Grammar and Style by Jack Lynch @ Rutgers U ("These notes are a miscellany of grammatical rules and explanations, comments on style, and suggestions on usage")
  • Internet Grammar of English @ U College of London ("the system of structural rules which describes how words combine with each other to form sentences")
  • Kim's Corner for Teacher Talk: Ideas for Teaching Writing ("For my writing program, I use the Six Trait Analytic Writing Model ... divided into the six areas, or traits, that teachers value most: ideas and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and writing conventions.)
  • King's English, The by HW Fowler ("an indispensable resource for anyone concerned about correct English Usage ... Vocabulary {General Principles, Familiar and far-fetched words, Concrete and abstract expression, Circumlocution, Short and long words, Saxon and Romance words, Requirements of different styles, Malaprops, Neologisms, Americanisms, Foreign words, Formation, Slang, Individual, Mutual, Unique, Aggravate} ... Syntax {Case, Number, Comparatives and superlatives, etc.} ... Airs and Graces ... Punctuation ... Euphony ... Quotation ... Grammar ... Meaning ... Ambiguity ... Style")
  • Literature - What makes a good short story? by Annenberg/CPB Exhibits ("Join our journey through a classic short story, 'A Jury of Her Peers,' by Susan Glaspell. Along the way, you'll solve the mystery of whether Minnie Wright killed her husband and explore the story's literary elements. You will also encounter rest stops where you can read more about the structure of story and take part in activities related to 'A Jury of Her Peers'.")
  • MISD: Lessons and Project - Creating a School Newsletter ("explore on-line newspapers and learn from the work of other students")
  • Modern English Grammar by Daniel Kies @ College of DuPage ("introduction to the study of grammar .. how language can be studied from the viewpoint of both form and function .. subject function in the clause .. verb function in the clause .. function of direct objects in the clause .. indirect object function in the clause .. object complements .. subject complement, also known as the predicate nominal or predicate adjective .. adverbials and adverbial complements .. grammatical ambiguity .. the phrase in English .. structure of words and sord classes in English .. coordination and subordination .. grammatical foundation of style .. major principles of syntax .. the Ebonics debate .. What Should English Teachers Teach and Why?")
  • On-line English Grammar by Anthony Hughes @ Digital Education Network ("The Alphabet in English[sound files], Adjectives, Adverbs, Nouns, Possessives with 'S and S', Determiniers, Pronouns, Verbs")
  • On Teaching Writing ("articles written by Sharon Kingen that summarize the essential content and methods that writing teachers need to master")
  • Oz's Kingdom: Reference (Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Research Sites, Foreign Language, Books, Magazines, News ... lots of links, teacher resources, etc.)
  • paragraphpunch.com ("web site is designed to help users learn how to write a basic paragraph ... Users develop an idea and write their own topic sentence, body, and conclusion. Program prompts guide students step by step through pre-writing, writing, organizing, editing, rewriting, and publishing.  Students’ completed paragraphs can be transferred to a word processing program, HTML editor, or e-mail application.")
  • Using Your WITs With Writing Assignments: Using the World-Wide Web to Improve Student Writing (ideas for using the Internet for research and email communciations)
  • Writing Tips A+ research and writing tips for high school and college students.
  • Yahoo's Reference Links (Acronyms and Abbreviations, English Language Usage

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Words:

Acronyms & Abbreviations, Ambigrams, Anagrams, Antagonyms, Cliches, Colloquialisms, Eponyms, Etymologies, Homonyms & Rhyming, Homographs, Oxymora, Palindromes, Pleonasms, Word Games & Puzzles, Vocabulary & Miscellany

Acronyms & Abbreviations (abbreviations that become words; i.e. scuba = self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)

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Ambigrams:
(words that can be read from different angles, directions, reflections, etc., to be read as the same or as new words ... artistic license taken here for the drawing of many of the words)

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Anagrams
(re-arrangement of letters of words/phrases to form new ones)

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Antagonyms
(words that have contradicting definitions)

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Cliches

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Colloquialisms, Idoms, Slang & Expressions

  • American Slanguages (Foreign Slanguages, Too ) - The Hick-to-Hip Translation Guide
  • Dictionary of American Regional English @ U of Wisconsin ("DARE is a reference tool .. to document the varieties of English that are not found everywhere in the United States--those words, pronunciations, and phrases that vary from one region to another, that we learn at home rather than at school, or that are part of our oral rather than our written culture.")
  • Expressions of our American Ancestors @ AmeriSpeak
  • King's English, The by HW Fowler ("an indispensable resource for anyone concerned about correct English Usage ... Vocabulary {General Principles, Familiar and far-fetched words, Concrete and abstract expression, Circumlocution, Short and long words, Saxon and Romance words, Requirements of different styles, Malaprops, Neologisms, Americanisms, Foreign words, Formation, Slang, Individual, Mutual, Unique, Aggravate} ... Syntax {Case, Number, Comparatives and superlatives, etc.} ... Airs and Graces ... Punctuation ... Euphony ... Quotation ... Grammar ... Meaning ... Ambiguity ... Style")

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Eponyms
(words originating from a person's name: sandwich - Earl of Sandwich; diesel - Rudolph Diesel, etc.)

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Etymologies
(history and origins of words)

  • Bartleby.com - Reference (Columbia Encyclopedia, American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, American HeritageŽ Book of English Usage, Fowler's The King’s English {commonsense rules of style and grammar}, Strunk's The Elements of Style, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Cambridge History of English & American Literature, Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Emily Post's. Etiquette ... search page) new
  • Etymology of First Names by Mike Campbell (history and origin of common first names)
  • Word Detective on the Web by Evan Morris ("the online version of The Word Detective, a newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language")

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Homonyms, Homophones & Rhyming
(words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same)

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Homographs & Heternoyms
(words that are spelled the same but with different pronounciations and meanings)

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Oxymora 
(an odd or contradictory combinations of words: jumbo shrimp, bittersweet, legally drunk, etc.)

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Palindromes
(words, phrases & sentences spelled the same forward and backward)

  • Palindromes A palindrome is a word or sentence that reads the same forward as it does backward. A number of interesting palindromes are given for your amusement. Can you make up your own?
  • Palindromes.txt @ eservrer.org

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Pleonasms & Tautological Redundancies
(redundant use of words: hot water heater, exactly the same, empty hole , etc.)

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Word Games & Puzzles

  • about.com: Language Arts (searcher & lots of links ... Alphabet Fun, Dictionaries Plus, Grammar Guide, Homework Help, Parents/Teachers, Parts of Speech, Reading Library, Spelling, Vocabulary, Writing Room, Authors, Books, Drama and Theater, Poetry and Verses, Quotes Collection, Songs and Music, Story Center, EFL/ESL for Kids, Foreign Languages, Sign Language, Comics & Cartoons, Crossword Games, Holiday Fun, Jokes and Riddles, Word Puzzles, Word Search)
  • Crosswords & Other Games (links to "crossword puzzles, comic strips, and word-related content")
  • Crossword Solver (sorta) @ Focusing on Words ("Why do I say "sorta"? Because this engine finds only single English words, not phrases, names, or proper nouns [yet], and it only supports words up to 10 letters long [so far].")
  • CyberKids: Games (crossword puzzles, word search, word jumbles & fill-ins)
  • EducationWorld - Word Games Online (searcher and links ... part 2, part 3)
  • linaPUZZLES.com (excellent source of puzzles and games)
  • nanana.com  (excellent source of puzzles and games)
  • Merriam Webster Online (Word of the Day, Word Game of the Day.
  • Power Bear Word Find Puzzles @ syndicate.com
  • Puzzability.com (puzzles)
  • Puzzlemaker! ("create puzzles and games for your newsletters, flyers, handouts, or classroom assignments" ... mazes, crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, criss-cross puzzles, number puzzles, cryptograms, scramble puzzles, etc.)
  • Puzzler, The (many, various games)
  • Puzzles @ Thinks.com ("The Internet's most entertaining puzzles are here: Crosswords, Anagrams, Doublets, Trivia, Chess Problems, Math Puzzles, WordSearches ... and more")
  • Vocabulary University ("Participate in these FREE vocabulary puzzles to enhance vocabulary mastery. Earn your diploma at VOCAB U. Teachers have endorsed this site which enriches classroom curriculum. These exercises help prepare for SSAT, PSAT, GED, SAT and ACT tests, and they supplement personal vocabulary acquisition, are used in home-schooling and ESL programs.")
  • Word Detective on the Web by Evan Morris ("the online version of The Word Detective, a newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language")

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Vocabulary & Miscellany

  • Amanda's Mnemonics Page (warning: some may use offensive, graphic language ... very useful mnemonics ... formulae and/or rhymes to aid in helping to memorize words)
  • Bartleby.com - Reference (Columbia Encyclopedia, American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, American HeritageŽ Book of English Usage, Fowler's The King’s English {commonsense rules of style and grammar}, Strunk's The Elements of Style, Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Cambridge History of English & American Literature, Fannie Farmer's The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Emily Post's. Etiquette ... search page)
  • Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia @ Gulf High School
  • Collective Nouns @ OjoHaven (herd of cattle; gaggle of geese, while on ground; flock of geese, when flying; etc.)
  • EducationWorld - Reading, Spelling, Phonics, Vocabulary, Writing (searcher and links ... part 2)
  • Exploring the English Language @ World Wide Words @ Michael Quinion's language pages ("devoted to the English language - its history, quirks, curiosities and evolution ... more than 400 pages ... discuss new terms, display weird words, get behind words in the news, help you with tricky points, and answer questions")
  • King's English, The by HW Fowler ("an indispensable resource for anyone concerned about correct English Usage ... Vocabulary {General Principles, Familiar and far-fetched words, Concrete and abstract expression, Circumlocution, Short and long words, Saxon and Romance words, Requirements of different styles, Malaprops, Neologisms, Americanisms, Foreign words, Formation, Slang, Individual, Mutual, Unique, Aggravate} ... Syntax {Case, Number, Comparatives and superlatives, etc.} ... Airs and Graces ... Punctuation ... Euphony ... Quotation ... Grammar ... Meaning ... Ambiguity ... Style")
  • Merriam Webster: Language Info Zone (Webster Dictionary, Webster Thesaurus, etc. ... "A collection of on-line resources to help you track down definitions, spellings, pronunciations, synonyms, vocabulary exercises, and other key facts about words and language.")
  • Word Net - A Lexical Database for the English Language @ Princeton U (definitions, synonyms, etc.)
  • Wordsmyth (SAT Dictionary)
  • Word Wizard ("If you're fascinated by anything to do with words, then join our club, use our FREE services and have fun with other like-minded people. We offer you a round trip across the language, answering your questions about word or phrase origins, offering a selection of new words, snappy quotes and elegant insults, as well as our Public Scribe Service and amazing competitions.")

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Research Papers

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Research Process

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Citation

Copyright & Fair Use, MLA style format, APA style format, Chicago style format

Copyright and Fair Use Laws & Information

  • Columbia Guide to Online Style ("a tool, a comprehensive guide to citing and producing academic documents and resources that are stored electronically. Working as an interdisciplinary template that can be applied to a variety of already established style guides such as APA, Chicago, and MLA, it offers advice that can be adapted to whichever style a particular discipline, instructor, colleague, journal, editor, or publisher has selected")
  • Copyright & Fair Use @ Stanford U (laws, info & links)
  • Copyright Law and Electronic Reserves @ U of Texas (fair use and copyright crash course)
  • Copyright Website @ benedict.com ("site endeavors to provide real world, practical and relevant copyright information")

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MLA Citation Styles

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APA Citation Styles

  • Columbia Guide to Online Style ("a tool, a comprehensive guide to citing and producing academic documents and resources that are stored electronically. Working as an interdisciplinary template that can be applied to a variety of already established style guides such as APA, Chicago, and MLA, it offers advice that can be adapted to whichever style a particular discipline, instructor, colleague, journal, editor, or publisher has selected")
  • Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American Psychological Association @ American Psychological Association (Citing Email Communications, Citing a Web Site, Citing Specific Documents on a Web Site, Citing Articles and Abstracts From Electronic Databases, Web Citations in Text)
  • Footnote and Citation Style Guides @ Lehigh U ("information which summarizes instructions for generating footnotes and bibliographies in various subject disciplines")

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Chicago Citation Style

  • Columbia Guide to Online Style ("a tool, a comprehensive guide to citing and producing academic documents and resources that are stored electronically. Working as an interdisciplinary template that can be applied to a variety of already established style guides such as APA, Chicago, and MLA, it offers advice that can be adapted to whichever style a particular discipline, instructor, colleague, journal, editor, or publisher has selected")

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This page was last updated on 12/17/07
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