Included here are links to resources which are either directly related to writing, or which provide the kind of factual information that writers frequently need when researching a story.
WRITING, READING AND LANGUAGE
- Publisher's Weekly.
- A wide variety of articles on publishing.
- writersdigest.com.
- A variety of articles on all aspects of writing. Don't miss their 101 Best Web Sites for Writers link.
- Fiction Writer.
- Another monthly magazine, put out by the writersdigest.com folks. It's listed separately here, because I don't see an easy link to it from the main publication site.
- Writers Write.
- The self-nominated "...one resource for professional writers." Monthly publication that caters to a broad spectrum of writing interests.
- The Mining Co. Writing/Publishing Page.
- Links to several other areas of interest, including Poetry, Screenwriting, and Technical Writing.
- The Editorial Eye Index.
- Non-fiction. Articles on writing, editing, and language.
- The Word Detective.
- A collection of monthly articles wherein the Word Detective tracks down the origin of common but puzzling words and phrases. A fun place for word buffs to browse.
- Library of Congress.
- Check out the link for the Copyright Office while you’re there. It will bring you facts, FAQs and forms for something near and dear to a writer’s heart: copyright protection!
- Bartleby Library - Great Books On Line.
- A wonderful site dedicated to presenting the full versions of classic works that are out of copyright protection. Fiction and non-fiction, prose and poetry. This site is a "must browse."
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.
- Just as it says. Searchable, with glossary. The site also contains an extensive bulletin board of visitors commentary.
- Poetry Definitions
- A short list of standard poetic terms.
- HyperGrammer.
- Here's something dear to my techie writer's heart: a complete on-line grammer reference!
- The King's English, Fowler, H.W., 1908 .
- Old, but a classic. The full second edition, presented by the wonderful Bartleby Library (see separate reference).
- The Columbia Guide to Online Style.
- Recommendations for how to give a citation for nearly any online source, Humanities Style or Scientific Style.
- Copyright Resource Page.
- Just what it sounds like. The information from the Libarary of Congress site will be more current and "official," but sometimes that's a good reason for having an alternate explanation.
It doesn't matter how wonderful an imagination a writer has. Sooner or later, whether setting a short story in a flower shop or landing a crew on the triple-mooned world of Alcocran, a writer will need to look up a fact. Imagine the procrastination potential of having to make a trip to the library, possibly even to the big city libarary! Why, it could be weeks or even months before the writer had his fact. No longer. Unless you make a detour through WritingWest for a chat, there is no excuse for not getting your facts almost as quickly as you think of the need for them. If you know where to go and what to do, that is.
HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
- Sherlock@ The Internet Consulting Detective.
- If you only go to one site in your quest to understand search engines, do yourself a favor and make it this one. It has some excellent tutorials and makes intimidating words like "boolean" and "parameters" sound like your friends.
- Search IQ.
- This site periodically ranks the best known search engines and tells you what they are good at, what they are not so good at, and why. Look up your favorite search engine. You might be surprised. I know I was.
- Search Engine Watch.
- Tons of tips about how search engines actually work. Each one is a bit different. Invaluable for both web site builders and researchers.
- Search Engine Showdown.
- Another informative site that compares the performance of the most popular search engines with each other.
LOOK UP A FACT
- Reference Desk.
- Much more than a search engine, this site has links to most of the search engines you've heard about as well as links to everything from the Acronym Finder to the Zip Code Finder. It is, in fact, much as the name suggests: an online equivalent of the old library reference desk.
- InfoPlease.com.
- Another “everything” site, like Reference Desk, but the “everything is better hidden. For a real treasure trove, check out the almanacs. Some samples: endangered species, grammy awards, postal regulations.The site also includes access to an online encyclopedia.
- Encyclopedia.com.
- This has a nice interface, but very brief entries, almost like dictionary definitions. It is the portal to a premium (pay for) service has more extensive information. You probably won’t want to use the premium service, but the encyclopedia can be useful for getting you enough facts to pursue an online search elsewhere.
- All the Web, All the Time.
- An amazingly rapid new search engine that has more of the web (40%) cataloged than any other search engine (most are at about 16%). Also, at least in my opinion, it serves up more interesting sites, leaning heavily toward ".edu," ".net." and ".org" sites, while most of the other search engines are weighted toward "com" sites.
- Search Engine Colossus.
- There are so many search engines now, that I don't plan on listing them unless they offer something really outstanding or unique, but this one seems to qualify. This is a "mega" site that lists search engines from all over the world. You choose your engine by country.
- CIA World Factbook.
- Detailed facts on every country. Each country page shows a color flag and a map. It then summarizes all the things that bored you to tears in high school geography class but that you would like to know quickly if you were just appointed ambassador: brief history, form of government, population, imports, exports, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, as a famous Siamese king might say.
- Farmer’s Almanac.
- The state of the heavens, recipies, gardening tips, and a bunch of other good downhome facts and advice. My advice: click the site index button immediately, because for some reason, they’ve got the good stuff well hidden, and you can’t find most of it from the main page.
- InfoSpace.com.
- A portal-type site, primarily for looking up people and businesses. It's best feature is a good reverse look-up in the White Pages section for phone numbers, addresses, and email.
LOOK UP A WORD
Once again, more to follow. Your suggestions welcome. We are looking for the sites that are invaluable for research on a variety of topics. "Mega sites" (those with a clear focus and many links to other good content) will get preference.
- The Hypertext Webster Gateway.
- The interface couldn’t get any simpler. A word look-up request (for either exact or approximate matching) will bring you the kind of dictionary entry, complete with parts of speech and etymology, that you are used to seeing in your Websters 3rd College Edition.
- Merriam-Webster Online.
- Dictionary and Thesaurus, plus a word puzzle every day. This site treats a word like a search engine does, presenting every dictionary entry that contains it. A test of “test” (creative, aren’t I?) generated 54 hits. In addition to the standard noun or verb choices, it also brought me everything from test-drive to Wasserman test. Like the search engines, the site is leaning toward portal, and includes a thesaurus, a word of the day, and a few other things.
- dictionary.com.
- Includes Thesaurus, but notable for some other extras: a searchable dictionary of quotations and a translating dictionary that supports the standard German, French, etc. and then moves on to languages I never even heard of (Algerian Darja? Xhosa?)
- OneLook Dictionaries..
- One of my favorites because of the wild card lookup feature. It also includes many specialty dictionaries, which expand its word search capabilities and frequently offer more detailed explanations of less common words. Some of the specialty dictionaries, like A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices or A Dictionary of Phrase and Fable are worth browsing all on their own.
- Semantic Rhyming Dictionary.
- For the poets among us.
- whatis.com.
- A cross between a dictionary and an encyclopedia for words relating to information technology, especially the Internet and computers. Find out what a CAB file is, if you care.
- Webopedia.
- Hard to believe there’s anything left to be said after whatis.com, and maybe there isn’t, but Webopedia gives it a go, claiming to be “The only online dictionary and search engine you need for computer and Internet technology.”
- The Phobia List.
- So, what are you so afraid of?