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Sentence Grammar


Grammar and Style Notes
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Grammar/
Provides explanations of conventions of grammar, style, punctuation, and usage, broken into a file for each letter of the alphabet (for example: click on "a" for information on adjectives and adverbs).

The Lingua Center
http://deil.lang.uiuc.edu/web.pages/grammarsafari.html
Helps you get beyond the "safe confines of grammar books" to explore English on the Web. Want to hunt for adjective clauses in Little Women? The Grammar Safari will show you how.

The Writer's Complex
http://www.esc.edu/htmlpages/writer/workshop.htm
From Empire State College, this online writer's workshop offers good explanations and exercises. Click on Grammar Workout for advice on structuring sentences.

Ask A Linguist
http://linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/index.html
Not sure whether to use who or whom? Go to this site, where a panel of linguists will answer questions about language.

How to Make Sentences Clear and Concise
http://www.urich.edu/~writing/concise.htm
This downloadable reference sheet will help you identify and edit weak verbs.

How Can I Identify Weak Verbs?
http://www.io.com/~eighner/qa050152.html
This essay by Lars Eighner suggests a hierarchy for distinguishing weak from strong verbs.

Hunter College Writing Center
http://myst.hunter.cuny.edu/~rwcenter/writing/on-line/sva.html
A downloadable exercise offering three ways to practice subject-verb agreement.

The King's English
http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/fowler
The 1908 version of H.W. Fowler's classic work.

George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language"
http://english-www.hss.cmu.edu/langs/politics-english-language.txt
Download this classic essay for Orwell's advice on adjectives, and also as a text well worth examining. Read closely to see if Orwell follows his own advice.

Shakespearean Insults
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/user/bayer/humor/shakeinsult.html
Let thyself go: here you will find many inventive adjectives in a list of insults that sound Shakespearean.

Wordnet
http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~wn/
An online reference database of English nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that allows you to see words in many forms and to search for synonyms and antonyms (and much more).

Grammar and Writing
http://webster.commnet.edu/hp/pages/darling/grammar_original.htm
From Capital Community Technical College. Click on Quiz on Subject-Verb Agreement.

Women Who Dared to Disturb the Lexicon
http://vega.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/WILLA/fall94/h2-isele.html
An interview with two women who were among the first to question the generic use of he.