provided by OWL at Purdue

words and phrases to avoid using in all writing assignments

Numerous Web-savvy language aficionados have created online repositories of seldom-used and/or offbeat words; go, for example, to the Phrontistery. You’ll also find many similar print compendiums, such as The Word Lovers’ Dictionary: Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, by Josefa Heifetz.

This portal features links to hundreds of foreign-language dictionaries and glossaries, as well as numerous specialty dictionaries and glossaries covering specific subjects like chocolate, jewelry, and weather, and more resources like thesauruses and collections of quotations.

This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.

This dictionary offers more than just definitions of words you type in; it also enables a variety of tip-of-the-tongue searches: To return words and phrases beginning or ending in a certain word, type in that word followed by or preceding an asterisk, or type the first couple of letters of a word followed by a colon and any complete word to produce a list of words and phrases starting with those letters that pertain to that word. (For example, at:air brings up not only atmosphere but also “attic fan” and atomization.) Or, precede an acronym or initialism with expand: to find phrases these abbreviations stand for, and more.

Enter a word at The Free Dictionary, and you’ll get not only definitions from various dictionaries but also citations of the word in quotations, a translation tool to find the word’s foreign-language equivalents, and lists of related terms. The site also has starts-with and ends-with search functions and an option to call up a list of terms in which a particular word appears in the definition. In addition, you can look up acronyms and idioms and search encyclopedias, foreign-language dictionaries, and specialized dictionaries.

This plain-English resource provides easy-to-understand definitions. For example, the meaning of atmosphere, rendered at Merriam-Webster Online as “the gaseous envelope of a celestial body (as a planet), the whole mass of air surrounding the earth, the air of a locality, a surrounding influence or environment, the overall aesthetic effect of a work of art, an intriguing or singular tone, effect, or appeal” here is explained as follows: “the area of air and gas enveloping objects in space, like stars and planets, or the air around any location,” or “an overall feeling and/or effect of a place, specially if it is an environment of pleasure or interest.” This site also provides links to other dictionaries as well as other resources.

Wordnik collects definitions from numerous other dictionary websites, as well as displaying online citations of the word to provide context.

You will need to add yourself to your class page using the specific access ID found on your class webpage and syllabus.

Student resource for Shakespeare competition. The basics are this: Students should memorize, prepare, and perform dramatic reading of a monologue from any of Shakespeare’s plays. They must also memorize a sonnet if they advance to the Regional Competition at the University of Arizona. This would be a lower priority. The monologue must be less than twenty lines. The sonnet must be 14 lines.

A great resource created by Illinois Valley Community College intended to supplement what you are learning in your courses and help you produce well-written essays. The Stylebook serves a few main functions: To give a basic overview of the three documentation styles, to give a basic overview of how to use sources in an essay, and to help students write clear and accurate papers

Some rules really don't apply anymore. How do you know which rules to brush off?

Definition and Examples of Literary Terms

What's more to say? It's the library!

This is a link to the Poetry Foundation “Learning Lab” It lists poems that come with a “Poem Guide”, Author bio, “Poem in Context”, Sometimes audio, and sometimes lesson resources like discussion questions, writing ideas, etc.

The Final School Competition will be held on 1/31. Students need to select 2 poems from the Poetry Out Loud Anthology on the Web Site. Have students who are interested come to see Mr. Evans (Rm. 703) any day this week for more information

Use this technology feature in your presentations to improve audience engagement and receive immediate feedback int he middle of your presentation.

Excellent Visual Aid Features; samples and instructions included

A blog post about Prezi Presentations that provides simple tips to making your presentation effective and appropriate.

A great Prezi made by the Prezi team to model a great visual for any presentation. Great tips to making your presentation effective.

Phenomenal resource for writing just about anything. Extensive compilation of documentation and research help.

Search engine powered by Google and Bing, where you can also earn credit for gift cards to stores like Starbucks and Amazon. It's free, easy, and if you are on the internet anyway, why not earn some gift cards while you're doing school work?

There’s no shortage of synonyms for shortage, and though many of the terms are close in meaning, the variety of connotations is sufficient to merit this list.

Improve your word choice by eliminating the word "laugh" and replacing it with a much more descript and visual word. 20 suggestions are given to you here.

Humans, being social animals, have many reasons for meeting — and many words to describe doing so in various degrees of formality and format. Here are thirty ways to label a meeting, depending on the particulars.

. Here’s a roster of slang synonyms in plural form for words for US currency in particular, many of which are useful for playful references to money or as options for evoking a historical period in fiction by using contemporary idiom:

What, exactly, is a coup, and how many kinds of coups are there? This post describes a variety of phrases using the word, plus an array of related terms.