Helpful Resources for Chapter 6:
How to Avoid Gruesome Grammar, Putrid Punctuation, and Saggy Style

"Use short, simple words, short sentences, the active voice, no cliches, and if you can cut, cut." --George Orwell

pp. 195-197  Pronouns

• Key things to know about pronouns
• Avoiding problems with pronouns
• Making it clear to whom (or to what) your pronoun refers
• Making sure the pronoun and noun refer to the same people

p. 196-198 Subject-verb agreement

•    Subject-verb handout from Purdue's OWL site
•    Twelve key rules
•    Video and rules from Grammarbook.com

pp. 203-204 Sentences

• Avoiding punctuation errors that can produce run-on sentences
• Avoiding errors that result in sentence fragments instead of proper sentences

p. 205 Writing paragraphs

• Good, basic tips (although note that most of your paragraphs should not have closing sentence that summarizes the paragraph)
• Writing effective paragraphs (Two pages packed with essential information.)

p. 203-208 Grammar and Punctuation

•  Numerous useful links for grammar problems, usage, APA style, etc.
  
• A useful site for getting answers to your grammar and punctuation questions. You can also purchase an affordable grammar checker from that site.

• Grammar software
  • Microsoft Word
    • Step-by-step instructions for using Microsoft Word's Grammar Checker
    • Download a guide to customizing Microsoft Word's Grammar Checker
  • Grammar Check (a free tool!)
  • Grammarly

p. 205-208 Punctuation

• Six important comma rules
• Punctuation game (a fun, interactive quiz)

pp. 208-213 Spelling and usage

Usage: Using the right words

• Fantastic usage site  If you want to be sure that you are using a word correctly, look up the word on this site.
• Top 10 lists of errors to avoid (note their similarities)
  •  Jordan Julien's list
  • Another list (pay special attention to numbers 1, 2, 4, and 8).
• Short video illustrating that small words can be more powerful than big words
• Finding the word you want
  • Finding synonyms
  • Reverse dictionary: If you know what you mean, but cannot come up with the word--or are not sure you have the right word, this dictionary can help.
  • Visual dictionary (Shows how the word you look up is related to other words--and provides definitions of your word and those related words)
  • Graphwords (Another tool for finding the definition of a word as well as the definition of related words)
• Finding definitions
  •  Of ordinary words
    • Merriam-Webster online (Note that when there are debates about words, such as how to spell or hyphenate a word, APA usually follows Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.)
    • Ninjawords
    • Wordnik
    • Dictionary.com
    • Wiktionary
    • Yourdictionary.com (After seeing the word's definition, you can scroll down to see  examples of how the word can be used in a sentence. )
  • Of psychological terms
    • About.com's
    • AlleyDog's
    • AllPsych's
    • Webref's

Spelling

• Spell checkers
  • Online
    • Reversonet
    • SpellChecker.net
    • Jspell's
• Reminders that spell checkers do not solve all your spelling problems:
  •  Humorous examples from the Internet Accuracy Project
  • A funny poem ( "Ode to Spell Checkers") from Mr. Tim
• 100 Most Often Misspelled Words (in alphabetical order)

pp. 212-214 Editing and Proofreading

• 15 grammar goofs that make you look silly
• Two "Dear John" letters that illustrate the importance of punctuation
• Purdue University's proofreading tips 
• UNC's proofreading tips (includes a quiz you can take to check your skills)
• Online proofing of your paper
• Proofreading and editing software
• Gradeproof (free trial version)
• Gingersoftware.com's free download (but you will be encouraged to upgrade to the pay version)
• Grammarly.com's free download (but you will be encouraged to upgrade to the pay version)

pp. 215-220 Writing Tips

• Six tips to revising--and thus writing --well
• Seven tips that will improve your papers (Download this four-page pdf from the University of Washington)
• Using parallel structure (from Purdue's Online Writing Lab)
• Identifying passive sentences so that you can get rid of them
• Have a specific writing problem? This set of links will get you to a short, useful handout that will help (from Clarion University)
• Online version of the Strunk and White's classic book on writing style and grammar.