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Gary B. Larson
garbltoo@gmail.com
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PLEASE NOTE: I am happily retired in Port Townsend, Washington. I have deactivated Garbl's Writing Resources and am no longer adding, revising, or updating writing resources in this section or any other section. But please continue to visit and use my free Editorial Style and Usage Manual, Consise Writing Guide and Plain English Writing Guide. I update their content occasionally.
Garbl's Online Grammar Guides is an annotated directory of websites where you can find answers to your questions about sentence structure and using the parts of speech correctly. You'll also find a separate section below featuring websites with advice on punctuation.
Garbl's Editorial Style Manual--This style guide can help answer your writing questions about abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, numbers, organization terminology, punctuation, spelling and word usage.
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Daily Grammar--Bill Johanson, junior high school English teacher, and Word Place Inc. of Orem, Utah |
Free service sends you email messages with a writing lesson five days of the week and a quiz on the sixth day.
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EnglishClub English Grammar--Josef Essberger, Cambridge, England. |
This site is aimed at English as a Second Language students. Some lessons have grammar quizzes testing yourself. And there's a Help Desk if you still don't understand something.
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English Grammar 101--Marvin L. Van Horne of Learning by Design, author, instructional designer and former intermediate and high school teacher in Orange County, California |
Online English grammar tutorial with interactive exercises and tests covering word, phrase and clause patterns; verb tense and verbal patterns; and verb form and sentence patterns.
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English lessons and tests--Elek Mathe, EnglishLearner.com, Budapest, Hungary |
Interactive English tests, exercises and puzzles for English learners from beginning to advanced in grammar, vocabulary and reading.
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English Rules--Jane Straus, author of the Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, communications consultant and lecturer, Mill Valley, California |
An online English grammar and punctuation reference guide including exercises with answers to test your knowledge.
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Exploring English--Greg Dixon, Knowledge Explorer Centre, published by Shared Visions Unlimited, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. |
"Explore the wonders and quirks of the English Language including the parts of speech, sentences, style guidelines, usage, punctuation, spelling, and more."
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Good Grammar, Good Style--Helen Moody, Ph.D., Professional Training Co., New Mexico |
Articles on acronyms, passive writing, and the serial comma, and answers to frequently asked questions about grammar terms, verbs, pronouns, spelling, punctuation and other topics.
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Grammar Bytes! Interactive Grammar Review--Robin L. Simmons. |
Grammar explanations, handouts for teachers and students, and interactive exercises.
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Grammar Grabbers--Bill Cutler, freelance/contract writer/ editor, Toronto, Ontario |
Professional Tips for the Amateur Writer (a not-so-serious guide to English grammar
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Grammar Handbook--Writers' Workshop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
Explains and illustrates the basic grammatical rules for parts of speech, phrases, clauses, sentences and sentence elements, and common problems of usage.
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Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors--Mary K. McCaskill, Langley Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia |
Chapter 1 on Grammar in this PDF addresses problems often encountered in technical documents while Chapter 2 on Sentence Structure chapter addresses issues like parallelism, emphasis, brevity and comparison.
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Guide to Grammar and Writing--Dedicated to the memory of Charles Darling, professor of English/humanities, Capital Community-Technical College, Hartford, Connecticut. |
Handouts on grammar and English usage, more than 150 computer-graded quizzes, and recommendations on writing--from basic problems in subject-verb agreement and the use of articles to exercises in parallel structures and help with argumentative essays.
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HyperGrammar--Writing Centre, University of Ottawa, Canada |
Includes sections on the parts of speech and sentences; using pronouns, verbs and modifiers; building phrases, clauses and sentences; and writing paragraphs.
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Internet Grammar of English--University College London. |
Online course on word classes, phrases, clauses, sentences, form and function.
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The King's English, Second Edition--H.W. Fowler, 1908, published online by the Bartleby Project, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. |
The classic text covering vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, grammar and all the rest!
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Modern English Grammar--Daniel Kies, Department of English, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. |
"Hypertextbook" covering English clauses, phrases, word structure, grammatical style, punctuation and even the Ebonics debate.
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Myths and Superstitions of Writing--Gary B. Larson, Garbl's Writing Center, Seattle, Washington. |
Eleven "rules" disputed by respected writing authorities through the ages--from splitting infinitives to beginning sentences with and or but to ending sentences with prepositions.
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The Online English Grammar--Anthony Hughes, projects and development director, Digital Education Network Ltd., Bristol, United Kingdom. |
You can find specific grammar points or subjects in this resource using its Contents or Subject Index pages, an alphabetical finder and a keyword search.
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OWL Handouts: Grammar--Purdue University Online Writing Lab, West Lafayette, Indiana |
These OWL resources will help you use correct grammar in your writing. This area includes resources on grammar topics, such as count and noncount nouns, articles (a versus an), subject-verb agreement, and prepositions.
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Sentence Sense--written by Evelyn Farbman and designed by Charles Darling, professors of English at Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut |
An excellent interactive online textbook that offers three approaches to learning basic writing: examining how sentences work, focusing on common errors in written English and suggesting techniques and topics for developing ideas in writing.
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Some Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them--Melisa Michaels of Hawaii, author of seven novels--six science fiction and one mystery. |
Commentary on the apostrophe, phrase matching, spelling, identifying pronouns and being consistent.
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The Tongue Untied--Kellee Weinhold, School of Journalism, University of Oregon. |
This site provides instruction in basic grammar, sentence structure and word choice, as well as rules for punctuation according to the Associated Press Style.
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Writing English--Proofreading and Copyediting Services, George Robinson, Montreal |
Writing tips, advice on writing cover letters and resumes, links, and an online glossary of English grammar terms.
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Writing Exercises for Engineers and Scientists--editors from Virginia Tech, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Texas at Austin |
Interactive writing exercises to help engineers and scientists with grammar, punctuation, usage, style and knowledge of written English.
Creativity | Writing Process | Grammar | Style and Usage | Reference Sources | Words |Fat-Free Writing |Plain Language | Action Writing | Word Play
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Punctuation
Besides the links below, some of the grammar sites above also provide guidelines for using punctuation--and so do most of the style manuals listed in the Style and Usage directory. Also check out punctuation in Garbl's Editorial Style Manual.
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Chapter 3. Punctuation from Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors--Mary K. McCaskill, Langley Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Hampton, Virginia |
Chapter 3 in this PDF file addresses the marks of punctuation, in alphabetical order, presenting their functions, situations when the marks are required or incorrect and situations when the marks are appropriate but optional.
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Guides for the Grammatically Perplexed--Arnie Keller, Department of English, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
Focuses on one punctuation mark at the moment with The Comma Cruncher: How To Make Your Comma Behave Themselves and a step by step guide for where the comma goes and doesn't go.
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Punctuation Made Simple--Gary A. Olson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Illinois State University |
These articles will give you a sense of how to use colons, semicolons, commas, dashes and apostrophes in your prose.
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Punctuation--Purdue University Online Writing Lab, West Lafayette, Indiana |
Rules and exercises covering commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, hyphens and other punctuation marks.
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Punctuation--Frances Peck, Writing Centre, University of Ottawa |
Several sections can help you understand and use different types of punctuation more effectively in your writing. Includes exercises on identifying errors and adding punctuation.
Creativity | Writing Process | Grammar | Style and Usage | Reference Sources | Words |Fat-Free Writing |Plain Language | Action Writing | Word Play
[ Home ] [ Writing Resources Home ] [ Style Manual ] [ Plain English Guide ] [ Concise Writing Guide ] [ Writing Bookshelf ] [ What's New ]
Created by Gary B. Larson of Port Townsend, Washington, garbltoo@gmail.com.
Updated March 5, 2016.