Seven useful websites writers

From grammar guides to usage resources. From usual suspects to obscure gems, here are seven web sites writers of all genres will find of great value:

1. Amazon.com
You may have heard of this website — a good place, I understand, to find books (or anything else manufactured). But what I appreciate even more is the “Search inside this book” link under the image of the book cover on most pages in the Books section. No longer do you need to own a book, drive out to the bookstore, or thumb through it at library in search of a name, that clever remark or expression you can’t quite remember. And even if you do have access to the book in question, it’s easier to search online than to try to remember on what part of what page in what part of the book you remember seeing something last week or last month or years ago. The book search can be a writer’s salvation.
 
2. The Chicago Manual of Style Online
A review on this site, The Chicago Manual of Style, notes that despite its abundance of useful information, buying the bulky book is overkill for writers (but it is an editors best friend). Editorial professionals of all kinds will benefit from the CMOS, Style Q&A feature, which responds authoritatively, sensibly, and often humorously to visitors’ queries.

3. Banned for Life
Newspaper editor Tom Mangan’s site lists reader contributions of clichés and redundancies.
4. GrammarBook.com
Jane Straus, (May 1954 - Feb 2011) author of The Blue Book on Grammar and Punctuation, created this site to promote her book. It also features simple grammar lessons (and quizzes), as well as video lessons, an e-newsletter, and blog entries that discuss various grammar topics.

5. The Word Detective
Words and Language in a Humorous Vein on the Web Since 1995
 This online version of Evan Morris’s newspaper column of the same name (some were also published in the book The Word Detective) features humorous Q&A entries about word origins.

6. The Phrase Finder
A useful way to find proverbs, phrases from the Bible and Shakespeare, nautical expressions, and American idiom (the site originates in the United Kingdom), plus a feature called “Famous Last Words” and, for about $50 a year, subscription to a phrase thesaurus. (Subscribers include many well-known media companies and other businesses as well as universities.)

7. The Vocabula Review
The Principal Web Destination for Anyone Interested in Words and Language
 Essays about language and usage; $25 per year by email, $35 for the print version.