The free program Fight the Bull is designed to identify jargon in your writing and help you to write more succinctly and clearly. The program also calculates the relative difficulty of your writing with Flesch's Reading Ease scale. I have not personally used the program, so I can't vouch for it - but it is free and could prove quite helpful as another tool for helping writers better express themselves.
Roy Peter Clark has put together a list of fifty tools or tips on being a better writer. These tips include grammer suggestions, style advice, and other helpful pointers designed to make your writing clearer and more effective. Remember, presentation is just as important as content.
In order to use MLA, you need to get as much of the following information as you can. For further information and examples you can go to the MLA site.
[Remember, the purpose of the bibliography/works cited information is so that your reader can find the original source of your information easily. Therefore, you should always give enough information to make this possible.]
Batiushkov, K. N., "A stroll to the Academy of Arts: A
letter from an Old Muscovite to his friend in the village of N." Carol
Adlam, Trans. Original published in Syn Otechestva
in 1814. Russian
Visual Arts. 2002. The Humanities Research
Institute of Sheffield University. 15 Aug. 2005
<http://hri.shef.ac.uk.rva/texts/batiushkov/
bat01/bat01.html>.
Women's Studies Resources. Karla Tonella, Ed. University of Iowa. 15 Aug. 2005 <http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/wstudies/>.
Hodges, Shari. Paradise Lost and Star Trek. 15 Aug. 2005 <http://home.olemiss.edu/~shodges/paradise.html>.
Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women.
1869. Electronic Text Center, University of
Virginia Library. 15 Aug. 2005
<http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/
public/AlcLitt.html>.
Pushkin, Aleksandr. The Bronze Horseman.
1833. Yevgeny Bonver, Trans. 2004-2005.
Poetry Lover's Page. 15 Aug. 2005
<http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/pushkin/
bronze_horseman.html>.
"Shakespeare, William." Wikipedia.org. 15 Aug 2005, last modified. 15 Aug. 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespear>.
Gorrell, Nancy. "Teaching Empathy through Ecphrastic Poetry: Entering a Curriculum of Peace." English Journal. 89.5 (May 2000). 17 Nov. 2003. 15 Aug. 2005 <http://www.holocaust-trc.org/Engl_Jrnl02.htm>.
Weisberg, Jacob. "Evolution vs. Religion: Quit pretending they're compatible." Slate 10 Aug. 2005. 15 Aug. 2005 <http://slate.msn.com/id/2124297?nav=mpp>.
Vereshack, Fr. Raphael. "Orthodox
Mystics/Spirituality and Catholic Spirituality." Online
Posting. 18 May 2005. Monachos.net Discussion
Community. 15 Aug. 2005
<http://www.monachos.net/mb/messages/4225/
13328.html?1067940262>.
Plagarism takes place whenever a writer fails to acknowledge that another person is the source of the words, thoughts, ideas contained within a particular work. It is dishonest and carries with it risks for the student, including failed assigments and classes, and risks for the professional, including loss of employment and possible civil penalties.
Users of web based resources can also infringe on the copyrights of Internet resources if they reproduce them in their own works without proper acknowledgement or permission.
Therefore, it is very important that if you wish to use information or materials that you find on the web in your own projects that you know how to cite them properly and what is permissible under "fair use" and what is not.
Only information or work that is original to the author or that is commonly known by most readers does not need to be cited.
Material appearing on the Internet, just like material in print is likely to be copyrighted.
While usually copyright
will be indicated
specifically by the word "copyright", the name of the author or the @
symbol it is not necessary in order for web material to be under
copyright protection.
So it always better to
assume material
is copyrighted unless something is indicated to the contrary - this
includes print, visual, and audio material.
Fair Use allows you to
use part of a work without violating copyright law - for example, in a
book review, an academic paper, in a classroom or in a
parody. Remember, fair use
permits reproducing only part of a web page or
article, not the article/page in its entirety.
Newsgroup postings may
be cited, but not e-mails [except with the permission of the
sender]. Also, no more than five
images by
an artist or photographer can be used in a research paper or project.
Material is in the public domain and therefore free to use if the copyright has expired, the author has relinquished the copyright, or the work was published by the US Federal Government. For a good explanation of Public Domain see Public Domain
In order to cite a web page properly, you will need to find the following information:
Author [if possible] - This is usually found at the beginning of a web article, the bottom or top of a web page, the copyright notice, or in a link such as "About Me", "Biography", "Background", or "Who am I ?"
Title - For an article, this is usually found at the beginning of the piece. The title of a web page is normally found at the end of the web page's URL and in the top bar of the web browser. For example, the title of this site is Isidore's Corner. If you are unable to locate the title, use the title that appears on the web page itself.
If you are unable to locate all of the suggested information, use what you can find.
Various writing styles such as the APA, MLA, and Chicago have their own special requirements.
The Guide to Grammar and Writing addresses all your grammar concerns regarding proper writing from the sentence to the extended paper as well as other issues regarding the proper use of words. You can also e-mail any grammar questions that haven't already answered on the site.
If you have problems writing, don't hesitate to use sites like this to improve. Writing effectively is key to making your views, opinions and ideas more accessible and persuasive.
Just because something is in print doesn't mean it's true and just because something appears on the web doesn't mean that it has been posted by an expert - [even information that appears on this site!] Therefore, when researching on the web, approach everything with a healthy dose of skepticism and be prepared to verify, verify, verify. You should also treat web page information as you would information obtained from a book, magazine or newspaper.
Here are some helpful suggestions for measuring a website's veracity and therefore the value of the information you find there:
1. You can usually locate information about the author/publisher of a web page or article by locating links on the web site such as "about me", "who am I", "about the author", or "about the site".
These links are usually found on the "home" or "index" page of the website.
You can also find information based on the URL, web address, or the domain of the site.
Here are the most common domain name abbreviations:
Some countries or states have their own domain name abbreviations. For example, .ru is for Russia and .uk is for the United Kingdom.
2. Evaluate the information on the page:
3. Examine the site's links:
4. Use the Web to find out more about the site by entering the site's URL [http address] into the following sites:
Other useful sites with advice on web page evaluation are: Evaluating Information Found on the Internet, Evaluating Web Pages, and Library Guide to Evaluating Resources on the World Wide Web.
Once again, don't believe everything you read and don't accept anything on the web at face value. If you are going to be using the web as a research source, you need to train yourself to separate the wheat and the chaff and always be ready to verify the information you find on the Net - especially if it seems unlikely.
One final place to look at is the Urban Reference Legend Pages at Snopes.com. You aren't going to find information on everything here, but if you are trying to check up on a rumor or story that has been passed around - this is a good place to start.
