ESL REFERENCE MATERIALS

The largest and most useful sites are at the top of each section.

 

LEGAL ENGLISH

Barger's Resources for Legal Writers: http://www.ualr.edu/~cmbarger/RESOURCES.HTM#grammar

The Legal Writing Teaching Assistant, Chicago-Kent College of Law: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/start.htm

The Legal Writing Centre - British Columbia: http://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/licensing_membership/professional_training_courses/legalwriting/index.html; especially helpful are its seven “Top Enemies of Clarity in Legal Writing”: http://www.lawsociety.bc.ca/licensing_membership/professional_training_courses/legalwriting/seven_least_wanted.html

 

GENERAL REFERENCE

Guide to Grammar & Writing, Capital Community College (an excellent site): http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm

Guide to Grammar and Style, by Jack Lynch of the University of Pennsylvania (excellent & fun, but native-speaker oriented): http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/ (grammar, usage, & style)

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (native-speaker oriented): http://owl.english.purdue.edu

Purdue University ESL page: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html#construction

Purdue University (for both ESL and native speakers): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html#construction

The Writing Center at Rensselaer: http://www.wecc.rpi.edu/revise.html

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant. Editing & proofreading process advice at http://www.powa.org/edit/punctuate.html; note grammar proofreading’s “Six Problem Areas”: http://www.powa.org/edit/problem.html

William Strunk's Elements of Style (the original): http://www.bartleby.com/141/

 

GRAMMAR

Purdue University Online Writing Lab Review Materials: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/index.html

Grammar Handbook, Writers' Workshop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/writer_resources/grammar_handbook/grammar_handbook.htm

The British Council grammar page (avoid the section on prepositions, where American and British English have significant differences): http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar_home_frame.html:

Grammar Slammer: Common Mistakes and Tricky Choices: http://englishplus.com/grammar/mistcont.htm

Grammar Bytes! Terms (a site with attitude): http://www.chompchomp.com/terms.htm

Superteach English Grammar Tutor: http://webnz.co.nz/checkers/grammar2.html

 

GRAMMAR, SUBCATEGORIES

Adjectives: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm

Agreement, subject-verb: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/
lrw/grinker/LwtaSubject_Verb_Agreement.htm

Agreement, pronoun-antecedent: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaPronouns.htm

Agreement, subject-verb: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm

Articles: http://www.wecc.rpi.edu/esl.html

The article “the”: http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/l2the.html

Articles and Determiners: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/determiners/determiners.htm

Fragments (sentence fragments): http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/fragments.htm

Modifiers, dangling: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaModifiers.htm

Modifiers, placement http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaModifiers.htm

Ordering words and ideas in a sentence: http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/sntorder.html

Parallel form: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaParallelism.htm

Parallel form: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/parallelism.htm

Phrases, functions: http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/phrfunc.html

Prepositions: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm

Run-on sentences: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/runons.htm

Run-on sentences and comma splices: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaSentence_Structure.htm

Verbs: http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/useverb.html

Voice, active and passive: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaPassive_Voice.htm

 

USAGE

Usage Error ‘Dictionary’: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/errors.html

Words commonly confused words: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/notorious2.htm#quizzes

Words often confused or misused: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/notorious.htm

 

OTHER INSTRUCTION

Apostrophes: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaApostrophes.htm

Commas: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaCommas.htm

Commas: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm

Punctuation marks other than the comma: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/marks.htm

Semicolons: http://www.kentlaw.edu/academics/lrw/grinker/LwtaSemicolons.htm

Spelling, some rules & suggestions: http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/spelling.htm

Thinking logically: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/argument_logic.htm

 

PLAGIARISM

Law School Plagiarism Versus Proper Attribution, by the Legal Writing Institute, PDF file: http://www.lwionline.org/publications/plagiarism/policy.pdf; or use the website with the same materials: http://www.lwionline.org/publications/plagiarism/index.asp

Plagiarism: http://cctc.commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism.shtml

University of Toronto’s “How Not to Plagiarize”: http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html

 

THESAURUS

Roget’s Thesaurus, the 1911 edition updated in 1991 (released to the public domain by MICRA, Inc. and Project Gutenberg): http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Roget%27s

 

ESL EXERCISES ON-LINE (with answers and explanations):

 

GENERAL

Guide to Grammar & Writing, Capital Community College (this site is excellent; find the exercises at the end of each instructional section): http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm

English Page: http://www.englishpage.com/

 

GRAMMAR

The Internet TESL Journal (a very large number of grammar exercises): http://a4esl.org/q/h/grammar.html

Purdue University Online Writing Lab Interactive Review Exercises: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/interact/index.html

Utah Valley State College Practice Tests: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests.html

Grammar Bytes! Exercises (excellent, fun site):

http://www.chompchomp.com/exercises.htm

Bluebook of Grammar and Punctuation, Tests: http://grammarbook.com/grammar/exercises/exe_gram.asp

Emergency Grammar System Test: http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/~russial/grammar/grambo.html

The Grammar Doctor Grammar Test: http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/drcarlperrin/GrammarTest.html

Grammar Quotient Challenge Quiz: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/challenge2.pl/challenge_quiz.htm

Hypergrammar (Grammar and Usage Exercises the University of Ottawa): http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/

University of Northern Iowa - Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation Quiz: http://fp.uni.edu/writingcenter/help/gsp_test/10.html

 

GRAMMAR, SUBCATEGORIES

Adjective order: http://webster.commnet.edu/writing/magnetX.htm

Adjectives: http://webster.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/adjectives_quiz.htm

Agreement, pronoun-verb: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/pronouns_add4.htm

Agreement: subject-verb & pronoun-antecedent: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/agreemnt/agreemnt.html

Agreement, subject-verb: http://www.chompchomp.com/exercises.htm

Agreement, subject-verb & prounoun-antecedent: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-slil/quiz.pi/sv agrquiz.htm#

Agreement, subject-verb: http://webnz.co.nz/checkers/hardtestPO

Articles: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/cross/articles_quiz.htm

Clause recognition: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/indep_clause_quiz.htm

Clause functions: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/clause_quiz.htm

Clauses, noun, adjective and adverb clauses: http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/rvnaacls.html

Commas: http://www.chompchomp.com/exercises.htm#Commas

Fragments: http://www.chompchomp.com/exercises.htm

Fragments and run-on sentences: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/run_frag.html

Fragments and run-on sentences: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/fragments_quiz.htm

Fragments: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/interact/g_fragEX1.html

Modifier placement http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/modifier_quiz.htm

Modifier placement http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/rvmismod.html

Parallel form: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/parallelism_quiz.htm

Prepositions: http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/preposition_quiz1.htm

Prepositions of direction: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/interact/eslprepEX1.html

Prepositions of location: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/interact/eslprep2EX1.html

Pronouns, case and reference: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/pronouns/pronouns.html

Pronoun choice: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/pronouns_add1.htm

Pronoun choice: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/pronouns_add2.htm

Run-on sentences: http://webnz.co.nz/checkers/sentencetestPO.html

Run-on sentences: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/run-ons_add2.htm

Run-on sentences & comma splices: http://www.chompchomp.com/exercises.htm#Comma_Splices_and_Fused_Sentences

Run-on sentences & sentence fragments: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/run_frag.html

Run-on sentences & sentence fragments: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/fragments_quiz.htm

Verbs, tense & agreement: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/verbs/verbs.html

 

USAGE

Usage exercises: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/usage/usage.html

Confusing word pairs, eight quizzes (at the bottom of the site): http://cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/notorious2.htm#quizzes

Confusing word pairs: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/usage/usage.html

Its/It's and There/Their/They're http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/its_there_quiz.htm

 

OTHER EXERCISES

Capitalization and apostrophes: http://www.uvsc.edu/owl/tests/capital/capital.html

Punctuation: http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/punct_quiz.htm#

Punctuation:http://webnz.co.nz/checkers/punctPO.html

 

VOCABULARY

Advanced vocabulary exercises: http://www.englishpage.com/vocabulary/vocabulary.html

Advanced vocabulary quizzes: http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/blvocabularyquiz.htm

 

All of the above were last visited on or around August 9, 2005. A thank you to Lyn Goering of Washburn University School of Law, whose website (http://www.washburnlaw.edu/faculty/goering-l-classes/larw/) had assembled many of the links listed here.