30+ Essential Online Resources for Writers
The more you put into your writing, the more you can take out of it. The ever-evolving Web offers a wealth of tools and resources to help you improve your writing.
WinePress of Words would like to introduce to you this essential list of hand-picked online resources no writer should be without. This explosive list of over thirty top-notch online resources is a must-have for your collection. Bookmark this page to refer back to while pursuing your writing ventures.
Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation Improvement
Though never a replacement for an editor, Grammarly is perfect for checking your standard grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Grammarly does even more by giving you valuable tips and advice to strengthen your writing. Also included is a helpful “grading” feature to give you an idea of your current level of writing for each particular text.
A handy tool, especially if you have a website. Orangoo features both a simple built-in spell checker, or spell checker which can go through an entire website. It saves you the tedious labor of manually clicking through a site for your editing or writing.
A grammar and spell checker, SpellCheckPlus dynamically checks your writing pulling from a strong database of information containing proper grammar for the English language.
References, Research, and Resources
Visuwords™ Graphical Dictionary and Thesaurus
Having trouble find the perfect words to fit a sentence? This word-mapping tool helps put commonly used words together so you can find the perfect fit for your writing.
Complete with diagrams, charts, and inspiration, this all-inclusive tool makes your research interesting.
One of the most trusted online dictionaries, the Merriam-Webster is a great starting place for finding and defining words. Use in combination with other online dictionaries for maximum results.
Another useful addition to your research and study, this site combines a thorough database of reference information with a dictionary, thesaurus, and more.
Better writing : Oxford Dictionaries Online
From the trustworthy name, Oxford, gather valuable insight into writing styles, strong writing, and more. Oxford Dictionaries also comes complete with a full-featured dictionary, puzzles, games, and more to expand your writing.
When you know a definition of a word, but can’t remember its name, or you’re looking for a similar word, this can be a fantastic resource.
Dictionary and Thesaurus – Free Online at Your Dictionary
One more online dictionary and thesaurus to add to your arsenal. Combined with even more online tools and resources, this dictionary should not be disregarded.
Word Source (www.word.sc) – The Social Dictionary
Along with an extensive dictionary, this resource incorporates social elements such as user interaction and Flickr photos to help individuals network and share information, photos, and more while researching.
Dictionary.hm – Free Online Dictionary
Yet another useful online dictionary you can search along with the others listed here. Lightweight and fast, you don’t even have to hit enter to begin searching!
Bartleby.com Great Books Online
Perfect for the development of your novel. Research hundreds of books, quotes, definitions, and more.
Organization and Productivity
The must-have productivity tool for any writer. Complete with a calendar, worksheets, contacts, and more, it is an online tool no writer should be without.
A simple yet powerful tool for managing your tasks. Assign categories, tags, and more to keep your to dos in order.
Style Guides
The Chicago Manual of Style Online
The 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style is now available! With state-of-the-art recommendations on editorial style and publishing practices in the digital age, The Chicago Manual of Style is the must-have reference for everyone who works with words.
If your writing more in the sphere of newspapers, magazines, or any type of journalistic writing, keep the AP Stylebook handy. The AP Stylebook online also features a number of tips and resources for improving your writing.
For general writing tasks, the Dictionary.com style guide gives you a nice style of writing, punctuation, and the like to stay consistent with.
Utilities and Miscellaneous Tools
Wordcounter ranks the most frequently used words in any body of text. Use this to see what words you overuse (is everything a “solution” for you?) or maybe just to find some keywords from a document.
Even if you do not write poetry, or any other writing medium with the need for rhymes, this particular resource is fun to use. Instantly find a sublime rhyme!
This tool analyzes the detailed statistics of your text. It’s perfect for translators (quoting), for webmasters (ranking) or for normal users, to know the subject of a text. Now with new features: analyze word groups, find out the keyword density, analyze the prominence of a word or expressions.
WordNet® is a large lexical database of English, developed under the direction of George A. Miller (Emeritus). Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets), each expressing a distinct concept.
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant
Complete with a wide variety of tips and tools, this online resource is perfect for jump-starting ideas for fueling your writing.
Novlet – Collaborative non linear story writing
Novlet is a web application designed to support collaborative writing of non-linear stories in any language. With Novlet you will be able to read stories written by other users, create your own, and choose the plot you like most from several alternatives.
Online Document Editing, Storage, and Collaboration
Similar to the look and feel of your standard desktop word-processor, Shutterborg enables you to edit, write, and save your work online.
You can easily do all the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. One of the more popular of free online word-processors and document sharing tools.
Online Word Processor – Zoho Writer
Very similar to Google docs, Zoho Writer makes a great alternative if you’re interested in a different approach and layout to formatting and creating your documents online.
ThinkFree Online • Online Docs
Another online office solution for your use, ThinkFree Online also supports use with today’s leading mobile devices.
Do you have a writing community going? Share feedback, leave comments, and collaboratively create writing works with this online tool.
Live Documents – Office for the Internet Generation.
Live Documents is the Office suite for the Internet generation—a set of web-enabled, feature-rich applications for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations that increase personal productivity and facilitate group collaboration.
Writer: the internet typewriter
For those who like the old-fashioned, reversed monitor of the 80s and 90s, Writer is a simple yet handy tool for jotting your notes and ideas down in a digital format
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i love google docs. :)
This is a great collection of resources! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the useful article. Here is another free spell check tool for your collection – http://www.spellchecker.net/spellcheck
Thanks for the resource! I’ll have to keep this one in mind for future collections.
Hey, many writers and editors collaborate on documents in real time using GroupDocs (http://groupdocs.com/). The unique annotation feature gives them the opportunity to share comments and ideas in real-time, thus making collaboration effortless. It is very intuitive to use so check it out!