tUNEup your writing rules
These workshops are drawn from a variety of online sites and will assist you to work independently with your writing rules. Each writing rules link will offer you a variety of activities to suit your learning style. Some of these sites are in the form of online workshops with interactive exercises, quizzes and feedback. Other links are in a format you may download and print. You are encouraged to explore the links to develop and hone your writing rules or use them to solve a particular problem that you may be experiencing.Writing rules
General literacy sites
| The OWL at Purdue (Purdue University) Click on the Grammar and Mechanics link in navigation index. This American site has teaching pages and interactive exercises that allow you to practise your skills as you learn. You will need to be mindful of small variations between Australian and American English. Keywords: parts of speech | sentence structure | active & passive voice | grammar rules | punctuation rules | sentence punctuation patterns | parallel structure | numbers | transitions | Language (Aussie Educator) Language is part of a very comprehensive Australian literacy site. It offers annotated links, podcasts, blogs, games, quizzes, glossaries and resources for a wide range of English language topics. This is a site for exploring literacy topics using multimedia approaches. Keywords: grammar | punctuation | spelling | word study | language & vocabulary | the English language |
| Grammar Slammer! (English Plus+) This link is to the table of contents for the help file for Grammar Slammer. Its sub-directories cover hundreds of topics to assist you with the knowledge and skills required for ‘correct’ writing. Keywords: style & usage | punctuation | abbreviations | common mistakes & choices | grammar glossary | HyperGrammar (University of Ottawa) This Canadian site has been written to assist students with learning and understanding some of the basic rules of writing. There are learning materials to help you with grammar, punctuation and spelling. Keywords: parts of speech | parts of the sentence | punctuation | using pronouns | using verbs | building phrases | building clauses | building sentences | writing paragraphs | diction | spelling | noun & pronoun characteristics |
Writing sentences
| Writing sentences (University of Wollongong) The grammar and punctuation of sentences required for academic writing are clearly explained in this excellent workshop. You will appreciate the finer points of getting your writing right within the context of academic essay writing. There are activities with automated feedback to ensure that you get to practise the skills discussed. Keywords: grammar | sentence errors | sentence fragments | run-on sentences | subject-verb agreement | punctuation | commas | apostrophes | semi-colons | colons | Sentences (RMIT University) This site has an online interactive workshop that teaches the structure of sentences, and handouts about common errors made in sentence structure. The interactive workshop is well structured with automated feedback. This is a good workshop if you need help to develop your basic grammar and proofreading skills to improve your writing performance. Keywords: simple, compound & complex sentences | complex patterns | linking words | relative clauses | sentence fragments | run-on sentences |
| Writing concise sentences (Capital Community College) This site works with sentence style. It shows how sentences can be bloated with excessive words and phrases that don’t contribute to the meaning of your writing. It helps you to recognise style errors and gives you strategies to reduce wordiness and improve your writing style (and reduce that word count!). There are exercises with feedback to help you to test your skills. Keywords: redundant words | abbreviated redundancies | reducing phrases & clauses | wordiness | bloated phrases | clichés & euphemisms | Writing sentences: ASO fact sheets (University of New England) You will find here a set of user-friendly handouts on the knowledge and skills you require to write sentences correctly. Print out these handy resources or get your information from the screen. Refer to them when you need information for your assignment and essay writing. Keywords: sentences | active & passive voice | using however | sentence connectors | punctuation | grammar | troublesome words | spelling rules | shortened forms of words | grammar rules | non-discriminatory language |
Grammar
| English grammar skills (Charles Sturt University) Click on the English Grammar Skills links in navigation index This site caters for the student who has little or no background in formal grammar. It is simply written and addresses the most common problems that students experience with grammar in their writing. Keywords: grammar quiz | sentences | punctuation | dangling & misplaced modifiers | pronouns | tense | active & passive voice | parallel form | subject-verb agreement | style | nominalisation | Grammar (Monash University) The approach taken for this site is that grammar is only important if it assists your communication skills: ‘grammar isn't something to learn just for its own sake’. The topics chosen for this workshop focus on student needs and use interactive exercises and feedback to assist students to understand some key principles of grammar. Keywords: purpose of grammar | active & passive voice | verb tense | articles | parallel structure |
| The blue book of grammar & punctuation (Jane Straus) Click on the Grammar Rules links in navigation index The online grammar section of this site has teaching pages followed by interactive online quizzes where you can test your learning. It is very helpful if you need to practise a particular skill. It is an American site so you will need to be mindful of small variations between Australian and American English. Keywords: subjects & verbs | subject-verb agreement | pronouns | who v. whom | that v. which | adjectives v. adverbs | problems with prepositions | effective writing | Online English grammar (English4today.com) This is a great site for a comprehensive overview of most of the elements of English grammar. Each link to a grammar topic has a clear explanation with examples so that you can understand the rule. Keywords: adjectives | adverbs | determiners | direct & indirect speech | nouns | active & passive voice | possessives | relative clauses | the infinitive | to get | verbs & verb tenses |
Punctuation
| Punctuation the easy way (Charles Sturt University) ‘Most students tell me they are not very good at punctuation, and they are right. It is simply amazing how creative people become when they believe they should put at least a few commas [and semicolons] somewhere.’ The Charles Sturt site focuses its attention on the use of commas and semicolons (six rules) as they claim that these punctuation marks cause up to 95% of student errors! Keywords: commas | semicolons | Punctuation rules & Rules for capitalising (English Plus+) This site covers all of the rules you need to know for punctuation. It is organised around punctuation marks and tells you how to use them with clear examples. You will need to be mindful of small variations between Australian and American rules and terminology. This is a good quick reference site! Keywords: periods (full stops) | question, exclamation & quotation marks | commas | colons & semicolons | dashes & brackets | hyphens | apostrophes | capital letters |
| The blue book of grammar & punctuation (Jane Straus) The punctuation section of this site has teaching pages followed by interactive online quizzes where you can test your learning. It is very helpful if you need to practise a particular skill. It is an American site so you will need to be mindful of small variations between Australian and American English. Keywords: spacing with punctuation | periods (full stops) | ellipsis marks | commas | semicolons & colons | question marks | exclamation points | quotation marks | parentheses | apostrophes | hyphens | dashes | Correct punctuation (Mandy Tonks) This web site gives a brief (but very clear) guide to the basics of punctuation. It is based on the British punctuation system so it is very close to our Australian rules. Keywords: apostrophe | brackets | colon & semicolon | comma | hyphen | other marks | quotation marks | terminating marks |
Spelling
| Better writing: spelling (Ask Oxford: Oxford University Press) Spelling DOES matter! You will not create a good impression in your writing and get the right meaning across if you spell incorrectly. This site lists some commonly misspelled words, explains spelling rules (spelling tips) and answers some frequently asked questions. There is a link to American spelling that shows the main differences between English and American systems of spelling. Keywords: American spelling | commonly misspelled words | spelling rules | Spelling (RMIT University) This site has an online interactive workshop and a handout. They explain strategies for learning the spelling you are having problems with, the structure of words and how to apply common rules. The interactive workshop is well structured with automated feedback. This is a good workshop for you to develop basic spelling skills to improve your writing performance. Keywords: learning strategies | plurals | spelling rules | prefixes & suffixes |