Fantabulous Resources
~RESOURCES ACCORDING TO THE TYPE OF BLOG~
Important Writing Sites
Agent Blogs
Editor Blogs
Publishing Blogs
Writing Blogs
Author Blogs
Blogging Blogs
Book Review Blogs
Reader Blogs
~RESOURCES ACCORDING TO COUNTRIES~
** (NOTE: The following resources are not the same as above)**
Australia and New Zealand
Also, visit the Communication Research Institute (CRI) and Director's blog. The CRI's mission is "to improve communication between organizations and the public".
In New Zealand, try WriteMark, a site that lists several plain English resources.
United Kingdom (UK)
UK resources on writing better English include BBC Skillwise, which provides free online guides on grammar, spelling, reading, writing, and vocabulary. The Plain English Campaign publishes the Plain English Phrase E-Booklet; they charge a small fee for downloading the booklet. provides free pdf guides on plain English. The Word Centre,
United States of America (USA)
There is a big movement for writing better English, or plainer English, in the USA. Useful resources include the Bureau of Land Management's Plain Language: Writing User-Friendly Documents, a free online guide on writing user-friendly documents. The Capital Community College has also written free online guides to grammar and writing (see Guide to Grammar and Writing). The Federal Aviation Administration has published Writing User-Friendly Documents, A Handbook for FAA Drafters, a free Word document (237kb). Garbl's Writing Center provides a free portal for writers. Plain English guru Bryan A Garner emails free tips on grammar and usage every weekday (Wordiness Lesson). Lighthouse Writing Tips provides free writing tips for fiction and non-fiction. LousyWriter is a free online resource to improve your writing skills. The National Archives also has several free plain language tools (Plain Language Tools). The Owl at Purdue provides free online guides on the writing process, job search writing, academic writing, and English as a second language. The Plain Language Action and Information Network provides free resources on plain language. Free online lessons are available at Professional Writing Style. Kerry Redshaw provides a free, short online thesaurus of long words and phrases in Plain English Alternatives for Jargon Words. For an impressive list of links that includes links on wordiness and clear writing, try the University of Minnesota's Online grammar handbook. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, lets you download a free 80-page pdf document (640kb) called A Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents. You can read a free, full-text online version of the 1918 classic American book on writing better English by William Strunk, The Elements of Style, available on this site (the Write Better English site).
Canada
Kim Blank (University of Victoria) provides a helpful list of wordy phrases and their alternatives in the Wordiness, Wordiness, Wordiness List. The British Columbia Securities Commission, has published a Plain Language Style Guide available as a pdf (265kb). Clear Language and Design is a non-profit public education program; its website includes a free online thesaurus of long words and phrases. Duncan Kent and Associates has published a dictionary of plain English called the Writing Style Guide and Dictionary of Plain English (pdf, 72kb). The Plain Language Online Training Program is a free online plain language training program.
International
The website for the Plain Language Association International includes free articles, writing tutorials, links, and professional support. Writers.com includes online writing courses, free writers groups, and a free newsletter for writers.
Europe (other than UK)
The European Commission publishes the very useful Fight the Fog, a pdf booklet with tips on writing clearly. Foreign language resources on writing better English include Chiaro (Italy), Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France (France), The Plain Swedish Group (Klarspråksgruppen), Lenguaje Ciudadano (Mexico), and Service de la langue française (Belgium, French)
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