Mr. Smythe's Classes
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Notes on Links: I have each link open in its own browser window to avoid those endless Back buttons. I do use some commercial sites, but I only link to those that contain a substantial amount of free content. If you find a broken link or have a site you think I should add, please email Casey Smythe .
(If you need help in study skills, research, homework assistance, resumes, or college application essays check out the School Survival page.)
Writing Contests
Here are opportunities to earn recognition, scholarships or even cash with your writing. Some contests have restrictions on entrance dates and most have deadlines. I do not list contests that require entry fees. Note: some "contests" are deceptions to lure you into paying entrance fees or for books with your work. Here is a site that exposes many of them. If you suspect that any of the following are this kind of swindle, please contact me immediately.
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General Writing Help
- Nuts and Bolts
- A complete, interesting and fun look at the fundamentals of thinking and writing. Since it's designed for college students, this site looks only at complete essay writing.
- Paradigm
- A great step-by-step guide to writing with special tips on exploratory, informal and arguementative essays.
- Writers' Resources
- Links grouped by specific skills like "Help with paragraphs" etc.
- Purdue OWL
- Purdue University's Online Writing Lab
- UNBC
- The University of Northern British Columbia has useful advice, especially about pre-writing, and proves that Canadian English is much the same as American (except for some spelling)!
- East Carolina University
- Easy-to-understand workshops on everything from writing introductions to revision, available as both PowerPoint presentations and Word documents.
- Sharp Points
- Writing tips from a newspaper copy editor
- Reducing Wordiness
- A handout of tips from several sources on how to eliminate all that blah, blah, blah!
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Specific Assignment Help
- Five Paragraph Essay
- Good advice and links on the most commonly assigned form of essay
- Technical Writing
- An online textbook on writing business reports, technical manuals and other "real world" documents
- Definition Essay
- Useful tips and samples of extended definitions
- Rhetorical Analysis
- Format and samples of the rhetorical analysis essay
- Abstracts
- Help writing short summaries of reseach articles
- Descriptive Essays
- Help when you have to write an essay of description including finding topics besides "My Room"
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Grammar and Vocabulary Help
- Guide to Grammar and Writing
- Quizzes and help with common sentence and paragraph errors plus overall writing tips
- English Grammar
- A very thorough review of grammar and punctuation with easy-to-understand explanations and examples
- Merriam-Webster
- Great free online dictionary plus vocabulary builders including a "word of the day" service
- Wordsmith
- Includes a dictionary, thesaurus, and anagram generator
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Documentation and Citation Help
- Hacker Handbook
- Excellent coverage of the four major styles, including sample papers from each
- APA Style
- Covers American Psychological Association style
- Columbia Guide
- Covers both MLA and APA citation of electronic resources
- Format and Typing
- This is my handout on MLA format and general word processing tips.
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