Friday, November 25, 2011

Resources for Online Writers by Teresa Knudsen Dashwood

Editing for Online Writers includes links to writers' resources. Writers can use these resources for various writing and editing tasks. Writers and researchers always practice critical thinking and questioning from any sources, including on or off line newspapers, broadcast news, magazines, etc.

These are just a few of the many resource links online.

Online Writers Lab at Purdue University
For help with writing mechanics, the Purdue OWL offers plenty of choices for writers who have questions. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Wikipedia
Founded by Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia and Wikimedia are some of the ways to quickly check for information and images. Wales' goal is to keep these ad-free. As such, frequent users are encouraged, but not required, to donate. Wikipedia is a user-generated site. The ease of contributing to the site has led to information being suspect at times. Rumor has it that at least one well-meaning but misguided, teacher encouraged students to deliberately add incorrect information as a lesson in being careful on the Internet. Whether teaching students to falsify information is a good way to teaching critical thinking skills is a topic for another day. However, for quick background information that can be translated into many different languages, Wikipedia offers a nice resource. Most users understand that not only Wikipedia, but any source needs to be read with critical thinking skills.

Wikimedia Commons offers a selection of images without copyright restrictions. Users are cautioned that all responsibility rests with them if they reproduce the images. Nevertheless, these images are tapped by writers who want to add images without paying fees.

Project Gutenberg places tons of books at everyone's fingertips for free. Founder Michael Hart just passed away. (1947-2011). Donations are always accepted, but not required. The range of books available is staggering, and many out-of-print and rare books are available on this site.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Legal Office Guru

Legal Office Guru offers a lot of help and tips for Microsoft Office.
On more than one occasion, this site has really helped me fix a problem or find a way to do something.
Here is the link if you want to check out this helpful site:
http://legalofficeguru.com/