Here are some great teacher-approved resources you may use to better understand your lessons, to become a better writer, and to study concepts for your tests and projects. Please take a look at all of them, and come back frequently to review the tools and see if there are more that might be useful to you. If any of the tools are confusing to you, give us a call and we’ll be glad to explain it! We love to see students making an effort.
KnightCite
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KnightCite is a citation generator hosted by Calvin College. It will help you format your works cited pages for essays and reports. Just click on the type of source it is, fill out the information, and click submit! Then copy-paste it onto your works cited page.
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http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/
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Oops, I Plagiarized
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Visit this page for an interactive explanation of why sources are necessary, what you should site, which format to cite in, and how to format your citations. Pair it with KnightCite for an easy, error-free works cited page!
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http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/col/bruinsuccess/03/01.cfm
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MLA Format Video Lesson
| This is a video showing you how to set up your essay according to MLA standards in a MS Word document. This does not cover citations. Almost 6 minutes long, but helpful. Covers heading, header, margins, and titles. |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kUp_sKNYfk&feature;=player_embedded
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Dr. B’s Online Lessons- Sentence Diagramming
| This is a simple and helpful webpage with step-by-step instructions and examples for how to diagram. It also includes a good description of why diagramming is a useful skill. |
http://www.lifestreamcenter.net/DrB/Lessons/TS/diagram.htm
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6 Steps to Diagramming
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Here is a YouTube video with 6 basic steps for diagramming sentences.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmRc66b1Du4
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Grammar Bytes
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Grammar Bytes is a fantastic site with easy-to-understand definitions and examples for all kinds of grammatical terms and concepts. Click on “Terms” for explanations of verbals, subjects, adverb clauses, and more.
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http://www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm
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OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab
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This site offers guidance in regards to integrating quotations, works cited, and parenthetical (in-text) citations into research papers. In addition, the entire OWL website has links for general writing help and guidance!
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http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
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Merriam-Webster Dictionary
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Though not as old or thorough as the Oxford English Dictionary, the Merriam-Webster dictionary is one of the most highly respected dictionaries in the world. Online, it is one of the best free dictionaries you can find; try using this site instead of dictionary.com.
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http://www.merriam-webster.com/
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Research and Documentation Online
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Diana Hacker and Barbara Fister’s published book is put into online format on this site. It provides guidance for how to research and document your work for the four different studies typically found in college settings: humanities, social sciences, history, and sciences. Though geared more towards college students, this site can be applied to high school students as well since there are suggestions for how to find proper, acceptable sources, as well as sample papers for students to view.
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http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/
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Online Etymology Dictionary
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Words have their own histories. Etymology is the study of word origins and histories, and the Online Etymology Dictionary is one of the most thorough resources students can find on the Web today. Go here to search for the history of almost any word!
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http://www.etymonline.com/index.php
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Clauses and Phrases
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This site contains brief, common-sense explanations and examples of adjective, adverb, and noun clauses, as well as information on phrases and sentence types.
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http://www.pitt.edu/~atteberr/comp/0150/grammar/grammarrev.html
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The Grammar Book
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Simple rules for punctuation and grammar, along with help videos. Commas, semicolons, who vs. whom, that vs. which, finding subjects and verbs, and subject-verb agreement are all included
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http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp
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Hamlet Online
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A marvelous databank of directories, discussions, and resources for the play.
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http://www.tk421.net/hamlet/hamlet.html#directories
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Cummings Study Guide: Hamlet
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Contains background information, details about the setting and history of the play, and commentary on some of the themes.
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http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xHamlet.html
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Enotes Video: Top 10 Questions About Hamlet
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Quick, teacher-approved answers to the most common questions about the play.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM46a_3OpvQ&feature;=player_embedded
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The Internet Classics Archive
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A great reader's tool and a powerful academic resource from MIT. Select from a list of 441 works of classical literature by 59 different authors, including user-driven commentary and "reader's choice" Web sites. Mainly Greco-Roman works (some Chinese and Persian), all in English translation.
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http://classics.mit.edu/index.html
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Project Gutenburg
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Project Gutenberg provides over 33,000 free ebooks to download and read on your PC, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Sony Reader, etc. They are copyright free in the United States. Books include The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Art of War, A Tale of Two Cities, Pride and Prejudice, and thousands more.
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http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
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A+ Research and Writing Guide
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The A+ Research and Writing Guide is a resource from The Internet Public Library and The Librarians' Internet Index. It offers this step-by-step guide to writing a research paper. Just read the steps and follow the directions, and you are on your way to a great research essay!
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http://www.ipl.org/div/aplus/step1.htm
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The UVic Writer’s Guide- Sample Essay
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This sample literary essay is a great model for what you should be aiming for when you write an essay about a piece of literature. Notice how the author does not summarize the work he is discussing; he assumes his readers have already read it. He presents his ideas, only stating events as they are relevant to his main points.
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http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/SampleEssaysLit.html
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The Owlet at LeTourneau University
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A remarkably helpful guide to misplaced, dangling, and squinting modifiers. You will be surprised how easy it is to understand.
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http://owlet.letu.edu/grammarlinks/modifiers/modifier2d.html
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CyberEnglish: Literary Terms
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A list of literary terms such as alliteration, hyperbole, satire, connotation, etc. Click each term for a quick and simple definition and example.
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http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/
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Grammar Slammer
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A goldmine of terms, concepts, rules, and commonly confused words for style and usage in writing. Click each term for a quick and simple example.
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http://englishplus.com/grammar/contents.htm
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