I wanted to take the 

time to give resources and 

pointers to people who want 

to write well. Being able to 

write without limitations is 

integral to achieving your 

goals. Additionally, you 

will know what to look for 

when editing your documents. 

This can save you a lot of 

editing time.

	I notice when I am 

reading articles on the 

internet a lot of people 

misspell or leave out words 

altogether. This is a poor 

writing practice. So to help 

out aspiring writer's this 

article details proper grammar, 

punctuation & spelling tips.

	I assume if you're 

reading this you want to learn 

to clarify your speech. You may be a good writer but without the right 

presentation you won't get noticed. People will reject work with a 

lot of mistakes and ignore the author's point-of-view altogether. 

If you're reluctant to edit or there's a lot to edit you can always 

hire a proof reader. Below are links to tools, articles and more. 

Feel free to partake of them!

Grammar 

	Some people can't help this, I know. People have nodded 

out in many a high school and college English or Comp & Lit class 

over adverbs and adjectives. However, there are remedies to fix 

bad grammar. 

	Go to online sites like Wikipedia, AskOxford.com, or OWL 

(Online Writers Lab). Want more information? Then do a Google 

search. These sites are wonderful tools and offer detailed ways of 

improving your writing. 

	Get up and go to your local library or take a writer's class. 

This is a great way to network and meet people, find a market for 

your writing. There are many classes offered 

almost everywhere.

	The tool featured here is TTS Readers. TTS means 

text-to-speech and it reads back emails, articles, web pages and 

other text.  It is great for helping point out errors in a document by 

reading you the document you wrote. If it reads back mush, 

essentially, you know you have a typo that the spellchecker or 

grammar check missed. Believe me it happens.

Punctuation

        It is always good to punctuate. It adds tone, lends a voice 

to your writing. No punctuation and the text is just a line on the page. 

If you use too much, then your text comes out fragmented or confusing.

	A properly placed comma or an exclamation point makes the 

difference in when you write. It's how you help to convey emotion. 

Consider this sentence. "Jack and Jill went up the hill. " Tommy said 

to his mother. Now, consider this one: "Jack and Jill went up the hill!" 

Tommy exclaimed. Which of the two may or may not be more 

descriptive, more active? 

	One particular site I want to point out is OWL. They have an 

online writer's lab. On the site are handouts that you can print & read. 

There's a ton of information available at OWL for those who 

are interested in this topic.

Spelling Checking*

	If you have the Microsoft Office Suite installed use the 

spellchecker provided in every program in that suite. I recommend using 

MS Office 2003 or higher. Then again you can use plain old proofreading 

as an aid.

	Going over the document two or three times, especially if it is 

a short article, really helps. Bad spelling is the number one pet peeve 

of much of the reading populace. Don't lose your audience to 

sloppiness!

	Improve your spelling by playing word games. When you play games 

online  or buy them at the store along with most popular RPG at get 

Scrabble too. Spelling doesn't have to be boring. So have fun! 

A Final Thought

	It is always a good idea to pay attention to the things you write. 

You may be quoted for it, have an epiphany from it or just enjoy it when 

you read it again later on. Take pride in your work and it will show. I 

hope it helps you along and thank you for reading.

Appendix:

Grammatical Resources:

• AskOxford - www.askoxford.com/betterwriting/classicerrors/
• Learn English - http://www.learnenglish.de/grammarpage.htm (for ESL/ EFL)

Punctuation Resources:

• WikiHow http://www.wikihow.com/Use-English-Punctuation-Correctly
• OWL at Perdue University http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/

Spelling & Grammar checkers:

• Microsoft Office Suite (all versions)
• SpellCheck.net - http://www.spellcheck.net/

+TTS Software: 

• TextAloud - http://nextup.com/
• NaturalReader - www.naturalreaders.com/

Writer's Resources:

• 2008 Writer's Market by Robert Brewer - Amazon.com
• OWL: Online Writer's Lab @ Purdue University - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
• Freelance Writing.com - http://www.freelancewriting.com/guidelines/pages/index.html
• Online Writer's Guidelines - http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/6682/guidelines.html
• Writers Digest - http://www.writersdigest.com/
• Writers Market - http://www.writersmarkets.com/index-guidelines.htm
• Writers Write - http://www.writerswrite.com/guidelines/
• Writing For Dollars - http://www.writingfordollars.com/guidelines.cfm
• Write From Home - http://www.writefromhome.com/jobsguidelines.htm **

*Some advice. Stay away from the Microsoft Office® grammar tool. It is known for telling 

the user their sentence is fragmented. If you want to improve your grammar skills see the 

resources listed above.

+ Please note I am recommending only products I have used personally. There are others out 

there, even free ones. But try them at your own risk!

** this last one is really an exhaustive list of job boards