Words! Words!  Words!

Visual Thesaurus by Thinkmap is great for visual thinkers.  Any thesaurus will help you write better by giving you a greater variety of word choices and greater understanding of the meaning of the word -- This one is also fun and beautiful to look at! 

Greek and Latin Roots of English Program  -- Download and install this free program, which will be absolutely indispensable to you as you complete your vocabulary and spelling assignments. Explains Greek and Latin roots of English words, in glorious detail.  A remarkable treasure. Be sure to place a link directly on your desktop, because you will require it at least weekly.

Dictionary and Thesaurus – both services, free and thorough, and simply the best available on the web or anywhere else.  The dictionary usually provides at least three sources for each word, an audible sound guide, usage notes, examples.  The thesaurus is the most thorough imaginable. 

Babel Fish Translation Service – quick, on-the-spot translation from and into twenty languages or more.  A lot of mistakes made in the process, but very useful if you’re wandering into foreign sites and would like some idea of what is written.  Not reliable if you’re planning to translate critically important material and leave it at that!  Still has to be checked by a person.

The Word Spy -- devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases. These aren't "stunt words" or "sniglets," but new terms that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources.  Sort of the Oxford English Dictionary of new usage -- sample of how it's used, earliest usage, etc.  New terms come into language and fit so naturally that their meaning is usually obvious to everyone:  bardolotry, cyberscryber, internetese, drive-by editing -- can you guess what these mean?

Phrase Dictionary – Looking for the meaning or origin of a phrase or saying?  Look up or browse over 2,000 English expressions, post a question  and get a reply to something more obscure.  Fascinating history of common everyday expressions.

Literature Terms Definition, explanation, and examples of literary and rhetorical terms by category: general literary terms, terms from narrative genres, rhetorical language, and poetic tools.  From Aubad to Wit, and everything in between. 

Internet Anagram Server -- An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word of phrase, e.g. Elvis ---> lives; or Parliament ---> partial men; or Amy Leserman ----> alarms enemy; or English teacher ---> leeches ingather AND lengthier chase AND ghastlier hence.... Plug in YOUR name or desired career and see what you come up with, just for fun.

Wikipedia -- a brilliant communal encyclopaedic dictionary, not to be missed.  Encyclopedic explanations of words, with full links.  Hard to describe, sorry!

Writing a Bibliography -- Mrs. Leserman's own page

Collective nouns

Make Your Own Film with D-Film's fabulous tool and very cool website.  Highly recommended. Bet you'll be doing more than one of these!

International Directory of Dictionaries -- Find a dictionary in any one of more than 300 languages, and translate into or out of English. 

Classic! Andrew Wilson's Site on Classic Greek and Latin Languages, Literatures, Cultues and Civilizations -- includes fantastic games to reteach the Odyssey, the Iliad, Antigone, Medea, and this is the only site I know of online where a classics scholar will respond, nicely to your emailed questions and give you a meaningful reply! 

Grammar and Expression

A Free Online Course in English Grammar – Written primarily for university undergraduates, but accessible for high school level on up through graduate school (in my opinion).  I used this program to refresh for my subject-level exams to teach English, so I consider is very reliable. 

Big Dog’s Grammar – A much simpler program than the course above, and friendlier and easier to use, but fewer details.  The bare essentials of English grammar.  “A bare bones guide to English” and extremely accessible. 

Grammar Bytes -- Detailed explanations of grammar terms, with examples; exercises, and worksheets if you would like to practice.  A thorough, easily searchable guide.

POETRY SOURCES

Bartleby.com Poetry Search and Anthologies -- With thousands of poems by hundreds of authors, Bartleby.com offers one of the largest free collections of verse (written in English) on the web.  Even their anthologies are a pleasure to go through (Edgar Lee Master's "Spoon River Anthology" is one of my favorites).  Easy to search by author, phrase, line.

The Academy of American Poets -- Find a poet, find a poem, listen to one being performed, learn about poetry events in our area. (For teachers, the Online Poetry Classroom )

Poetry Daily -- exactly as described, a new, contemporary poem daily, with a link to information about the author, and the source in which it was originally published

Poetry 180 - Poem a Day for American High Schools -- A stroke of genius from our Library of Congress, this site provides links to 180 poems appropriate and suitable for American high school students, enough for them to have one every day of an academic school year.  I believe it rotates annually and is regularly updated.

American Poems includes a rich archive of classical and contemporary American poetry, including most frequently read poems and biographies of poets.