Homophones are pesky. They trip up even the best of writers. Unfortunately, they're (not there or their) one of those language quirks that takes raw memorization to know which witch is which. For this you can either read over lists of homophones (an idea that bores even us, and we like language), or try out some games. There are several on the internet that can be located with a quick search, but here's a fast-paced game we like: You Can't Write Proper English Under Pressure.
It's as simple as choosing whether a sentence is right or wrong in the time limit. There are only two (not too or to) problems. First, the music isn't the most supportive, but that can be turned off with the icon in the upper right. Second, it doesn't offer any help when you get an answer wrong.
So if you play this game (and you can share your scores on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook to encourage competition) we recommend checking out the OWL page for homophones or the complete list of homophones for explanations.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Monday, June 2, 2014
Pocket Guides
What are Pocket Guides? Glad you asked. Pocket Guides are basically interactive flowcharts, but instead of seeing the whole chart at once, the guide navigates you through the choices you make, and presenting new choices to you.
They're specially formatted PDF files just for your phone. You'll need an app that can read PDF files (we recommend the Adobe Reader App), but there are no other installations to make.
We think that these will be an effective learning tool to help you become better writers. Best of all, they are FREE! Click on the Downloads tab to give them a go.
Right now we have two guides, one for Thesis Statements and one for Arguments.
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