Languages and Writing

In my previous post, I mentioned ways that studying a second language can help with your writing. As I have studied other languages, I become more knowledgeable about English--the parts of speech, the verb tenses, and so forth. I also become more aware of the meanings of words, which can help with choosing just the right word to say what you mean.

At the About.com education page, you will find links (in the left sidebar) to pages for English as a Second Language (ESL), French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. They have beginning lessons, more advanced lessons, and information about the culture. These would be a great place to start, and they provide links to other websites and recommendations for books and CDs if you are interested in those. I do think it helps immensely to have some tapes or CDs recorded by native speakers because it helps your pronunciation and ability to understand others speaking the language. You can also locate radio stations and newspapers in the language you're interested in over the internet and get in some good reading and listening practice there. The About.com sites also have audio files, so you can get some listening done there. Oh, and they are free, which is often an important consideration for those of us trying to educate ourselves!

I am also interested in learning Latin, since many of our English words have a Latin base. I'd like to tackle Hebrew and Greek for Bible reading/interpretation purposes as well. There are also websites that can help you get started with these languages.

Latin: Wheelock's Latin page (has a page of links), E.L.Easton's Latin page, a college library Latin page

Greek: Learning Greek, Biblical Greek, Greek Grammar on the Web

Hebrew: Judaism 101: Hebrew Alphabet, The Online Hebrew Tutorial, Learn to Read Biblical Hebrew

Those will get you started and you can always search for more on the internet. Even if you don't want to study the languages, it's interesting to learn something about them

Diagramming Sentences and Other Things

I've mentioned diagramming sentences before as a useful tool for writers. If you need a refresher course, go here and brush up. The three links at the top of the screen take you to example pages with explanations.

I find diagramming sentences useful as a writer when I find myself having written a long, rather tangled sentence. I can diagram it and see where I've gone wrong or where I can make it simpler and more readable.

Diagramming is also useful when you are reading. If you don't understand something the author wrote, diagram it and see if it makes sense after you sort out the parts of speech, the antecedents, etc.

An interesting site for definitions of terms is "Literary Terms." There are also several links on the screen to other useful information, such as the one for "Elements of Literature." Understanding what these elements are can help improve writing, too.

Getting Started with Essays

Essays are more or less what we post on our blogs. We write a lot of them in school, at whatever educational level we are. There are many websites that can offer help, usually affiliated with universities, but sometimes not.

One site I've run across is Essay Info. It offers Basics of Essay Writing, Writing Guides, Essay Types, Citation Styles, Presentation Writing, and Business Writing (see the left sidebar on the site). It should give you some help in starting to write essays, or in polishing the essays you already write.

Guide to Grammar and Writing also offers you some help with essays and with grammar. Click on "Index" in the middle of the page for a list of what they offer.

An example of a university affiliated writing website is O.W.L (Online Writing Lab) from Purdue University. Click on "The Owl at Purdue" at the top of the screen and look at the list in the right sidebar for the topics that interest you. You can also do a little searching and find such writing helps from your favorite university. For example, see "Other Online Writing Centers" here.

These types of sites can give you some quick grammar advice and some basic essay writing advice that will help you polish your own writing. If you are like me, you write without any very formal method and, while that is fine most of the time, there will be times when a subject is important to you, or you know there will be arguments against your view, and you want to put more effort into writing a finely tuned essay.

Most of us are good at Googling by now, but I like to highlight sites that I think may prove useful to you. Still, if you aren't satisfied with these suggestions, you could run a search of your own. Enjoy!