Editing Assistance
Training and Development | Human Resources

Here are web sites you’ll want to bookmark, save, and print out for your personal writing library.

Purdue Online Writing Lab

This site has over 125 printer-friendly handouts you can download. Take a special look at the ones on writing concerns and on grammar. You can also search for handouts on editing (higher order concerns of clarity, communication, and organization) and on lower order concerns (proofreading how-tos.)

On the top right of the Purdue site, go to Internet Resources, and then to OWL resources. You’ll get a list of more than 50 additional online writing labs (OWLs), current as of November 2003. All have links. Prowl. Some are more useful for your needs than others.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Writing Center

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Writing Center. On this e-handout, scroll down to “types of writing” and link to “revising prose.” You’ll get an 18-point user-friendly specific checklist for effective editing. Under “styles of writing,” see “memos” and “presentations.”

Colorado State’s University Writing Program

Click on “types of documents”; then go to “business documents” to learn how to write business letters, memos, and executive summaries. The site also includes a link on speeches and presentations.

Hundreds of colleges use Diana Hacker’s books as a quick, easy guide to writing. Although parts of the linked sites deal with college writing assignments, either of the two links below will take you to useful, brush-up material! Sites are different.

Diana Hacker, A Writer's Reference

This site includes self-grading interactive writing exercises and grammar exercises. In the “writing exercises,” you’ll find purpose and audience, introductions, and point of view. In the grammar exercises, you’ll find sentence structure, word choice, ESL trouble spots, and punctuation. You can do the exercises by logging in with your first and last name. Site has answers and easy-to-understand explanations for all exercises.

Hacker Handbook Software

This site lets you choose challenges, including effective sentences (with parallel construction), basic grammar, and word choice. Under “punctuation and mechanics,” you’ll find material on commas, semicolons, apostrophes, and quotation marks.

Human Resources | Training and Development