Writer’s Reference Center provides users with a convenient one-stop location for all of the tools necessary to write and research effectively. From the mechanics of writing and grammar to style and research, this indispensable online resource thoroughly covers the fundamentals of quality writing, provides a wealth of vocabulary-building dictionaries, and presents a step-by-step guide to writing a good essay. An in-depth grammar section defines grammatical terms and gives examples of use, while another section explores writing style. Writing resources teach users how best to revise their work, and the intuitive design allows users to find relevant information quickly through customizable searches and browsing.

Highlights:

• Writing fundamentals: Writer’s Reference Center presents a conceptual and practical guide to the writing process, covering preparation; writing your document; revising; and writing about theme, character, form and genre, and other topics. It also provides a step-by-step breakdown on how to write a good essay.
• Writing references: Writer’s Reference Center features more than 92,000 definitions from more than a dozen acclaimed thematic dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference books from Facts On File, including:

- The comprehensive Facts On File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins

- The highly acclaimed Dictionary of Clichés

- The Facts On File Guide to Good Writing

- The Facts On File Guide to Style

- British English A to Zed

- A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms

- The Facts On File Dictionary of Allusions

- The Facts On File Dictionary of American Regionalisms

- The Facts On File Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases

- The Facts On File Dictionary of Proverbs

- The Facts On File Student’s Dictionary of American English

- The Facts On File Student’s Thesaurus

- Words to Rhyme With and more.

• Writing resources: Writer’s Reference Center includes more than 150 essays covering grammar, style, research, and more, presented in an easy-to-use format, allowing users both to learn new concepts and to find answers to specific usage and style questions. The topics covered include:
• Grammar & Punctuation: the nuts and bolts that hold the basic structure of a text together, including grammar (covering nouns, adjectives, verbs, and more), words in use (covering vocabulary, spelling words, foreign words, slang, and more), and punctuation (covering each punctuation mark from apostrophes to slashes)
• Writing with Style: style correctness, the qualities of style (including clarity and simplicity), choosing words, constructing sentences and paragraphs, using figurative language, choosing a style, and expressing tone through words
• Guide to Documents: writing specific types of documents—including letters and emails, memorandums and resumes, essays and theses, business reports and presentations, and promotional writing—plus the styles in which they are generally written
• Guide to Research: developing a subject, gathering information, and evaluating sources
• Reference Shelf: Students can find many useful reference resources in Writer’s Reference Center’s Reference Shelf section, including:
• Dictionary: a comprehensive English dictionary, providing the correct meaning, pronunciation, spelling, and etymology of more than 90,000 words.
• Thesaurus: a concise guide to the synonyms and antonyms of thousands of common English words.
• Allusions: a guide to thousands of well-known events, places, people, and phenomena whose names convey a particular message to readers.
• American Regionalisms: definitions and origins of more than 20,000 terms and expressions unique to a particular American region.
• British English: more than 5,500 common British terms and their corresponding definitions in American English.
• Clichés: a list of thousands of clichés and common expressions, with meanings, sources, and usage history.
• Foreign Words and Phrases: a guide to thousands of foreign expressions often used in English, with definition, usage examples, pronunciation, and more.
• Literary and Thematic Terms: a dictionary of more than 1,000 terms important to the study of literature.
• Proverbs: definitions and additional information for thousands of proverbs, which are short sayings that express general truths.
• Rhyming Dictionary: an easily searchable rhyming dictionary. Enter any word and find all the words that rhyme with it.
• Word and Phrase Origins: definitions and origins of more than 15,000 words and expressions.
• Words Often Confused: a list of word pairs or groups that are often misused or misspelled, such as affect/effect.

Appropriate for: Grade 6-12