Online Grammar Sources

Here are some online resources to help you tune up your grammar skills:

This University of Oregon site lets you test yourself, and does a good job of explaining the basic rules of grammar behind the answers. Plus, it's kinda fun.

Grammar Bytes:

This colorful, interactive web site is primarily aimed at grade school kids, but it can be fun for the rest of us too. It offers good exercises and clear explanations. It includes helpful sections on sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Be sure to check out the following sections/links: Terms (includes definition of complete sentence with good examples), Exercises (comma splices/fused sentences and sentence fragments), and Tips & Rules (good explanations, good examples).

Newsroom 101:

This web site offers online exercises in grammar, usage and AP style -- a great way to review and test your skills. Best part: once you select the right answer for each exercise, you get an explanation that tells why it's right (and you can keep trying until you get it right).

OWL (Online Writing Lab at Purdue):

This big website covers many aspects of grammar and writing. To focus on grammar, scroll down to the Handouts & Materials section, or simply click on the site map (under "quick links" at right) to get to a well-organized listing of all pages in this site. Then pick the grammar exercises that would be most helpful to you. For example, you'll find good explanations of active vs. passive voice, subject-verb agreement, sentence fragments, parallel sentence construction and dangling modifiers.

Patient Griselda's Guide to Grammar:

The Meredith College grammar web site offers some good resources and tutorials, including materials on plurals and possessives (scroll down for self-test tutorial) and punctuating clauses and phrases.

Garbl's Writing Center:

An excellent list of web sites that offer grammar guidance, including those I've listed here. Be sure to check out some of the links to writing resources in the left panel. For more options and information, go to Gary B. Larson's home page, Garbl's Writing Center.