Here are 31 online resources to help you improve your writing and become a better writer.
No matter what kind of writing you are doing, whether you are a journalist or an entertainment blogger, a student who has to write an essay or someone who wants to become a screenwriter, there are sites on the Internet that can help you out with your writing.
improve writingHere we have compiled a list of great sites that will help you with your writing, whether it is your career or you are just doing it for fun. These 31 useful sites have been divided into five different categories of tools and resources that you may need as a writer. Have a look at what we came up with.
Organize Yourself
1. Evernote - Evernote can help you keep track of all your writing notes, ideas and interesting articles. It is a multi-platform web application with which you can bookmark websites, clip a portion of website, take and organize notes, snap a picture and much more.
2. Ubernote - Ubernote is another note taking web application which makes it very easy to organize writing your writing ideas.
3. Clipmarks - Clipmarks is a useful web widget and browser plugin that lets you quickly clip and save webpages online.
4. Bubbl.us - This is a great tool for those who like to think visually and offers great mind-mapping devices for those who like to organize their thoughts graphically.
5. Wisemapping - Wisemapping is a great mind-mapping and brainstorming web application.
Writing Aids
6. Windows Live Writer - If you are a blogger you’ll love Windows Live Writer because it allows you to publish to any blogging platform.
7. Plagiarism Checker - If you are a web writer, this tool is handy to use to detect plagiarism.
8. AutoCrit - This site can automatically identify weak words and structures in your writing once you have entered in your text. It is like having your own virtual critic.
9. Visuwords - Visuwords is an online graphical dictionary to find word meanings and associations with other words and concepts.
10. Wordcounter - Another virtual critic or editor, this site identifies words that you use often and makes you put more variety into your writing.
11. Creative Writing Games - On this website you have couple of creative writing games which can help you with inspiration.
12. FocusWriter - FocusWriter helps you focus better on your writing. It creates a distraction free environment.
13. Q10 - This is a text editor which helps you concentrate on your writing and avoid unnecessary distractions.
14. Phras.in - If you are not sure how to say something, or you are having a dilemma between two expressions you can check how many times each of them has been mentioned online.
15. Tip of my tongue - This tool can help you to find out which word it at the tip of your tongue.
Grammar
16. Grammarly - Grammarly is an online tool which helps you with your grammar. Unfortunately, it’s not free but there is a 7 day trial.
17. Grammar Girl - This site is very easy to use and provides short and fun tips to improve your writing. It highlights common grammar mistakes that people make.
18. Grammar and Style - This site offers a nice list of grammatical rules and explanations that will help people who are having trouble grasping the basic and advances rules of writing.
19. Oxford dictionaries - Oxford dictionaries website offers excellent advice on grammar and better writing.
Dictionaries
20. Cambridge Dictionaries - One of the ultimate printed dictionaries offers an online version for all to use for free.
21. Dictionary.com - This dictionary is based on the famous Roget’s Dictionary and through this site you have quick access to Thesaurus.com as well.
22. Merriam-Webster.com - The online version of one of the most well-known and most used print dictionary.
23. UrbanDictionary.com - This is the ultimate dictionary if you are looking for slang and want to write pieces in modern vernaculars that you might not be completely familiar with.
24. The Free Dictionary - This website allows you to make your own personalized dictionary homepage and is one of the most used online dictionaries.
25. Synonym Finder - If you keep repeating the same words in your writing, this website can help you to find more appropriate synonyms.
26. Synonyms - One of the most comprehensive collections of synonyms on the Internet.
27. Idiom Dictionary - This dictionary has an excellent collection of idioms.
Social Networking
28. GoodReads - A great social network if you are interested in getting the opinions of other on the books they have read, form a book club, join discussions and much more.
29. Shelfari - This site is a book recommendation site, but you can join various book communities and learn a lot from readers’ comments.
30. Red Room - Red Room is a community for both aspiring and professional writers, readers, journalists and publishers.
31. Writing - A social network for authors that gives you a good community of writers, readers and editors to communicate with daily.
Guest author Janice Blythe is a regular writer for Cometdocs, a free online document conversion service. Read our guestblogging guidelines.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
4 Best Sites to Listen Free Hindi Music, Bollywood Songs Online
Want to listen to free Hindi bollywood songs online? Which are the best sites to listen free Hindi music online. There are many sites which stream hindi music online in high quality, but here are our best picks for Hindi music lovers online.
Listen Hindi Bollywood Songs Online
Gaana.com Music
Gaana – this is my favorite site right now to listen to high quality hindi songs online. It has a very professional interface, and the navigation neatly changes on the same page without popups and excessive ads. The music controls align neatly at the unobtrusive bottom music bar. Choose the latest Hindi songs and albums and easily browse and play music. I now always keep it open in a browser tab. If you need one site, this is our #1 choice right now.
Google Music
Google Music India - Google India music channel combines the power of music search and clean interface to stream high quality Hindi music online. Search by keywords and get all the music albums and Hindi songs neatly arranged. The music player opens in a small pop up window. Enjoy the clean Google Music interface and play Hindi songs online for free.
Dhingana Bollywood Music
Dhingana – is another very popular site to listen Hindi songs online. It features a vast archive and the latest music albums and Hindi songs. Choose your songs and create a playlist to play your favorite music online. The music players pops up in new large window, is ad heavy, and displays most wanted songs, and top playlists. Play popular hindi songs and create smartlists to share with friends.
Saavn hindi music
Saavn – A nice site to find Hindi music and listen latest Bollywood songs free online. The interface is clean and the player is also inline on the right side of the screen. No pop ups or jazzy ads. Search for your favorite songs and easily navigate by singer and playlists. Incidently it also powers Google India Music.
Other notable mentions and popular music sites you might like are Dishant, Raaga, and In.com. Let us know your favorite Hindi music sites in comments.
Listen Hindi Bollywood Songs Online
Gaana.com Music
Gaana – this is my favorite site right now to listen to high quality hindi songs online. It has a very professional interface, and the navigation neatly changes on the same page without popups and excessive ads. The music controls align neatly at the unobtrusive bottom music bar. Choose the latest Hindi songs and albums and easily browse and play music. I now always keep it open in a browser tab. If you need one site, this is our #1 choice right now.
Google Music
Google Music India - Google India music channel combines the power of music search and clean interface to stream high quality Hindi music online. Search by keywords and get all the music albums and Hindi songs neatly arranged. The music player opens in a small pop up window. Enjoy the clean Google Music interface and play Hindi songs online for free.
Dhingana Bollywood Music
Saavn hindi music
Other notable mentions and popular music sites you might like are Dishant, Raaga, and In.com. Let us know your favorite Hindi music sites in comments.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Twitter unveils web traffic analytics
Twitter today unveiled a web analytics service that keeps track of how much traffic Twitter is delivering to a site.
The service also shows how many page views a website generates for each Tweet. That includes re-Tweets and replies on the site. The service also keeps track of where the Tweets came from — whether they were custom-made or published through the Tweet button that sites embed on their pages. Twitter’s web analytics also has a leaderboard, where the most tweeted links show up at the top of the list.
It’s a lightweight analytics service that isn’t designed to compete with more in-depth analytics delivered by companies like Google, Twitter director of web business development April Underwood (pictured right) said. But the company has been toying with ways to make it easier for sites to keep track of traffic coming from Twitter.
Part of that effort was creating the “t.co” wrapper for each Tweet, which shows up as a source in traffic analytics programs. Around 95 percent of all tweets show up as links from “t.co” in analytics services, she said. But Twitter was not satisfied with that and wanted to develop more in-depth analytics.
“We know our partners use third-party analytics tools that go way beyond what we’re offering today,” Underwood said. “So we’re going to release an application programming interface (API) that will make their dashboards stronger.”
The product is still in private beta, but it should come out in the next several weeks.
It’s a lightweight analytics service that isn’t designed to compete with more in-depth analytics delivered by companies like Google, Twitter director of web business development April Underwood (pictured right) said. But the company has been toying with ways to make it easier for sites to keep track of traffic coming from Twitter.
Part of that effort was creating the “t.co” wrapper for each Tweet, which shows up as a source in traffic analytics programs. Around 95 percent of all tweets show up as links from “t.co” in analytics services, she said. But Twitter was not satisfied with that and wanted to develop more in-depth analytics.
“We know our partners use third-party analytics tools that go way beyond what we’re offering today,” Underwood said. “So we’re going to release an application programming interface (API) that will make their dashboards stronger.”
The product is still in private beta, but it should come out in the next several weeks.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Google Acquires Restaurant Rating Service Zagat
Tech giant Google has announced it will acquire the highly-regarded travel and food rating service Zagat.
According to a post on the official Google blog, the company will provide access to Google Maps and search to Zagat services as well as use Zagat's reviews and other content to beef up their local offerings.
"With Zagat, we gain a world-class team that has more experience in consumer based-surveys, recommendations and reviews than anyone else in the industry," says Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of Local, Maps and Location Services, in the post.
Zagat was founded in 1979, and has grown to become one of the most trusted resources for reviews on restaurants, hotels and other attractions.
"The merger of our resources, expertise and platforms with those of Google will give us the opportunity to greatly expand," reads a statement from Zagat co-founders Nina and Tim Zagat. "We have spent enough time with Google senior management to know that they fully share our belief in user-generated content, and our commitment to accuracy and fairness in providing consumers with the information necessary to make smart decisions about where to eat, travel and shop."
Along with Maps, Google also offers the social-based Places where users can rate and share businesses.
According to a post on the official Google blog, the company will provide access to Google Maps and search to Zagat services as well as use Zagat's reviews and other content to beef up their local offerings.
"With Zagat, we gain a world-class team that has more experience in consumer based-surveys, recommendations and reviews than anyone else in the industry," says Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of Local, Maps and Location Services, in the post.
Zagat was founded in 1979, and has grown to become one of the most trusted resources for reviews on restaurants, hotels and other attractions.
"The merger of our resources, expertise and platforms with those of Google will give us the opportunity to greatly expand," reads a statement from Zagat co-founders Nina and Tim Zagat. "We have spent enough time with Google senior management to know that they fully share our belief in user-generated content, and our commitment to accuracy and fairness in providing consumers with the information necessary to make smart decisions about where to eat, travel and shop."
Along with Maps, Google also offers the social-based Places where users can rate and share businesses.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
BlackBerry PlayBook Sale: Prices Crash by $150
Best Buy has again taken the lead for a new BlackBerry PlayBook sale, dropping prices by $150 on the 64GB model! After the HP Touchpad sale, it seems tablets are not selling as expected and stock inventories are rising, while Apple iPad stays the favorite.
BlackBerry PlayBook Sale
Best Buy Prices reveal that BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB sells for $449 ($50 discount) while 64GB tablet sells for $549 ($150 discount)
blackberry playbook sale
Of course this is over 20% off, but still does not compare to the $99 HP Touchpad sales. Blackberry Playbook on Amazon is still selling for the usual high prices.
Compare that to the Apple iPad which sells the 64GB model for $699 or the 32GB for $599, and you now both the Blackberry Playbook models are $150 cheaper than iPad! Will you buy the BlackBerry PlayBook at this price?
BlackBerry PlayBook Sale
Best Buy Prices reveal that BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB sells for $449 ($50 discount) while 64GB tablet sells for $549 ($150 discount)
blackberry playbook sale
Of course this is over 20% off, but still does not compare to the $99 HP Touchpad sales. Blackberry Playbook on Amazon is still selling for the usual high prices.
Compare that to the Apple iPad which sells the 64GB model for $699 or the 32GB for $599, and you now both the Blackberry Playbook models are $150 cheaper than iPad! Will you buy the BlackBerry PlayBook at this price?
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