After several years of trying to redo our website but getting stuck each time, we asked Mara Braverman to help us get the process moving. Mara asked us the hard questions to get us thinking about what really needs to go on our website. Mara pushed us to create something inspiring and to-the-point. Her guidance and structure got us back into action.
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Writers need ready access to good reference materials. Here are my recommendations:
1. Start with a dictionary, online or in print, to check the meaning of a word, confirm a spelling, or find a synonym. I like the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, but there are other good choices out there.
2. Buy yourself a good grammar reference book. The one I usually turn to is “Woe Is I” by Patricia T. O'Conner. Her explanations of grammar rules are the clearest I’ve seen, and the book’s index is easier to use than those in many other grammar books.
3. After that, I’d recommend a thesaurus, whether in print or online (although a dictionary usually works just as well for synonyms).
4. An atlas is useful for checking spellings and finding locations. Although most geographic information can be found online, it’s often easier to check maps in a book.
5. Finally, choose Bartlett's Familiar Quotations or another book of quotations. Bartlett’s is available online, but it’s harder to use than the print version.