We believe that clear, concise, inviting writing that communicates forcefully is the fruit of practice, professional guidance, and the willingness to criticize your own work and to have others do so as well. Such writing does not happen automatically. This "Online Resources" section of the Help System provides information about a cornucopia of powerful tools for writers that are available online on the Internet. If used properly, these tools will help you become a better writer. We have researched carefully what the web has to offer at this time (Q1 2007). Here is a list of thirteen tools we believe are worth investigating.

• Zondervan Bible Search

• The Chicago Manual of Style Online

• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary

• The Visual Thesaurus®

• The SBL Handbook of Style

• The Elements of Style

• The King's English

• The American Heritage® Book of English Usage

• The Columbia Guide to Standard American English

• Familiar Quotations

• Simpson's Contemporary Quotations

• Respectfully Quoted

• Guide to Grammar and Style

Online tools have seven main advantages over their printed counterparts.

Always Open. If you use a modern browser that supports multiple tabs, you can have a copy of each online tool you wish to use open in a different tab in your browser.

Same Environment. Online tools are viewed on your computer screen—the same place you view the document you are working on. You do not have to fumble around on your desk to see the information you need.

Copy and Paste. Online tools make it easy to copy and past information from the online tool to your document, without typing.

Ease of Use. Once you become accustomed to an online tool's interface, most likely you will find it easier to locate the information you need in the online, rather than the print, version of the tool.

Time Saver. Generally speaking, it is faster to locate information with an online tool rather than in a book.

Likelihood of Being Used. Because online tools are always available at your fingertips, you are more likely to use them. You do not have to get up from your chair.

Enhancements. Many of the online tools we recommend have enhancements not available in their print counterparts. For example, The Chicago Manual of Style Online includes three additional useful features: Chicago Style Q&A, Tools, and Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide.

Everyone who writes always should strive for improvement. Even if you do not consider yourself an "Internet Guru," we encourage you to look at the online tools listed above. We believe they will help all who use them develop their writing skills. Some of these tools are available by modestly priced monthly or annual subscriptions only. Others are free.

If you come across online tools you find truly useful for your writing, please share this information with us so we can make it available to a wider community of scholars. Click here to: Contact Us.

We conclude this page with a link to George Orwell's famous essay (1946): "Politics and The English Language," in which a master wordsmith criticizes "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English and asserts that it is both a cause and effect of foolish thinking and dishonest politics. He calls "vagueness and sheer incompetence" the "most marked characteristic" of contemporary English prose and especially of the political writing of his day. The essay also criticizes contemporary writers for preferring the abstract to the concrete, claiming this reduces precision of thought. He notes that insincerity is the enemy of clear prose and that much contemporary political writing is in defense of the indefensible.

Orwell begins by asserting that the English language is in decline but that the decline is reversible. He gives five examples of bad contemporary writing and criticizes them for "staleness of imagery" and "lack of precision." The essay then described the "tricks" his contemporaries used to avoid the work (and thought) of constructing clear prose: overused (or "dying") metaphors, "operators or false verbal limbs" that were used in preference to simple verbs, pretentious diction, and "meaningless words."

Orwell draws his essay to a close with these words and his famous six rules. "One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases."

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

• Never use a long word where a short one will do.

• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

• Never use the passive where you can use the active.

• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

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