It was a pleasure to work with Mara as the content developer for our new admissions materials. She eloquently captured the nuances of our school, and did so with a fresh perspective. I also appreciated her dedication to meeting our tight project deadlines.
For access to download the resources below, please enter your email address in the Newsletters & White Papers box found in the right side column.
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.