English Language and literature Sites

Authors

About Authors

This is a comprehensive list of author sites. Authors are listed by nationality, so look under Contemporary American Aauthors, Classic American Authors, or Classic British Authors, and Contemporary British Authors for biographies, criticism, and much more.

Author's Webliography

This site lists sites dedicated to specific authors and poets. This is a pretty comprehensive list of author sites, so look for poets as well as 100's of other authors.

Dickinson Electronic Archives

Visitors to this site can view original handwritten poems, letters, and other works by Emily Dickinson and some of her associates. Includes Teaching With the Archives, and links to related resources.

Great Writers and Poets

This site is a collection of home pages for poets and writers from modern to ancient. The pages offer background information on many of the persons covered. Includes listings of literary prize and award winners.

Biography

The Biography Maker

Students can use these online lessons on writing a biography. They explain what a biography should be and walk writers through questioning, learning, synthesis, and story-telling. Includes Web resources and tips for effective writing.

ESL

Dave's ESL Cafe

Designed for ESL students and teachers around the world, this site includes a search page, quiz center, help center, idea page, question page, phrasal verb page, slang, and more.

ESL Resources for Students

This site offers lists of resources on the web that provide help for students of the English language. Sites are arranged by subjects such as Grammar, Idioms, Academic Conventions, and Quizzes.

The Internet TESL Journal

This monthly web magazine has lesson plans, teaching techniques, articles, web links, and projects for teachers of ESL.

Folklore

Aesop's Fables Online

This site includes 655 fables and fairy tales, indexed in table format with morals listed. The clean quick interface and the ability to do a word search make it a valuable resource. Recently added were 127 fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen with 209 Grimms fairy tales to be added next.

Grimms' Fairy Tales

Here are all 209 tales that were retold by the brothers Grimm.
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Tales of Wonder

This elegant site contains the full text of folk and fairy tales from around the world organized by world culture and region. A list of links to other sites are also included.

Grammar

Common Errors in English

Browse through Professor Paul Brians' alphabetically sorted list of English errors. The page also links to non-errors, commonly misspelled words, suggestions, and much more. Some of the listed subjects are as far as, boughten, as per, misnomer, libary, SAT test, these kind, and many, many, many more.

Darling's Guide to Grammar and Writing

This comprehensive site has answers. Find clear explanations of key concepts and abundant examples of proper and improper usage, online quizzes after every topic, or get help from "Ask Grammar" which includes logs of previously asked questions. Sections include, clauses, sentence fragments, rules for common usage, plurals and possessives, and much more.

Diana Hacker.com

Requested by English teachers, this site offers student exercises in grammar and writing and more.

Elements of Style by William Strunk

This online version of the classic style manual is a useful reference filled with examples.

Grammar Bytes

This interactive grammar review offers an index of grammar terms, interactive exercises, and a short list of grammar rules with explanations.

The Grammar Lady

The Grammar Lady contains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's), Spelling Rules, a Question of the Week, and a Grammar Hotline. Post a question to The Grammar Lady or get grammar tips.

Online English Grammar

This site provides definitions and examples of parts of speech. Included are exercises and an English language clinic where you can submit grammar questions that are posted and answered within a week.

Lesson Plans

Teacher's at Random

Here you'll find a listing of teacher's guides to books published by Random House. Link to the Teacher's guides from top of the main page. Guides include a pre-reading activity, thematic connections, interdisciplinary connections, vocabulary, and awards.

SCORE Cyberguides

From the Language Arts SCORE (Schools of Ca. Online Resources for Educators Project). Teacher-developed Cyberguides are supplementary units of instruction based on core works of literature that are designed for students to use the Web. Each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition, objectives, a task, a Web-infused process, and an evaluation rubric. Most guides have students create a product after they have reviewed Web resources. Some titles are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Crucible, Cry, the Beloved Country, The Glass Menagerie, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, The Pigman, Edgar Allan Poe: An Author Unit, The Poetry of Langston Hughes, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Discussion Guide to The Grapes of Wrath

Includes biographical information and discussion questions. Also available for download in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Arabic.

EDSITEment

This site includes online learning guides and a hotlist of links to top humanities sites. The learning guides include lesson plans in English and language arts, history and social studies, foreign languages, and art history.

National Council of Teachers of English Teaching Ideas

Links to teaching ideas selected from NCTE publications, or submitted directly by teachers.

Mythology

Bulfinch's Mythology

Classic text of Thomas Bulfinch's book that is available online. It tells the stories of ancient gods and heroes.

Encyclopedia Mythica

This is an encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, and legend. It contains thousands of definitions of gods and goddesses, supernatural beings and legendary creatures and monsters from all over the world.

Greek Mythology

A website devoted to early Greek Mythology. If you need detailed, referenced information about Greek Mythology, these pages have it. ...

Greek Mythology

This is an introduction to Ancient Greek Mythology which has a simple interface. It combines information from a number of sources and attempts to be a comprehensive reference work.

Gods, Heroes, and Myth

"A site dedicated to making your search for myths, legends, folklore, and religions (from around the world) both past and present easier and more enjoyable. From the stories of the Greek Gods to the mysterious religion of the Celts, this site tries to give a fair and unbiased listing of sites. Have a look around enjoy"

Mythweb

This site is devoted to the heroes, gods and monsters of Greek mythology. The site uses colorful animations to portray the heroes of Greek myths and has a section for teachers.

Poetry

Academy of American Poets for Educators

This site exhibits poets by themes and includes poems read by the poet. Resouces include an index of major poetry publishers, periodicals, and distributors, current poetry award winners, and images for posters and bulletins.

American Verse Project

The American Verse Project is an electronic archive of volumes of American verse prior to 1920. Poets range from the famous (Dickinson, Dunbar, Emerson, Longfellow, Sandberg, etc.) to the obscure or not so well known. Includes the oft-requested Robert Service poems about the Yukon.

British Women Romantic Poets

This collection consists of E-texts of poetry by British and Irish women written between 1789 and 1832. Complete texts are here that are not available elsewhere.

Can You Haiku?

This lesson plan answers the following questions: How are haiku poems composed? How do they differ from other forms of poetry? How does a haiku paint a picture or create an image with just a few words? What makes this form of poetry seem so personal, intimate, and appealing?

Favorite Poem Project

Created by Robert Pinsky, the 39th Poet Laureate of the United States, this is a collection of 50 short video documentaries showcasing individual Americans reading and speaking personally about poems they love. The texts of the poems are included. Many of the videos are quite moving, and are highly engaging.

Learn New Poetry Forms

Haiku, Ghazal, renga, sijo, and tanka forms are explained. Under Haiku are links to comments and explanations as well as articles on Haiku writing.

Poetry Daily

This site provides a new contemporary for every day of the year. They are arranged in a continuous timeline index. A brief biographical sketch of each poet is included as a link at th end of the poem, along with a link to the publisher of the original printed source of the poem.

Representative Poetry Online

Excellent collection of the great poets of the English language, countesy of Ian Lancashire, selected with editorial comments by members of the Department of English at the University of Toronto from 1912 to 1996. Included is an extensive collection of criticism, both in verse and prose forms. The works are indexed by poet, title, date, keyword and first line.

Quotations

Aphorism's Galore

If you're looking for a short, witty quote, Aphorism's Galore could have just what you need. There are more than 1,800 aphorisms by famous authors, artists, and the popular "anonymous".

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature .

Shakespeare

The Complete Works of Shakespeare

This comprehensive resource includes a Shakespeare discussion area, Shakespeare Internet resources, chronological and alphabetical listing of plays, familiar quotations, and a glossary of highlighted words in the text in addition to the complete text of all works.

Hamlet

Beautiful Hamlet lesson plan site also from the folks at SCORE.

Julius Caesar

Developed by a teacher (Joel Littauer), his instructional unit for 10th grade English classes includes a teacher's guide and online activities. Included are four student activities that focus on analyzing/discussing a character in a written composition, discussing how characters move the plot of a drama forward, speculating on leadership skills, and searching for alternatives to violence in government leadership changovers.

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet

This site attempts two goals: to be a complete annotated guide to scholarly resources available online and to present Shakespeare material unavailable elsewhere. "Mr. Willaim Shakespeare" is an annotated, scholarly gide to William Shakespeare, his works, life, and times Features of this outstanding site are a Shakespearean Timeline, Works, Critical Resources, a bibliography, and even a Shakespeare Biography Quiz. It was awarded "one of the best on the Internet foro education in the humanities" by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Romeo and Juliet

This supplemental unit was developed as part of the Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) Project by teacher Joel Littauer. Complete with teacher's guide and 3 student guides, this unit was designed for use with 9th grade English classes.

Internet Shakespeare Editions

This website dedicated to the bard includes Shakespeare's Complete Works, Art Inspired by Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Life and Times, and links to more sites.

Site Lists

Great Writers and Poets

This site is a collection of home pages for poets and writers from modern to ancient. The pages offer background information on many of the persons covered. Includes listings of literary prize and award winners.

Literary Resources on the Net

This is a large list of websites related to literature and the humanities. Included is a section on Syllabi and Other Course Materials for Literature Courses that uses university course material. Sections to search for material are Classical, Renaissance, Romantic, American, and more.

Online Literary Criticism

The Online Literary Criticism Collection leads to over 1,000 websites with criticism and biographical information about authors and their works. They can be browsed by author, title, or by literary period and are generally well done.

Web English Teacher

At Web English Teacher educators can take advantage of online technology to share ideas and to benefit from the work of others. Beginning teachers can find guidance; experienced teachers can find inspiration. Think of it as the faculty library and faculty workroom on a global scale.

Vocabulary

Acronym Finder

The Acronym finder is a large searchable database, containing about 155,000 acronyms, abbreviations and definitions.

Anagram Hall of Fame

This is a collection of anagrams, words made from the rearranged letters of other words, for example: Information Superhighway = Yow! Hi ho, I'm surfing Arpanet! Or try Heavy rain? Hire a Navy. Includes some amazingly long ones.

Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com offers all the whistles and bells of an old-fashioned dictionary. Get word-of-the day email or get dictionaries in foreign languages.

Hyperdictionary

This site has a few dictionaries you can jump to immediately including the English Dictionary, Computer Dictionary, Medical Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Dream Dictionary.

Vocabulary Universtiy

Participate in these free vocabulary puzzles to enhance vocabulary mastery. "Exercises are endorsed by teachers to enrich classroom curriculum and to help prepare for the SSAT, GED, SAT, and ACT."

Wordsmith

The music and magic of words -- that's what A.Word.A.Day (AWAD) is about.

Wordweb

Or, download this free file, a comprehensive English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows that can be used to look up words at any time. Just start the program and type in the word. It goes out and brings back a dictionary definition. Great for words on the fly.

World Wide Words

This site is a rich resource of words. Students can find out the past history of common words, catch the latest creations used in the press, or check usage. Categories include, The Word Hoard, Articles, and Newsworthy Words. Find out about the changing nature of words.

Works

Books Online

The full text of over 25,000 books online. You won't find any current best selling authors here that are still under copyright, but you will find lots and lots of classics. Search by author or title or look at lists.

Electronic Bookshelf

These electonic texts include works by Jane Austin, L. Frank Baum, Ambrose Bierce, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Stephen Crane, Arthur Conan Doyle, Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne, O. Henry, Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, and H.G. Wells.

Select from a list of 441 works of classical literature by 59 authors, including Aesop, Aeschylus, Homer, Ovid, and Plato. Users can read the works in their entirety, participate in discussions or find out about the authors.

Project Bartleby

This is the home of great literary websites. It contains the full text of works by many authors. Some of the authors included are Emily Dickinson, W.E.B. DuBois, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, John Keats, Herman Melville, Carl Sandburg, Bernard Shaw, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Walt Whitman, Mary Wollstonecraft, William Wordsworth, and William Butler Yeats.

Project Gutenberg

"Fine Literature Digitally Re-Published" This is THE collection of electronic texts. If you decide to download whole novels or plays be sure that you have plenty of memory and space.

Writing

Creative Writing Process

This is a no-frills approach that covers all the steps including: brainstorming, mapping, outlines, editing, references, and reproducible worksheets. It walks students through the entire process using examples and even includes some word processing tips.

Diana Hacker.com

Requested by English teachers, this site offers student exercises in grammar and writing and more.

A Guide for Writing Research Papers
This is the official MLA rules site for the Antelope Valley Union High School District.

This is a helpful guidebook that is well organized and easy to use. Includes an introduction to researching, plus sections on gathering materials, using outlines, formatting the paper, documentation, works cited pages, plus many examples and resources.

Online Writing Lab

This is the main page for Purdue University's resources. Choose Internet Search Tools, Resources for Writers (130 instructional handouts), and Resources for Teachers.

Purdue University Online Writing Lab Handouts

Here is a treasure trove of handouts that can support teachers of writing. Topics under which the handouts are grouped are Invention/Planning, Editing/Proofreading, Style/Clarity/Coherence, Dealing with Writing Anxiety, English as a Second Language, Parts of Speech, Punctuation, and Spelling.

Resources for Writers

Here is a collection of resources including links to other sites to help meet writing needs. Resources are grouped under, Guides to Style and Editing, Creative Writing, Children and Writing, ESL Related Sites, Online Reference Resources, and more.