Teaching English: Web Resources

     The premise of this guide is that teachers of English in secondary schools may find themselves in classrooms with limited resources and few if any of the subscription databases available to them while students at IC.  What I have attempted here is to gather some of the best free tools and resources available on the Web, organizing and annotating them in a way that I hope will prove helpful.  There is actually an abundance of such Web resources, which may prove useful for your lesson plans, your students' research, and your own professional development.

The IC Library offers an auto-tutorial on Evlauating Resources.

Also see:

• Evaluating Web Pages. From Berkeley, a very comprehensive discussion.
• Evaluation Criteria: from New Mexico State University, a shorter approach with lots of examples.

• SourceWatch (consider the source): In searching the Web you may find research and policy recommendations published by "think tanks," many of which have political/ideological affiliations.  SourceWatch provides an extensive alphabetical list of think tanks, each linked to a brief description, including any ideological bent or political affiliation.  And for any political affiliations of the magazines one might find on the Web, take a look at Yahoo’s lists of “conservative” and “progressive” magazines.

• Alexa: (consider the source's associates): Search a Web site at Alexa for demographic information on the site's users and open the "Related Links" tab to see a list of other sites frequented by the same users.

• Internet Archive Wayback Machine (consider the source's past): Over time many sites grow more sophisticated at putting a slick front on shoddy resources or cultivating a "nonpartisan" tone for biased reporting.  The Wayback machine allows you to view archived versions of a Web site, the earliest of which may more clearly express an agenda of which you need to be aware.

Note: Free online books now number in the millions, but for the most part they must be out of copyright: works and editions of works that were published before the early twentieth/late nineteenth century.  So, for example, do expect the works of Henry James but don't expect the works of Ernest Hemingway.

• Project Gutenberg: Over 33,000 e-books.

• Google Books: Advanced Search: If you're looking for full-text books, be sure to use the Advanced controls to limit your Search to "full view only"  and your Content to "books."  Note the availability here of Title, Author, and Subject searching.

• Open Library: from the Internet Archive, there are millions of book records here, and out-of-copyright works often come with linked full-text.  The Author search works best, and check the "only show e-books" box to limit your results to works that may be available free online.  The reader used to display the texts is clear and easy on the eyes.

• Online Books Page: Over 35,000 full-texts, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

• Bartleby.com: Take advantage of the links here to limit your search to Reference, Verse, Fiction, or Nonfiction.  Note that you can also browse indexes of Authors, Subjects, and Titles.
  

Open Directory Project: English Dictionaries: A good gateway to free online dictionaries with brief descriptions.

Open Directory Project: Subject Dictionaries: Useful Subject categories and helpful annotations.

Merriam-Webster Online: One among many online dictionaries, but with good audio support for standard American pronunciation.

Howjsay.com: Offers very easy mouse-over to hear a word's pronunciation.  The default here is British English pronunciation, but where American English differs that is often added.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition: Free access to concise versions of the full Britannica articles.

Bartleby.com: Reference: Among the Reference resources available here are the first edition of The Elements of Style and the second edition of Fowler's The King's English, along with early editions of Roget's Thesaurus, Bartlett's Quotations, Brewer's Phrase & Fable, and Bullfinch's Mythology.

General:

• Voice of the Shuttle: Probably the single most comprehensive gateway site to Humanities resources on the Web, this UC Santa Barbara project is also one of the most sprawling. As the Contents list indicates, there are a number of content categories relevant to English instructors, and note that under Resources there is a category called Teaching Resources.

• Intute: English Literature:  A British Web Directory with carefully selected and amply annotated sites, Intute is currently under threat from the funding crisis in Great Britain, so its future is uncertain.  But while it lasts, take advantage of its links, and use the Keyword and Period filters to help you navigate.

• IPL2: Literary Criticism: A special collections gateway from the Internet Public Library.
  

English & American:

• General English Literature Resources: from Voice of the Shuttle, so be prepared to scroll--and be sure to make use of the index at the upper right.

• Luminarium: An outstanding site, it covers Medieval, Renaissance, 17th Century, and the Restoration.  In addition to the author links in each section, be sure to look at the resources gathered under "Essays and Articles" and "Additional Sources."

• Eighteenth-Century Resources: Don't let the plain Web design fool you; Jack Lynch of Rutgers has compiled the best online gateway to the 18th century.

• The Literary Gothic: A gateway to Web resources on the gothic literary tradition from the 18th century to the present, organized by Author and Title.

• Literary Resources: Romantic: Links from Jack Lynch at Rutgers.

• Victorian Web: An outstanding gateway for the literature, fine arts, political/social history, philosophy, religion, and science of the 19th century.

• American Authors:  from Washington State University, this is not only an excellent gateway to sites concerned with individual writers, but also provides a useful Timeline, overview of Literary Movements, and gateway to other American Literature Sites.

• 19th Century American Literary Figures & Literary Texts Online:  Also from Washington State University, this is a good gateway site for 19th century American literature and its historical/cultural context.  Note the topic categories along the left margin, especially "Authors & Texts."

• Voice of the Shuttle: American Literature:  For many this is still the gold-standard of gateway sites, though the sprawl of listed links requires careful scanning.  There is a  Minority Literatures section, with links to subsections on African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American, and Jewish American literatures.

• Literary Resources: American: from Jack Lynch at Rutgers, this is a handy gateway site, though you must scroll for the subject categories.

• For recommended sites on individual authors and particular topics, check my Web Resources for English Literature and American Literature.

Specifically Secondary:

• For literature sites of resources specifically pitched to school-age students, try the Open Directory Project: Kids and Teens: Literature.

College & Secondary:

• OWL (Online Writing Lab): General Writing Resources: From Purdue, this is one of the best writing resources on the Web.  Some of the "Writing Process" advice may be pitched to a slightly more sophisticated audience than secondary school students, but the nuts and bolts material under Mechanics, Grammar, and Punctuation will be useful at all levels.

• Writing Center Handouts & Links:from the University of North Carolina, these resources should be very useful for academic writing assignments at the secondary level.

• Duke: Writing Studio: Resources: Duke's Writing studio site is promising to add "Handouts for High School Students," but until then there are many resources here that address their needs.  See especially the materials under Working with Sources, Grammar and Reference, and Workshop Resources (handouts and tutorials addressing common problems).

Secondary:

• Creating a Student Staffed Writing Center: Rich Kent at the University of Maine has put together a wide range of Web resources relevant to secondary school writing centers.

• International Writing Centers Association: A good site for English and Writing instructors to be familiar with--especially the Resources and Resources for Writers pages.

• EDSITEment: Literature & Language: from the National Endowment for the Humanities, be sure to explore both tabs: Lesson Plans and Websites.  And note that you can specifiy a grade range and that the "Subtopics" menus allow you to specify a subcategory, for instance, American.

• National Writing Project: Teaching Writing: use the handy list of linked subtopics here to access full text articles.  And be aware that many of the "Featured Resources" will appear to be books until you scroll down to the link for a particular chapter or essay.

• Open Directory Porject: Kids & Teens: Writing: Selected, annotated links to online resources.

• IPL2 (for Teens): A+ Research& Writing: Step-by-step support and resources.

Grammar, Usage & Punctuation:

• Guide to Grammar and Writing: Excellent resources from Capital Community College, including an Index to Grammar and Writing with over 400 alphabetized entries covering grammar, punctuation, and organization.

• Common Errors in English Usage: An enormous index of English usage problems--especially terms commonly confused with one another.

• Punctuation Made Simple: It doesn't get much simpler than this guide's clear explanation of the 5 most commonly misused punctuation marks.

     Google Advanced Search: When doing research on the Web, always use the Advanced Search version of Google. This not only provides more flexibility in entering search terms, but more importantly it allows you to target the Web domains that are likely to provide the most authoritative information.
   Under "Need More Tools?" you will find the "Search within a site or domain" slot. You may enter only one domain at a time, but it's worth targeting each of the three domains likely to supply the best information: colleges and universities (enter the "edu" tag), nonprofit organizations (enter the "org" tag), and the United States government (enter the "gov" tag).
   Note: Not just Google, but most Web search engines offer "advanced" search interfaces that allow domain searching.

     Google Scholar (Advanced): Even if the school system for which you work is not able to provide much in the way of subscription databases, students should be able to access some of the "scholarly" journal literature on almost any topic through Google Scholar.  Most resources here do not provide free access to full text, but some do.  And whether to support your own research or to introduce students  to the existence of these more sophisticated information resources, Google Scholar could be effective. 
   If there is a local public library with better database resources, students can identify relevant articles using Google Scholar and retrieve the full text there.
     To target available full text, check the links below the retrieved citations for "Full View" or "View as HTML."

     Ask.com & Bing: Both these search engines offer not only to retrieve Web sites related to your search terms but also, when possible, to categories these sites.  For example, if you run a search on "euthanasia," both will generate a "Related Searches" list in the margin of your results page with categories such as History of Euthanasia, Arguments For Euthanasia, Arguments Against Euthanasia, etc. 
   Bing seems slightly less fussy about the terminology you use--either euthanasia or assisted suicide will work--whereas Ask.com will not generate the Related Searches if you use assisted suicide instead of euthanasia.  On the other hand, when Ask.com does offer the Related Searches it also offers Related Questions, where you can access a list of specific questions associated with the topic, each linked to answers.  Both the Related Searches and Related Questions can be valuable in organizing search results into helpful subcategories and providing quick answers to specific questions.

     Web Directories differ from search engines like Google in that all the online resources have been selected by editors, thereby promising a much higher degree of quality control. 

Open Directory Project: The largest "human-edited" directory of the Web.  Every Web site accessible here has been screened, selected, and briefly annotated by a person (as opposed to the automated dredging of the Web by search engines like Google).

IPL2 (Internet Public Library): Screening may not be as rigorous and the annotations as informative as ODP or Intute, but this is still a useful directory and may even be a bit more user-friendly for secondary school students.

About.com: Instead of searching the Web, About.com searches its 800+ Topic collections of Web resources, each selected and maintained by a "Guide." These Guides are largely enthusiasts on the topic and may or may not possess expertise (many describe themselves as "freelance writers").  Nevertheless they do act as gatekeepers and can provide some quality control as to the resources they select.  They can also be effective at linking to different but related topics to create efficient "one-stop" collections of relevant information.

     There are many free online guides for MLA citation, including this one from the Purdue Online Writing Lab, and this one from the Cornell Libraries.
     For guides that don't skimp on examples and tackle tricky problems, I immodestly recommend my own MLA "Cite Like the Devil" guides:

1. MLA citation for books: in print, from databases, on the Web
2. MLA citation for articles: in print, from databases, on the Web.
3. MLA citation for Web and Multimedia resources, including Web sites, movies, DVDs, CDs, and videos.
4. MLA in-text (parenthetical) citation.