July 28, 2005

The Grammar Curmudgeon has two collections of Internet links:  Links and Links for Writers.  Each is accessible by an index button on the left side of any page.

The Links page groups the links into categories such as "Reference," "Curiosities," "Just for Fun."  Each link is accompanied by a brief description of the site to which it refers.  We focus here on sites that are interesting or entertaining, though some of the reference sites are listed mainly because they are useful.

The Links for Writers page, which also groups links by categories ("Grammar Help," "Grammar Handbooks," "Style," etc.), consists mainly of sites that we consider especially useful.  Again, each link is accompanied by a short description of the referenced site.  In addition (except for the category headed "Online Grammar Exercises"), we rate each site on quality of content and ease of use.  These ratings are admittedly imprecise because we include only sites that we rate as "3" or better on a five-point scale (3 = good, 4 = very good, 5 = excellent).  If a site is less than good, in our estimate, on either content or ease of use, we will not list it.

As anyone who has spent a reasonable amount of time surfing the Internet knows, the abundance of information there makes it virtually impossible to list all the outstanding sites, even if we limit ourselves to those that are useful to writers and students of writing.  The Grammar Curmudgeon's links comprise sites that evoked the reaction, "Ah, this should be interesting to the kind of people who come to The Grammar Curmudgeon in the first place," along with a few that we discovered so accidentally that we thought most users would be unlikely to find them.  We cannot and will not pretend to have covered all bases.  For that reason, especially in the reference listings, we favor "megasites" (such as The Library Spot and Refdesk) that, in turn, lead to other sites – and are relatively easy to navigate.

Most of our links are the result of our own explorations, but some were discovered because someone brought them to our attention.  We might otherwise have missed them.  We are therefore always interested in hearing from users about other sites that could be referenced.  We would also like to be alerted if any of the links turn out to be "dead" (i.e., the referenced site no longer exists).  While we endeavor to check older links periodically, we can go months without discovering that a site has been discontinued.  Whether you are recommending a site or alerting us to a dead link, please post the information on the Message Board (if you are registered).