Some of the pricey writing and grammar resources you cannot afford in book form are available online. Here are some websites that provide free public access to reputable references.

Bartleby.com

Bartleby.com is an online public reference library. You go to the site as you would to a bricks-and-mortar library to use reference books. The difference is that these books are in digital format.

Bartleby leans toward the humanities rather than toward the science and technology disciplines. For that reason, even though it does not have specialized collections of writing and grammar resources, it is a very good starting place for many projects English and writing teachers are likely to have.

The major types of writing and grammar resources housed at Bartleby are:

• Dictionaries

• Thesauruses (or thesauri, if you prefer the Latin)

• Encyclopedias

• Quotations

• English usage

Bartleby also has such things as:

• The Cambridge History of English & American Literature

• Books on religion mythology, such as the King James Bible and Bulfinch's Mythology.

• Roberts' Rules of Order

• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush)

• Anthologies of verse

You will also find some copies of classic novels, plays and short stories in the public domain. At Bartleby.com could read, for example:

• Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

• Goethe's Faust

• Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

• Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

These resources are handy if you want to allow students to use whatever edition of a classic they can find but require them to use a single edition for their citations.

The Internet Public Library

The Internet Public Library holds not only electronic versions of various research tools that we typically expect to find in a bricks-and-mortar public library, like almanacs and encyclopedias, but also carefully screened links to Internet resources.

The IPL's collection of writing and grammar resources is particularly good. However, you'll find many materials that are useful for teaching writing besides traditional writing and grammar resources.

Digitized reference books

The IPL has several collections of digitized versions of books of writing and grammar resources that English and writing teachers will find especially helpful, such as:

• Grammars

• Periodical directories

• Quotations

• Resources for proper grammatical usage, citation formats, or paper writing.

• Thesauruses (thesauri)

Recommended Internet sites

Unlike Bartleby.com, the Internet Public Library puts as as much emphasis on Internet websites as on printed reference materials.

Links to websites are listed by topic and the IPL gives a brief summary of the content of each source.

The IPL is a very good place for students to begin searching for information on any writing topic they encounter in school. The IPL vets websites to provide patrons with the most reliable Internet sources. Students are not likely to get into porn sites or commercial sites from the IPL links.

Pathfinders

Don't over look the IPL's Pathfinders. These are guides to help you or your students get started on a topic. Pathfinders include both "print" resources and websites.

One of the Pathfinders is on word origins. You may want to use that as a resource for writing prompts about language.

Literary Criticism Collection

If you teach literature, check out the IPL Literary Criticism Collection, a list of links to websites about authors and their works. It can can be browsed by:

• Author

• Title

• Nationality

• Literary period

Helps for teachers

The ILP has extensive suggestions on how to be a better researcher in its Web Searching Tips section.

The Exhibits section contains multimedia.

Collections for kids and teens are geared toward needs and interests of those age groups.

Other options available to you

You may have free access to other collections of online resources through a group or organization to which you belong.

For example, your local public library card may get you free access to a online resources normally available only by subscription. In New York State, for example, my public library card or driver's license lets me get into the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library, NOVEL, from my home computer.

If you teach in a school system or are taking a course at a college, you may have access to resources through their subscriptions to databases.

Check out your college alumni group and any professional organizations to which you belong. You may be able to get into subscription-only services through your membership.

Although websites don't provide the same tactile experience you get from books, they provide convenient access to a host of resources that you probably could not afford to buy for your home or classroom in print form.