Best Web Sites for Students – Great Tools to Help with Those Papers

Perhaps one of the biggest adjustments students have to make as they move into high school and then on to college is the significant increase in writing expectations. Fortunately there are now numerous online sites to help students put together a quality paper.

Forget the Computer Thesaurus
While every computer offers a basic thesaurus of some type, students can find several sites to search for just the right word or phrase. Any of Dictionary, Merriam Webster, Bartleby, or Thesaurus Reference offer great depth and easy to use formats. Another option, Rhymezone not only offers synonyms, students will find extensive lists of antonyms, homophones and yes, even words that rhyme.

However, sometimes you simply cannot even find the word you want to research. But if you can actually visualize the object you are trying to write about or describe, you can try a site called the Visual Dictionary. A great example exists on the site where a cut out of a door handle and latch notes several of the key terms used (strike plate, dead bolt and face plate). The site is interactive making it extremely useful.

Another very useful tool is Confusing Words. This web site is the place to find those words your English teacher sought to help you understand but were difficult to master, who’s versus whose, affect versus effect, and all those variations of lie, lay, etc. Be forewarned, the site means you no longer have any excuse for making such errors.

Phrases, Idioms, and Acronyms
Sometimes a dictionary simply will not cut it. Typically, when it comes to deciphering a phrase or idiom, a single word dictionary simply won’t help. And trying to make sense of acronyms, those frustrating strings of capital letters, can also be extremely challenging.

For multiple word phrases try the site, What Does That Mean? It is a community-run site focusing on request for a definition for an idiom, catchphrase, buzzword or slang. If the phrase is not listed, you can even post a question to the site.

As for those frustrating strings of letters that are so pervasive, try the site Acronym Finder. Some insight is required – plugging in ASBA yielded 86 potential possibilities but the site breaks potential choices into some basic categories.

Sites to Check your Work
For those who have to construct a paper in a foreign language, The Nice Translator utilizes Google Translate to create multiple translations at once. The tool will auto-detect the language being inputted before converting the base text to one or a number of languages. You can actually watch it convert the text as you go.

In addition to its use for writing school related documents, people who have hosted international students in the past or have traveled abroad will find the tool a perfect way to communicate. While exchange students generally have a decent grasp of the English language, their parents and siblings often do not. The tool could serve as a great way to improve communication for a large segment of the family.

Today teachers and professors are able to easily determine whether or not your written work actually belongs to you. Another set of sites to bookmark are those that check for plagiarism. There is Dustball Plagiarism Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and Plagiarism Detect. If you want to be sure you have truly paraphrased as well as cited from the correct source, run your paper through the checker to see what turns up.

Maybe Not So Useful, But Fun
One of our real favorites is Urban Dictionary. Billed as a site to clarify slang terms that you might not recognize, it is also loads of fun. The wealth of phrases, some that are truly a slick play on words, can also be of real use to anyone looking to add humor to their paper.

Another interesting and we suppose potentially useful is the Wikipedia List of Common Misconceptions. As a wiki it is always growing as it attempts to share those common ideas deemed as truisms by most people yet are “fallacious or flawed.”

Readers, any other suggestions?