Web Resources

Career and College Planning

Campus Tours:

This site allows visitors to take virtual tours of college and university campuses, even providing Live College Webcams to show what's happening at your school of choice right now! You'll also find links to other useful Web sites and resources for college-bound high school students.

College Prep 101:

If you're starting to think about college, be sure to spend some time at this site. It's packed with information on a wide range of topics, including admission standards, financial aid, and the application process. Click on the Standardized Tests link for answers to frequently asked questions about the SAT and ACT tests. The discussion includes information about how to prepare for the tests and what to expect on test day.

City Year:

Read about City Year, an organization whose members work with service organizations and corporations to combat illiteracy, teach HIV/AIDS awareness, help prevent violence, renovate outdoor and indoor spaces, promote youth development, and address many other social needs.

Colleges and Universities:

At this U.S. News Online site, you can begin to narrow the field of choices for a college or university. Schools are ranked by a variety of criteria, including by academic subject, best value, or location. You can also find information on community colleges, as well as tips on identifying interests and skills, obtaining financial aid, and finding internships.

Corporation for National and Community Service:

In this program, people of all ages and backgrounds can earn money for education in exchange for a year of service. The organization serves a variety of community needs, from housing renovation to child immunization to neighborhood policing.

International Study and Travel Center:

Hoping to study abroad during your college years? Then check out this site dedicated to finding international opportunities for college students and others. Here you'll find information about study-abroad programs, financial assistance, work options, and travel tips. Bon voyage!

Job Corps:

Visit this site to learn more about Job Corps, the nation's largest education and job training program for at-risk youth, ages 16 through 24. Find out whether Job Corps' academic programs-sometimes leading to a GED degree-and vocational training is right for you.

Military Career Guide Online:

With the opportunity for paid training and the experience that follows, the United States military is one postgraduate option to consider. At this site, you will find descriptions of each kind of possible military career as well as discussions of the training, advancement, and educational opportunities that come with each job type.

Student Financial Aid:

At this site, the U.S. Department of Education provides information about how to secure financial aid for college. You may even complete an application online. The site also contains an extensive college search section that discusses everything from location and programs to costs associated with tuition, room and board, and textbooks.

The College Board:

There's no question about it-the more you know about College Board tests, the better prepared you will be to take them. This site will help you gain that knowledge. Click on For Students to begin your search for information on the AP, SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, and CLEP exams.

The Employment Guide's Career Web:

This site offers a job database as well as career advice on everything from choosing a career path to writing a resume, interviewing, and conducting a job.

Communication Skills

Speaker's Anxiety:

Making a presentation before an audience can be intimidating, but using specific strategies can alleviate the nervousness associated with speaker's anxiety. Go to this Web site to learn more about these techniques, and turn apprehension into confidence.

American Rhetoric:

From Booker T. Washington to Bill Clinton, this site presents a rich collection of one hundred important historical U.S. speech texts. Click on the Speech Archive for a list of the entire collection. The texts are enhanced with background information and photos. Most speeches even include a complete audio version for you to listen to.

Listening and Speaking Skills:

Here you can read about what it really means to listen. There is a lot of advice here about what you can do to be a better listener.

Composition

Creative Writing for Teens:

This huge collection of online writing resources covers everything that young writers may need to know. Just click on a topic listed in the left column—such as Writer's Block, Story Development, or Editing/Revising—and you're on your way to better writing.

Paradigm Online Writing Assistant:

This interactive writer's guide provides step-by-step instruction for writing different kinds of essays from the informal to the argumentative. The site also includes information on the stages of the writing process. Studying the examples and completing the activities in each stage will certainly help you develop your writing skills.

St. Cloud State University Literacy Education Online:

Having trouble with a writing assignment? This site is loaded with solutions to common writing problems. Whether you have a question about commas or clarifying ideas, the suggestions offered here will help you feel more confident about your writing skills.

The Writing Center:

The Writing Center is designed to help you through the process of writing a research report, from choosing a topic to the final stages of editing and presenting. You'll need a strong foundation in grammar, of course, and this site contains plenty of information on parts of speech, sentence construction, spelling, punctuation, and more.

Grammar

Community Learning Network:

This English grammar and style "theme page" offers links to a variety of curricular resources and reference materials—from grammar and punctuation help to style guides and reference works. Are you an aspiring journalist or just curious about common errors in writing? Do you need a thesaurus or want to read a classic book online? There seems to be something for everyone in this comprehensive Web site.

Grammar Bytes:

Are you looking for an interrupter, a collective noun, an appositive, or a gerund phrase? You'll find them here, along with a study of irregular verbs, four ways to correct comma splices and fused sentences, and a host of other grammar rules, definitions, and explanations. Test your grammar knowledge with fun, interactive exercises!

Guide to Grammar and Writing:

This site provides a broad base for the study of grammar, with abundant information to help you craft scintillating sentences, powerful paragraphs, and entertaining essays. You'll also find sentence diagramming instruction and practice and more than 160 interactive quizzes to test your skills and help you hone your use of the English language.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab:

The Online Writing Lab strives to provide you with the resources you need to become a better writer. This site's online handouts are indexed by topic and include spelling, punctuation, sentence construction, parts of speech, and research papers. Scroll down to the Spelling handouts, and try the interactive exercises to learn about spelling rules, noun plurals, and suffixes.

Library and Reference Sites

Britannica.com:

This site is invaluable for Internet research. You can access the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, read articles selected from more than seventy of the world's top magazines as well as daily news postings from the Washington Post, and link to thousands of the Web's best sites.

Cornell Theory Center Arts & Social Sciences Gateway:

This language arts page provides links to a variety of online reference works, including dictionaries, biographical encyclopedias, thesauri, and Virtual Facts on File. Also included are links to excellent elementary, middle, and high school literature book lists.

Information Please Kids' Almanac:

The almanacs, dictionary, encyclopedia, and atlas available at this site provide access to thousands of facts sorted into easy-to-navigate categories. If you have trouble finding the information you need, the Homework Helpers in the Homework Center may be able to help.

Library Spot:

Browse the stacks of the world's libraries at this Web site. In addition, you'll find links to school libraries, presidential libraries, and specialized libraries, as well as a nicely stocked Reference Desk.

Research-It!:

Use the language, library, and geographical tools on this site to find a variety of information-from a rhyming word for your poem to a map of another country. Links to a variety of online reference works, such as the CIA Factbook, Biographical Dictionary, and Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, make this site a great resource for research assignments.

The Internet Public Library:

With an extensive selection of reference tools, online exhibits, and online texts, this site is a great starting point for any research or writing project. Through this site, you can access newspapers from every state and many countries as well.

Literature

Bartleby.com:

Through this site, you can access a wide variety of novels, short stories, plays, poems, and works of nonfiction. Authors from Emily Dickinson to Agatha Christie to W. E. B. DuBois are represented here.

National Book Foundation: The Books That Changed My Life:

This site sponsored by the National Book Foundation and Borders Books brings you interviews with twelve National Book Award winners, in which the authors discuss their own work and the books that changed their lives.

Poetry Center:

At this site, you can read poetry by both classic and contemporary poets and essays and advice from the poets themselves. You can also discuss your favorite writers, poems, and your own writing with other students from all over the world.

University of Virginia's Modern English Collection:

This site gives you access to a collection of over 51,000 works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, letters, newspapers, manuscripts, and illustrations from the year 1500 to the present. A helpful feature is the search engine which can sort through the texts by subject area, such as women writers or Native American literature.

Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color:

This University of Minnesota site focuses on the lives and works of North American women writers of color. You will find author pages that include biographical, critical, and bibliographical information; images and quotes pertinent to the writer's life and works; and links to other resources on the Web.

Publications

Teen Ink:

Teen Ink is a monthly print magazine, website, and book series all written by teens for teens. If these young authors inspire you, submit your own work to the editors

Harper Teen FanLit:

Do you like to read or write collaborative stories with other people your own age? If so, this online magazine may be the place for you.

Study Skills

Help With Your Studies:

This site offers workshops on topics including developing great study skills, preparing for tests, and improving your memory.

Study Skills:

Did you know that reading your class notes aloud can help you remember the information? And would you believe that taking breaks while studying can actually keep your mind open to learning more? At this Web site, you'll find these and other great tips and information that may help you improve your study skills and use your study time more effectively.

Study Strategies and Tips:

Study Strategies and Tips is a good place to find help with everything from time management to good listening to test taking. If you think your study skills could use improvement, this site is sure to have relevant advice for you.

Learning Center:

This site offers workshops on topics including developing great study skills, preparing for tests, and improving your memory.

Technology Skills

About the Internet:

This guide from the Boston Public Library can help every student learn to use the Internet confidently and safely. Introductory Internet information and definitions can help the novice surfer, while the seasoned navigator will find tips on evaluating Internet sources and providing citations in school reports.

Learn the Net:

This Web site teaches Internet basics in everyday language. From plugging in a modem to designing a Web page, you'll find help on just about every Internet topic. Access resources, articles, and tutorials about the Internet; a helpful Net Glossary is just a click away if you run across an unfamiliar term.

Vocabulary

Merriam-Webster Online:

You'll find more than just word definitions, synonyms, idioms, and related words using this online dictionary and thesaurus. Have some fun while improving your vocabulary, spelling skills, and knowledge of the English language with Word Games, Word of the Day, and even the Word of the Day.

Vocabulary University:

Earn your diploma from the Vocabulary University by playing SAT-type word puzzles. This site aims to blend fun and learning into vocabulary-building exercises. Visit Word City, a "city" of root-word buildings, or travel to the Championship Playoffs for some challenging word puzzles.