As a full-time writer, I spend hours daily performing research. I have hundreds of bookmarks in my resource folders and many more will be added. If you are a writer, my hope is that some of these resources save you time. I always tell my web content clients that they should provide their site visitors with something of value.
AP Style – coronavirus/COVID-19 – useful information when writing about the disease and the virus
A Comprehensive Guide to the AP Style of Writing – from Writer.com
Compound Word Rules – from Copyblogger
AP Style – Ask the Editor – getting clarification from the source. Good info
University Editorial Style Guidelines – from Santa Clara University. In some ways specific to their environment
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) – very useful for many reasons including the APA style guide
AP Style Guide – the Basics – and that is what it is – the portion of the style that you may be able to memorize (unfortunately, they decided to put up a payment wall on this site)
Generations – capitalize or not?
The Basics of Associated Press Style – from About.com – just some of the basics and an overview of the style
Format a press release – from Hubspot – good overview of the basics
Style Guide from the University of Tampa – leans towards AP style and Webster’s dictionary
CIA – The World Factbook – if you are writing about a particular country or region, this is very useful
Writer’s Market – I use the hard copy, but a good list of publications that often hire freelance writers
Colour Lovers – this has nothing to do with copywriting, but if you’re involved with web design, it’s the best reference source for color selection. I have used it for years.
Writers Guidelines – from the folks at FreelanceWriting.com – an impressive database
Drew University Writer’s Resources – good reference for academic writing
Freelance Writing Tips – one take on how much you should charge as a freelancer
Query letter ideas – this is good information for book authors
Writers query letter – another approach to the query letter for the book writer
Query letter templates – for the freelancer
15 Punchy copywriting tips – can never know enough when the copy has to work
Creating an effective tagline – good information for designing a tagline that produces benefits
How to cite Internet resources – good to know when you need to know it
Writing and editing guide; Missouri State University – various style guidelines for acedemic publications
Intellectual Property Guidelines – basic guidelines – disclaimer – get an IP lawyer when you need one
A newbies guide to publishing – very interesting, especially reading those who went the self-publish route
APA Citation Style – from Cornell University-in-text citation and reference
AP Stylebook – ask the editor – from AP – email is “email,” not e-mail
Library of Congress – Research and Reference Services- all kinds of information to aid your research
Rules of Capitalization – From North Carolina State University
Query letter formatting – from Writing World – written by Moira Allen
Thesaurus.com – find synonyms and antonyms
How to use a semicolon – a funny illustration of the correct way to use the semicolon from TheOatmeal.com