Who says resolutions have to be made in January? If you've vowed to become a better writer or editor, use some of your downtime this summer to complete these free online grammar, punctuation, or usage exercises offered by the writing labs at various colleges. You'll spruce up your skills with hands-on practice and instant feedback.
NOTE: I've used the exact title of each online exercise, so there's some inconsistency (but not mine) in capitalization, etc.
From Purdue University's Online Writing Lab's Interactive Exercises Index:
- Accept and Except Practice
- Affect and Effect Practice
- I/E Spelling Rules: Exercise 1
- I/E Spelling Rules: Exercise 2
- I/E Spelling Rules: Exercise 3
- I/E Spelling Rules: Exercise 4
- Using Commas: Exercise 1
- Using Commas: Exercise 2
- Using Commas: Exercise 3
- Using Commas: Exercise 4
- Using Commas: Exercise 5
- Words that Sound Alike: Exercise 1
From Capital Community College's Guide to Grammar and Writing, a List of Interactive Quizzes:
- Commas with Coordinating Conjunctions
- Commas with Introductory Elements
- Commas: Fill-in-the-blanks
- Comma Usage
- Punctuation: Fill-in-the-blanks
- Punctuation
- Punctuation II
- Punctuation III
- Punctuation IV
- Punctuation V
- Apostrophes
- Colons
- Quotation Marks
- Basic Mechanics
- Compound Nouns and Modifiers
- Capitalization Quiz
- Plurals and Possessives
- Irregular Plurals and Non-Count Nouns
- Possessives & Irregular Plurals
- Practice: -s Word Endings
From Empire State College's "Writer's Complex," a list of online exercises:
- Exercise 1: Apostrophes
- Exercise 2: Capital Letters
- Exercise 3: Commas & Semi-Colons
- Exercise 4: Colon, Dash, Parenthesis
- Exercise 5: Italics & Underlining
- Exercise 6: Misused/Misspelled Words
- Exercise 7: Quotation Marks
From D'Youville College's Online Writing Lab, a list of punctuation practices:
- Exercise 1 contractions
- Exercise 2 - contractions
- Exercise 3 - possession
- Exercise 4 - possession
- Exercise 1 - introductory or transitional word
- Exercise 2 - introductory or transitional clause
- Exercise 3 - subordinate or dependent clause
- Exercise 4 - coordinate conjunction in a compound sentence
- Exercise 5 - to set off an appositive
- Exercise 6 - parenthetical expression
- Exercise 1 - joining independent clauses
- Exercise 2 - separating serial items
- Exercise 1 - colons
- Exercise 2 - colons
From University of Otowa's Writing Centre:
From Towson University's Online Writing Support site, a list of punctuation exercises:
- Apostrophes
- Apostrophes - exercise 2
- Apostrophes - exercise 3
- Commas
- Commas - exercise 2
- Commas - exercise 3
- Commas - exercise 4
- Commas with dates and addresses
- Commas with dates and addresses - exercise 2
- Commas with nonessential elements / interrupters
- Commas with nonessential elements / interrupters - exercise 2
- Commas with nonessential elements / interrupters - exercise 3
- Commas with introductory elements
- Commas with introductory elements - exercise 2
- Semicolons
- Semicolons - exercise 2
- Semicolons - exercise 3
- Quotation Marks with direct quotes
- Quotation Marks with direct quotes - exercise 2 (advanced)
- Italics and Quotation Marks with titles
- Italics and Quotation Marks with special words
Oh my. That's a lot of practice. I dare you to misuse a comma now!
-- Leslie O'Flahavan
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