Attached Link: Free Online Dictionary and Thesaurus

English, Medical, Legal, and Computer Dictionaries, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, a Literature Reference Library, and a Search Engine all in one!

From the good folk at the RefDesk.

Message edited on: 02/11/2005 07:58

Awesome!! I am constantly looking around in my Thesaurus! Thank you for sharing :)

I use dictionary.com :> cara

dialyn: the finder of all things findable and good. Huzzah!

Good one! Thanks, Dialyn! Denny

Attached Link: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/home.htm

Also from the RefDesk, here's a site for writers or students: After reading a great story, poem, play, essay, or critical article, you may want to know more. The Internet provides all kinds of information to aid your research, this site shows you what kinds of information about a work, its author, or period you'll find on each site. LitLinks are organized alphabetically by author within five genres: fiction, essays, drama, poetry, and critical theory. Research has always been a love of mine...I'm glad you guys don't mind me sharing some finds.

Dialyn--you said something magic--research has always been a love of yours. Thinking from the business end of writing, I'd say you have a money-maker. There are lots of writers out there who hate to do research. Or they get bogged down in the research and never get the book or article written. In the writing field, it pays to know a qualified researcher. Denny

I doubt if I could ever make money at it (I'm too disorganized to figure out how to do that) but I do think research is fun. When I find the answer to someone's question (which doesn't always happen, I admit), I feel like I've won a challenge with myself. My problem is exactly what you said....getting faccinated with researching and not getting anything written. In college, I once wrote a four page paper with four pages of footnotes!! I just couldn't bear to let any of that information go. The professor thought I was a nut case, I'm sure. I'm thinking of retiring from working for the city (I work in a library, though I am not a librarian--not employed to do research at all these days) but considering seeing if I could work part time at a nearby university, because I think I would miss being close to a large library after all this time. It's one of those things, I guess, that you either like to do or don't. I have zero patience for creating a model, but I can spend hours rumaging through an archive. I am always sad when someone posts a question and, when I ask if they checked their local library, they say "no, I just checked the Internet." Librarians live to be asked questions...now days you can call in a reference question, or send it via email. There's really no excuse not to exercise the library's services, unless you just don't have access to one (and if you have a computer, you have access). Not everything is on the Internet...really. Especially not the experience that's sitting inside someone's head because they have spent a life time fine tuning their ability. Just a thought. It's off to take Mom shopping. In the rain. Sigh.

Actually dialyn - I KNOW you could make money as a line editor - I just looked online, doing research for a story - and came across a pay schedule for line-editors. They charge $00.015 a word - to edit a book - That does not sound like much, but I bet it ads up quickly, and you were the Queen of quick turn-around! Can hardly wait to read your book as well! Dee-Marie

If anyone wants a humbling experience, try editing something and then have someone else edit after you, and discover how much you don't know about editing! Been there, done that, think I won't ever be so audacious again. Actually I'm looking for the least brain activity for a job possible. Maybe I could test mattresses. I think I'd be good at that. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Attached Link: http://education.yahoo.com/reference/

Google gets all the press these days, but don't ignore the other search engines. They are all trying to come up with things to stay competative. You will cut yourself off from finding interesting things if you only use one search engine because each one orders search results in a slightly different way. That's my tip of the day on that topic. Whether you're a student, a parent, or just plain curious, Yahoo! Reference offers a handy selection of books and materials to help you find the information you need. Look up a definition in the dictionary, find map and flag images for every country in the world in the World Factbook, get in-depth information from the encyclopedia, and much more.

Dialyn - thanks, kindly for the info. MUCH appreciated. I'm amazed at the number of truly gifted and talented writers who have spelling problems. I have little spelling problems, just a WHOLE bunch of 'writing' problems. WINK. (Btw - don't you have to know how to spell a word to look it up in the dictionary?). Maybe "I" should be an editor???

Attached Link: http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html

You might find this useful for refining your searches.