Dear Reader,
There are many excellent reference books and e-sources available for those who are using English. If you were to look at a native-speaker’s well-sorted bookshelf, you would probably find a good dictionary, a thesaurus and an encyclopedia. Depending on how many languages he or she speaks, you would find a bilingual dictionary for each language.
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Here is some advice in selecting English reference books:
- Select a dictionary that gives you at least eight pieces of information pro entry. A good dictionary will give you up to fourteen pieces of information and include both British and American spellings. For example: http://www.dictionary.com/
- In choosing a source to look up synonyms and antonyms, Roget’s Thesaurus ) is considered a standard work. Roget’s is also tied into the English version of Word™. A personal favorite of mine is The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale. It is very easy to use and has been a lifesaver in my opinion.
- Encyclopedias are often the first step in researching or learning about a topic. There are quite a few excellent encyclopedias available. English standards are the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Americana and Collier’s. Of the three, the Britannica can be accessed online (http://www.britannica.com/). And then, of course, there is http://www.wikipedia.org/.
If you are preparing something in English, I recommend using English-language resources for the simple reason that specific vocabulary is used and links to other reliable websites are listed.
I wish you good luck in finding what you are looking for.
Sincerely,
Nelly Thomas