The responsibilities of a student can be a handful. At the end of the day, we’re stuck in the juggling act of our studies, families, and relaxation. Luckily, there are many websites that can assist us when we need that extra bit of help.

 

1. Purdue OWL and Citation Machine
Purdue OWL was originally used by Purdue University as its Online Writing Lab. It is now used by high schools and colleges nationwide. It has tips for citing just about any source you can think of. It also gives great information on proper grammar, punctuation, parts of speech, and so much more.
Citation Machine is another great website for citations. It keeps track of so many resources, already having them prepared for citation in MLA, APA, Chicago, and more styles. Just select your style, copy and paste your hyperlink or type your book title, and then your citation will be created! It temporarily saves multiple citations and keeps them organized. That way, you can easily copy and paste your entire work cited page onto your paper. Just be sure to double check that all your inputted information is correct.

 

2. Grammarly
As students, we need to write papers for just about every class. There are so many grammar rules that some can slip through the cracks of our memory. Recall to me the difference between who and whom, or whether or not to put a hyphen when I write my age as 21 years old. Grammarly reviews your papers and does not just provide the correction, but an explanation of it. Beyond spelling, it checks comma usage, missing or repetitive words, and sentence structure. Grammarly is a beneficial writing app that cannot only help us look more professional to our professors and peers, but for our future careers and workplaces.

 

3. Creative Commons

Companies today expect us to be able to create documents and presentations. With these tasks comes finding sounds, music, or visuals. This is where Creative Commons is a huge benefit. It allows you to search various websites with ease for items you can use for commercial purposes or to modify. It’s very handy to find items without fearing plagiarism. Since introduced to it, I use it for all of my projects that require some sort of visual, whether inside or outside the classroom.

 

4. SparkNotes and CliffsNotes

Sometimes our professors require us to read short stories or novels. Keeping track of so many elements of a story can be a lot to remember. Some stories can also be confusing, even after reading them multiple times. This is where websites like SparkNotes and CliffsNotes come in handy. Both websites discuss every chapter of books or acts/scenes in plays. Characters, themes, and symbols are also discussed. Reviewing with these sites is a surefire way to get refreshed for your next literature test.

 

 

 

 

5. Quizlet

There are multiple courses that will require you to remember certain terms or facts. One website that has helped me since high school with this is Quizlet.com. Through Quizlet, you can view study sets of others or create one of your own. With a click, you can view your information in a list or as a set of flashcards. You can take different types of quizzes or play games based on your studied information. I frequently use Quizlet for studying vocabulary. I use flashcards and their audio feature in repetition to further help my memory of certain terms.

 

 

 

6. Lynda

Lynda has been advertised all over the television and computer monitors at FSC. It is a website designed to help people learn and improve certain skills. I used Lynda for a computer class. It was extremely helpful when I had to learn the Adobe programs. I watched videos accompanied by text that provided step-by-step tutorials that anyone could follow. They had tutorials for just about everything I was trying to learn. There are many different subjects you can use Lynda for, such as animation, music, business, design, photography, and more!

 

As students, we can be very busy. It’s understandable to need some help. The World Wide Web has many websites designed to help us. Some we may only use for a short time, but others we may use forever. Whether it’s a paper, project, or test, I hope these will help you do