13 Free Sites to Help Improve Your Communication Skills

Effective communication may be the single most important skill that you learn, not only for business but in your personal life as well. In business, being able to clearly communicate your ideas can mean the difference between being hired and being passed over for someone who took the time to learn how to write in proper, effective English. But brushing up on your English communication skills doesn’t have to cost you a fortune. Many free sites on the Internet let you check your grammar, practice your writing, organize your ideas and collaborate with others.

Grammar
English grammar is the basic building block for written and verbal communication. If you need a brush-up on your grammar skills, try these sites.

1. Grammar Girl (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/) If you find yourself wondering whether you need an apostrophe or how to decide if you should use their, there or their, you want to drop in on Grammar Girl. The site posts a daily grammar tip, complete with audio, which will help you remember all those pesky grammar rules that trip up your writing.

2. Syntaxis (http://www.syntaxis.com/index.php/grammar_quiz/) is in the business of providing communication workshops, but you don’t have to pony up any dough to benefit from the Syntaxis blog or take the Syntaxis grammar quiz to see how your grammar skills measure up. The quiz presents new questions on comma placement, word choice, punctuation and basic grammar every time you load the page. The answer page offers explanations of the answers you got wrong.

3. PaperRater (http://www.paperrater.com/) checks your grammar and a whole lot more, with no registration or download required. Paste your text into the box, provide basic info on the grade level and any references you used and hit submit. PaperRater will check your text for spelling and grammar errors, plagiarism, sentence structure and word choice. The software marks your errors in colors so that you can find them easily. A click on the highlighted word or phrase opens a box with suggestions for fixing it. As a grace note to the checker, you also get a full analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your paper, and a final grade.

Vocabulary Tools
The words you use help define your image. Choosing precisely the right word is a skill that takes time to develop, but online vocabulary tools can help you build your vocabulary and choose your words wisely.

4. OneLook Dictionary Search (http://www.onelook.com/) lets you search definitions from over 1,000 dictionaries, translate words into other languages and find other words similar to the word you’re trying to define. Among its best features is the ability to use wildcards to find words using wildcards.
5. Visuwords (http://www.visuwords.com/) creates a graphical net of words that are associated with any word you enter into the search box. It’s a combination dictionary, thesaurus, brainstorming tool and eye candy that uses Princeton University’s WordNet database.
6. OneLook Reverse Dictionary (http://onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml) helps you unstuck the words that are right on the tip of your tongue. When you can describe what you mean but can’t think of the right word, just type a description into the search box and hit enter. The Reverse Dictionary will return a list of words and phrases related to the concept so you can find the right one.

Courses
Many universities and online organizations offer free writing courses for those trying to improve their communication skills. Their offerings usually consist of self-directed courses that mirror courses taught by a professor.

7. NewsU by Poynter (http://www.newsu.org/courses) offers a huge variety of courses in subjects of interest to writers, journalists, editors and reporters. The free courses include basic topics, such as grammar, style and content, as well as overviews of different types of media communication.
8. The Open University offers a free creative writing course for beginners (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2799). The eight-hour course promises to help you learn how to write descriptions and communicate sensory impressions effectively.
9. OWL at Purdue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/exercises/) offers writing exercises in grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure and sentence style for basic writers, as well as subject-specific resources (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/4/) to help you improve your communication skills in business, science writing, technical writing and several other fields.

10. And four more… because you need somewhere to share your documents, collaborate with others and take advantage of productivity tools – these online tools are word processor/office suites and more.

a. Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/)
b. Buzzword (http://www.buzzword.com/) Adobe’s alternative
c. ZohoWriter (http://writer.zoho.com/)
d. ThinkFree (http://thinkfree.com/common/main.tfo) because Microsoft had to get in on the act, too, of course.