Luckily this guide for "Designing Readable Documents" is not the only guide around; it is just to get you started and make you see it is fun to try to be a better writer. Many more books are written about these subjects and some are even available on the Internet.

If you want to know more about clear and readable document design, please go ahead and learn some more! The suggestions for further reading are divided into the following categories:

• Books on grammar, style, good writing, and computer instructions
• Useful links to learn more about…
• Spelling
• Grammar and Style
• Designing websites
• Citing other sources

• Bailey, E.P., JR., (1996), Plain English at Work, a Guide to Writing and Speaking, Oxford University Press.
  
• A very useful book for writing computer instructions is the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications. (Second edition). It is published by Microsoft Press, Washington. (1998).

• Spelling
• Grammar and Style
• Designing websites
• Citing other sources

  Spelling

  • Common abbreviations used at Miami University are listed in the Standard Glossary of Terms at
    http://www.muohio.edu/mcis/glossary/
    
  • Merriam-Webster Online dictionary is available at http://www.m-w.com/
    
  • More dictionaries of the English language and many foreign languages are available at
    http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/diction.html

   

  Grammar and Style

  • University of Chicago Grammar Resources on the Web with lots of references to grammar sites is a good place to start reading.
    http://www-college.uchicago.edu/writing-
    program/resources/grammar.htm
    
  • The Guide to Grammar and Writing of the Capital Community-Technical College discusses "notorious confusables" such as accept and except, the use of numbers and lists, commas, pruning redundancy, placement of modifiers, and much more. You can test your new skills in interactive quizzes.
    http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/
    darling/original.htm
    
  • On-Line English Grammar discusses adjectives, adverbs, nouns, possessives, determiners, pronouns, and verbs. http://www.edunet.com/english/grammar/toc.cfm
    
  • Did you ever have a big dog teach you grammar? In Big Dog’s Grammar, a bare bones guide to English you can have an extraordinary and funny teacher. http://gabiscott.com/bigdog/index.htm
    
  • Grammar Slammer is a hypertext help file. It discusses many grammar issues, including "common mistakes." http://englishplus.com/grammar/gramdemo.htm
    
  • Especially for business and technical writing, use the Reader-Based Writing Style Guide.
    http://www.kanten.com/styleguide/frames1.html
    
  • Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., gives 18 rules and principles for good writing. Easy to read and lots of examples. http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

   

  Designing websites

  • Miami World Wide Web Style Guide: http://WWW.MUOhio.Edu/wwwstyleguide/
  • Yale University's Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites:
    http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/

   

  Citing other sources

  • A widely accepted standard for references is the style guide of the American Psychologist Association, or the APA Style Guide. You can use the instructions in this guide to compose the bibliography of books and reports you used. The style guide also specifies how to refer to Internet sources. You can find the APA guidelines in the library, or on the web. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/
    wworkshop/apamenu.htm