Guidance on the capitalisation and hyphenation of technical and scientific terms, as well as other aspects of basic grammar and style, as stipulated by the American Geophysical Union in their AGU Editorial Style Guide.

The home page of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) blog that covers the use of grammar and style within its publication guidelines.

A wide-ranging treatment of how scientists should approach scientific writing (and speaking) and why it is so important to do it well. Much of the book provides detailed guidance on grammar, the correct use of language, writing style, and how best to tackle the writing (and thinking) process, and there are also useful tables and appendices covering specific problem areas; e.g., lists of commonly misused words. Other chapters cover, amongst other things, searching the literature, writing a paper, giving a talk, and preparing tables and illustrations. It is available in print and as an e-book.

Packed (literally; Booth warns against trying to read the opening chapter too quickly as it is so dense) with useful information. I could find no e-book version, but a 2nd edition was released in 1993.

Available to buy in print or as an e-book, but the word list, which also contains some grammar hints; e.g., comma use, can be accessed for free here. Not aimed specifically at academics.

Link to the grammar section of the British Council website. Aimed at those learning English as a second language; consequently, contains clear and simple definitions and examples of grammatical terms and concepts.

Based on a series of lessons developed for non-native English speakers at the Department of Physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, USA, and focuses mainly on words that are commonly confused or misused. Also has sections on grammar (commas, apostrophes, etc.) and more general advice on academic writing that are useful to anyone wanting to improve their writing. The course notes are freely available and can either be downloaded as a composite PDF file or viewed as individual lessons on the website.

The author describes this as a ‘cookbook’ for scientists attempting to write a paper, and the chapters mostly follow the main title in this respect; e.g., How to Write the Results, How to Design Effective Tables, etc. He goes into great detail regarding the various individual elements of scientific writing, and, as well as the scientific paper, also covers preparing a thesis and speaking at conferences. The book contains chapters and appendices that deal specifically with various aspects of correct English usage and also points to Day and Sakaduski (2011) for those in need of more detail in this area. The 7th edition was released in 2011, both in print and as an e-book.

This is the companion book referred to by Day (1998) for those wanting more detail on the use of scientific language, and is also available in print and as an e-book.

This is the home page for Ms. Particular’s Micro-Lectures on Style and Usage, and also contains links to a number of other pages that deal with specific aspects of scientific writing in more detail, all written by Celia Elliott (Department of Physics, University of Illinois, USA). I have added direct links to the various pages as appropriate in the main text.

Current and previous editions are widely available both in print and as e-books, and a restricted version of the 1st edition (1926) can be accessed for free via Google Books. The new 4th edition (2015) is also out.

This is a new and direct revision of the 1948 1st edition, which was written with the aim of improving the writing in Government documents and letters, and went on to become a best-seller. In the 2014 edition, Gower’s great-granddaughter brings the text up to date whilst retaining as much of the original as possible. Gowers edited the revised version of Fowler, and as with Fowler, although some of the language used in the original is now antiquated, the advice it contains remains sound. Available in print or as an e-book.

This is the direct link to the homophones podcast and the relevant section begins after 2 min 12 sec. As well as the regular podcasts, Grammar Girl (aka Mignon Fogarty) provides quick tips on English grammar and usage (several of which I have linked to directly in the main text), and aims to be ‘Your friendly guide to the world of grammar, punctuation, usage, and fun developments in the English language.’

Links to the pages listing homophones and commonly misused words on the Grammarist website, which also contains general grammar advice and links to other EFL resources.

This essay is also freely and widely available elsewhere on the internet.

The nome page of the Oxford Dictionaries language resources site. I have included several links to specific items in the main text.

Covers the entire writing process, including searching the literature and preparing figures and tables, with specific sections on the various forms of academic writing (e.g., journal articles, technical reports, etc.), as well as a nice section at the end regarding style and grammar that includes lots of examples from the academic literature.

An impressively slick interactive guide to punctuation together with a supporting bibliography.

Available in print but designed to be used online (for free). Detailed and wide ranging advice on scientific and technical writing, including grammar and punctuation.

A detailed guide to the various ways you can use external hard drives and the latest cloud storage solutions to backup your precious data.

A list of words and phrases that are too long (or pompous) together with their shorter and simpler alternatives compiled by the US Government’s Plain Language and Information Network (PLAIN).

This is the home page of the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University, Indiana, USA. There is a wide range of material available and I have included several links to specific items in the main text.

This list of humorous, but useful, rules is widely discussed and reproduced on the internet, but the original article is available here.

This is a reprint of the original 1918 version, which is also available (for free) at Bartleby. I have included several links to specific items in the main text.

This is one of several revised and updated versions of Strunk’s original text (see Wikipedia (2017) for a summary). This free e-version contains an additional section, Section V, which deals with the more general aspects of style and the approach to writing good prose. The Foreword and Introduction to this edition may be worth a few minutes of your time too. Also available to buy in print.

An online textbook that assumes no prior knowledge and provides a step-by-step introduction to punctuation supported by numerous examples of poor punctuation and how to correct them.

The list of humorous, but useful, rules is widely discussed and reproduced on the internet, including here.

The widely available best seller.

This piece provides numerous examples of the man eating tiger/man-eating tiger variety. The home page describes itself as a blog that contains ‘lots of stuff about how to write well’, and there is a long list of previous articles that cover a range of English-language related issues.

A simple explanation of the various categories of words with different meanings together with some examples and links to more in-depth treatment of each category. The YourDictionary homepage contains a standard dictionary and links to articles and other resources covering the correct usage of English.

A review of Eats, Shoots & Leaves (Truss, 2003) containing an explanation of the panda joke on its cover (referred to in the Commas section).