Writing an article is not an easy task. It’s a daunting task for every writer. Writing need skills, efficiency and expertise. Writing skills is similar to efficiency of a petrol to a car. Without writing skills writer cannot move ahead and these skills don’t come overnight. They require patience and long hard work.

For effective writing you need good command over English or the language in which you are writing your article. Once you have the command over the language you need to polish those skills, which you require to stay ahead of the competition.

Below I have listed some free resources to improve your writing skills. If you think that I have missed out something, feel free to comment below.

1.Grammar Girl
Mignon Fogarty’s quick and dirty tips for better writing. Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules.

2. AskOxford: Better Writing
A very useful reference for classic errors and helpful hints with a terrible site navigation.

3. Infoplease: General Writing Skills
Infoplease offers information on writing better and getting published. Various articles that aim to teach students how to write better.

4. Using English
UsingEnglish.com provides a large collection of English as a Second Language (ESL) tools & resources for students, teachers, learners and academics. Browse our grammar glossary and references of irregular verbs, phrasal verbs and idioms, ESL forums, articles, teacher handouts and printables, and find useful links and information on English. Topics cover the spectrum of ESL, EFL, ESOL, and EAP subject areas.

5. English Forums
If you have a question related to English Grammar, join these forums to get advice from others who know the language better or can provide you with some related information.

6. CopyBlogger
Now that blogging has become the smartest strategy for growing an authoritative web site, it’s your copywriting skills that will set you apart and help you succeed. And this is where Copyblogger comes into play. Brian Clark’s popular blog covers useful copywriting tips, guidelines and ideas.

7. Problogger
Darren Rowse’s blog helps bloggers to add income streams to their blogs – among other things, Darren also has hundreds of useful articles related to copy writing.

8. CopyWriting
“Copywriting website is jam-packed with useful information, articles, resources and services geared to show you how to write mouth-watering, profit-generating copy. Copy that changes minds and dramatically boosts your results. So come right in… you’re going to like what you see! It has copywriting courses, tools, articles and much more.”

9. Merriam Webster: Visual Dictionary
The Visual Dictionary Online is an interactive dictionary with an innovative approach. From the image to the word and its definition, the Visual Dictionary Online is an all-in-one reference. Search the themes to quickly locate words, or find the meaning of a word by viewing the image it represents. What’s more, the Visual Dictionary Online helps you learn English in a visual and accessible way.

10. Graviax Grammar Checker
Grammar rules (XML files containing regular expressions) and grammar checker. Currently only for the English language, although it could be extended. Unit tests are built into the rules. Might form the basis of a grammar checker for OpenOffice.

Bonus11. PolishMywriting
Write your article and check if your article has any grammatical mistakes.

Bonus12. Spellchecker.net
As the name says it checks, if your article has any spelling mistakes.

Do you use any other tool or any other resource? Please do let us know by commenting below.