The On‐Line English Grammar Web site was created by Anthony Hughes, co‐director of the Digital Education Network. Hughes has also authored a number of language‐learning and grammar texts. The Web site has received a “Best Educational Sites Today” award from the commercial site, Education World. The On‐Line English Grammar Web site is indexed in Yahoo! and listed on a number of college library Web sites.
The Web site contains no internal search engine. Instead, users must use Find from their Internet browser. For the most part, use of the page is quite self‐ explanatory. Sound files will play in the Netscape browser. A link to a referred page is given for those who wish to download a sound player.
The On‐Line English Grammar Web page is designed to provide its users with usage guidelines for the different parts of speech. These usage guidelines (which contain instructions on spelling, word order, appropriate word endings, etc.) may be searched through a hypertext table of contents or through an alphabetical listing of subjects.
At times, the information on this page is listed in proper outline form as the author makes correct use of indenting, tabbing, and bullets. Most of the time, however, information on the page is outlined inconsistently. Sentence structure throughout this Web site is less than satisfactory. Sometimes the author uses complete sentences; and sometimes he does not. Sometimes the author uses periods at the end of sentences; and sometimes he does not. At times, the author places a hyphen before word endings (i.e. ‐y, ‐ ies); but other times he does nothing at all to set word endings apart from other words within the Web site. These syntactical and stylistic inconsistencies seem highly inappropriate in a Web site dedicated to grammar.
This Web site contains numerous grammatical errors and typos. Observe the following:
A cat is fast, a tiger is _faster but a cheetah is the fastest
A car is heavy, a truck is heavier, but a train is the heaviest
A park bench is comfortable, a restaurant chair is more comfortable, but a sofa is the most comfortable
Each of these sentences is missing a period; and the first sentence is missing a comma.
There is an unnecessary underscore mark before the word “faster,” and bold typeface has been used inconsistently.
He is not as intelligent as she.
They have as many children as us.
We have as many children as them.
In the last two sentences, the author should have used the subjective form of the pronoun and not the objective form. As a result, the sentences should have ended with “as we” and “as they,” respectively.
John won the 400 metre race. [Someone won the 400 metre race].
25% of the fruit was bad. [Some of the fruit was bad.]
The boy ate 25% of the cake. [Someone ate some of the cake]
Note the position of the periods (or lack thereof) in the bracketed statements. The second sentence should not begin with a cardinal number; instead, “25%” should be written as “Twenty‐five percent…”
Relative pronouns join a subordinate clauses to a main clause.
Obviously, “clauses” is incorrect.
It seems unnecessary to belabor the point. A grammatical source should be clear, thorough, consistent, and accurate. This Web site contains a high number of errors and typos which are most distressing in a Web site which should be dedicated to standards and accuracy. As a result of its poor quality, this reviewer cannot recommend the On‐Line English Grammar site.
