Writing Tools

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These writing tools cover the many facets of English and French grammar, style and usage. Click on Show All to read a brief description of each tool and to select one.

English

• Favourite Articles

  
  The Favourite Articles collection, made up of selected articles from past issues of the Translation Bureau's quarterly, Language Update, deals with English language usage and style, translation problems and other related topics.

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• HyperGrammar2

  
  HyperGrammar2 is a self-teaching tool designed to help you improve your knowledge of English grammar. This tutorial deals with such topics as parts of speech, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and much more.

  This product was adapted from HyperGrammar, an on-line tutorial developed by the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa.

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• The Canadian Style

  
  The Canadian Style gives concise answers to questions concerning written English in the Canadian context. It covers such topics as the decimal point, abbreviations, capital letters and punctuation marks, hyphenation, spelling and frequently misused or confused words. It deals with correspondence and report formats, notes, indexes and bibliographies, and Canadian geographical names.

  This guide also includes techniques for writing clearly and concisely, editing documents and avoiding stereotyping in communications.

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• Word Tailoring

  
  This dictionary-style reference tool allows you to access a wealth of information quickly and easily. You can find a number of English equivalents for a given French word or phrase used in general or administrative writing. As these French keywords often have multiple meanings, Word Tailoring contains concise examples in both English and French for each equivalent to help you select the best possible translation for your context.

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• Writing Tips

  
  Writing Tips contains concise observations on and examples of English grammar, usage and style problems. It explains modern Canadian usage in a straightforward and uncluttered manner.The examples used to illustrate these language problems reflect Canadian society, past and present.

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French

• Chroniques de langue

  
  Chroniques de langue, a collection of articles taken from the Translation Bureau's quarterly, Language Update, offers a look at trends in French usage over several decades. The reader can find well-researched articles on language problems that are of continuing interest.

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• Clefs du français pratique

  
  Clefs du français pratique deals with the problems of grammar, syntax and usage that regularly confront anyone who writes in French. Rules are briefly stated and accompanied by clear examples relating to the Canadian context.

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• ConjugArt

  
  ConjugArt presents the conjugations, in all tenses and moods, of some 8,000 French verbs, including technical verbs, Canadianisms and European regionalisms.

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• Dictionnaire des cooccurrences

  
  The Dictionnaire des cooccurrences is a useful tool for anyone who hesitates when choosing a word, unsure of the most appropriate adjective or verb. This publication contains a list of suggestions for many French nouns, including newly coined words.

  The Dictionnaire des cooccurrences is an original work by Jacques Beauchesne, published in paper format by Guérin.

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• Juridictionnaire

  
  This jurilinguistic work is an invaluable tool, filling the need for legal translation and writing guides. It helps solve the many language problems associated with the distinctive nature of legal language, the co-existence and interaction of two systems of law, the influence of common law on Canadian public law and its language, and the anglicization not only of vocabulary, but also of syntax and style.

  The Juridictionnaire is a compendium of the difficulties and expressions in legal French, in and—to a lesser extent—outside Canada.

  The Juridictionnaire was developed for the Centre de traduction et de terminologie juridiques of the Université de Moncton law faculty by Jacques Picotte, jurilinguist counsel.

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• Le Bellerive

  
  Le Bellerive - Didacticiel sur les principales conventions typographiques françaises is an on-line tutorial, created by Robert Bellerive, that helps you learn the main rules of word division, capitalization, numerical expressions, italics and punctuation.

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• Le guide du rédacteur

  
  Le guide du rédacteur provides answers to a multitude of questions about French rules for capitalization, italics, punctuation, numerical expressions, abbreviations, quotations and much more.

  This style guide outlines the techniques for incorporating the feminine gender, general rules for correspondence, principles of plain language and detailed rules for bibliographic references. As well, there is an entire chapter on geographical names.

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• Lexique analogique

  
  The Lexique analogique allows you to find French equivalents for widely used English terms that are difficult to translate. Jacques Dubé, the author of this lexicon, analyzes a number of common problems, English buzzwords and vogue words, and helps you find the right shade of meaning and eventually the mot juste.

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Other tools for writers are available in the Discover section.