English

Why English is important: So you can understand what the heck you're reading. It unlocks the skill tree of learning anything, and although you can pick up a lot of vocabulary from just reading and using logic to reason out which words mean what, understanding the dictionary definition of words is crucial if you're trying to have communication between you and anyone else that makes sense. It's also pretty critical for picking up complicated things in textbooks. Without understanding the exact meaning of complicated words, you have almost no chance of understanding complicated things, therefore if you aren't already into reading, I suggest you get into reading. And if you read stuff without getting it, look up unfamiliar words in a dictionary as you go along, so you don't cripple your understanding of textbooks later on. Other than that, it actually depends on what you're using it for. For instance, on this website I use conversational English, which is often grammatically incorrect, in order to get my point across as efficiently as possible. I also have a bad habit of rhyming because that's how my brain works and I can't turn it off. Sorry. But if you're writing a fiction novel, the way in which you write it is just as important as the plot. J.R.R. Tolkien and Roger Zelazny provide good examples of this. Other pieces online provide bad examples of writing, and fanfic is infamous for its poor construction. Copypasta pieces are often intentionally bad as well as hilarious. However, things like academic writing, resumes, business memos, research papers, and textbook writing all require you to understand how English is supposed to be strung together. Otherwise, no one will be able to focus on what you're trying to say. Errors in these things are distractions at best and misleading at worst and you don't want that. Perhaps just as importantly, if you don't know how to use proper grammar, spelling, and formatting, you will look like an idiot and nobody will take you seriously. Especially potential bosses, readers of anything you write, anyone reading your comments on Facebook, and hot dates you want to impress. Not understanding how to properly use English, or any other language, is kind of like walking around wearing an overly-revealing bikini or man thong at the pool. Technically, you can get away with it, but do you want to?

Books

HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING: A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations,: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers
HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING: The MLA Handbook
The Foxfire series was published by an English teacher. These books are the result of school English projects and as such are examples of good writing.
HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING: P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever here is the Amazon link to it

If you are a doctor or otherwise need to have good handwriting, please do the rest of us a favor and practice. There's not really a way I know of becoming better at handwriting besides practice. Penmanship is a very underrated skill. So is summarization, especially with everyday communication and business. Have respect for your listeners' time and they are more likely to have respect for yours.

Online Resources

Merriam Webster Dictionary Online HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING - although the best way to learn vocabulary is by reading a lot and logically deducing the meaning of each word from the overall context, if you ever don't know what a word means, look it up, or later on you could seriously misunderstand something. Errors resulting from that could be.... really bad.
Thesaurus.com HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING - so you can understand how to replace words like "really" or "very" or "awesome" or other cliched stuff that gets repetitive if overused with other ones
Urban Dictionary HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING BUT FULL OF HORRIBLE HORRIBLE THINGS - so you can understand slang as it is created, but what has been seen cannot be unseen
Martha Stewart Magazine HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING This is on here because generally speaking each article is exhaustively edited. The articles tend to have perfect punctuation, grammar, and composition - in other words, perfect English. Read it enough and you will probably absorb many of the rules by osmosis.
English As A Second Language ThoughtCo Articles Helpful for native English speakers as well when learning the basics.
Schoolhouse Rock Epileptics, do not watch this. Please ignore all the historic and science stuff. Especially the historic stuff. It's not actually true.
ThoughtCo Writing Research Paper Articles
ThoughtCo Writing Essays Articles
Introduction to Academic Writing
The Oatmeal Grammar Tips
English Grammar 101 HELPFUL FOR HOMESCHOOLING
The Alot a comic by Allie Brosh, explaining the "alot" used by people instead of "a lot"

Other resources and tips

Here's the real reason why dictionaries are used, and it's nothing I ever learned in school. It is so that you can understand one another. Of all the languages on Earth, English is a very fluid and ambiguous one if you aren't careful and even if you are. It is also always changing. I only noticed this because my husband and I use the same exact words often, but they sometimes mean very different things since we come from very different backgrounds. Dictionaries provide the middle ground for our communication. It appears that this is also the reason for other rules of speaking this language, including grammar, punctuation, and so on. This of course does not matter at all if you are surrounded by people you don't care to understand because they're terrible human beings, but it matters very much if you're trying to help a friend or understand what they're asking you for.
Watch Good Eats with the subtitles on. It's got a way with words. It is also, for the most part, constructed with grammatically perfect English.
Need to analyze poetry? Forget about the "classics," Robert Burns, Emily Dickinson, whatever. They suck. Use song and rap lyrics, because it really says something that the classics don't sell as well as songs. That being said, analysis of poetry and song lyrics and books wrecks the whole point of even writing it in the first place because the really good ones aren't intended to mean the same thing for every person throughout time. They're not about that. It's not about that.
If you leave the perpetual censorship and newspeak of the school system and find yourself with free time and want to see real artistry with English, spend time carefully reading rap lyrics, specifically of the following: Big L, Biggie Smalls, 2Pac, Missy Elliott, Eminem, Nelly, KRS-One, Chamillionaire, DMX, the Wu-Tang Clan, and actually I can't see an end to this list because there's so much talent. No pretentiousness here, or pretending to be sensitive as a poet with a poet's soul so you can just get laid. Speaking as a music lover, I have to say rap lyrics in general imho are a lot better than song lyrics, but there are a few exceptions.
Some ingenious poetry can be found and delivered well by Faruq, the announcer from Battlebots
Poetry is rather like music. It has its respectable popular numbers and its little ditties everyone knows and politely applauds. But if you look for the really weird shit you'll find it. You might have more luck searching for poems that were challenged, censored, or banned. Indeed there's the popular poems written by the palatable mediocrities but really most poets are like musicians, not suitable for swanning around in polite company. Other wonders to search for include the stuff by Tom Lehrer and dirty limericks. You're welcome.
One tip for writing stuff, from someone who hates writing but is alas, apparently ok at it: remember your "why." Just as with everything else you do in life, try to remember why you're doing this. With English or any other language, the "why" matters. If it's not important, if you're just putting words on a page to obey some order from some idiot, and if it's not fun, and if it's not worth your time or effort, then we might as well all just sit around and play "blerm blerm" on our lips. Which according to Irish legend was a curse placed on a king's court by Taliesin the Bard.
10/21/24 This is absolutely a hot take and not very Pagan of me, but I hope there's a special place in Hell or at least some kind of equivalent for the people who suck all the fun and enjoyment out of music and poems and books by endless pontificating and overanalyzing about "oooh, what does it meannn???" These people are the equivalent of the nagging boyfriend or girlfriend who needs to spend five hours "talking about us" and then schedules nookie for Friday night at precisely 5 pm. Ugh.

IRL resources

Mad Libs, to teach the differences between nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.

Big Brain Time

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