We have listed below a selection of links to other websites that we think are worth a visit. These sites are not part of The Writing Website, and the School of English has no control over their content or availability. When you have finished viewing any of these sites, you can return to this page by clicking on your Browser Back button.
Writing Centres
There are new Writing Centres springing up around the world – here are just a few that we hope will be useful. Take a look and see what you think.
Critical Writing and Thinking by Susie Castellanos. This includes an accessible and uncomplicated list of questions to help you to think critically. http://www.brown.edu/Student_services/Writing_Center/castellanos.htm
Purdue Owl is a comprehensive online writing lab. It offers downloadable handouts on numerous writing topics including ESL. Despite the extent of its coverage, it remains a particularly accessible site. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
The writing Center at Virginia Tech features a grammar hotline which will answer questions about grammar via email.
Critical Writing Strategies is a fun site with basic but clear information about writing. Its first section is called “lard” and gives advice on how to avoid ‘high falutin’ language in the name of clarity. http://web.new.ufl.edu/~sullivan/4456.writing.html
The University of Victoria’s Hypertext Writer’s Guide is a strong site with lots of valuable advice from writing essays to small tips about grammar. http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/
Dr. Martha Reineke Website at the University of Iowa offers thoughtful advice on In-Class Discussion as well as the development of critical writing skills. It is unfussy and clearly presented. http://fp.uni.edu/reineke/
The Harvard Writing Center is possibly one of the most comprehensive writing sites to appear so far. It offers clear detailed advice on all aspects of writing. Particularly worth noting is the advice on essay writing. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/
Literature and Writing
While many of the sites listed above have general writing advice, the University of Edinburgh English Literature Department offers advice on presenting literature essays. The visitor is given the chance to assess and re-write a sample essay on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/
Cumberland College’s Literary Criticism Web is a clearly structured site that offers readily accessible information on critical practice and critical theory. The critical theory section offers sample essays and extracts from the main branches of theory. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include information about Deconstruction, nevertheless, it remains a particularly useful site for literature students. The critical practice section is very detailed and informative. Particularly worth noting is its online glossary. http://cc.cumberlandcollege.edu/acad/english/litcritweb/
Creative-Critical Writing
This site offers an interesting analysis of the nature of ‘critical-creative “cross-over” in an English Department. http://www.bangor.ac.uk/english/home.html
“The National Literacy Trust , founded in 1993, is an independent charity dedicated to building a literate nation. The importance of literacy has long been recognised: it underpins all educational achievement and is central to economic advance; it helps develop human potential and raises self-esteem. We are the only organisation concerned with raising literacy standards for all age groups throughout the UK”. This site provides numerous links to creative and critical writing websites. http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/
The Facts and Fiction Storytelling magazine. “ If you are looking for information about stories, oral traditional storytelling, or storytellers, then you've come to the right place!” http://www.factsandfiction.co.uk/
Poetry Magic is a resource centre for the theory and craft of writing poetry. Whether you're a veteran of the poetry circuit, or taking your first tentative steps, we hope these pages will assist in some way. What is poetry? How does it differ from prose? What makes poetry special, and why is it so difficult to write? This site provides some clues to these and other vexing questions, plus a vast array of material to make your own poetry writing more compelling, authentic and relevant. http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/
Dictionaries, Style Manuals, Grammar and Editing sites
Ask Oxford comes from the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary. http://askoxford.com/
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is part of the online book project Bartleby, and provides searchable quotations. http://bartleby.com/100/
Dictionary.com is a fast and reliable online dictionary. http://www.dictionary.com
Encyclopedia Britannica : although full texts articles need to be paid for, it remains an easy way to search for encyclopedia entries. http://www.britannic.com/
Strunk and White’s Elements of Style remains a popular style manual for writers. http://www.bartleby.com.141/index.html
Book Reviews
Granta is a British quarterly publication of short fiction and essays. http://www.granta.com/
The London Review of Books “has been dedicated to carrying on the tradition of the English essay. In this respect, it is not very different from one of the great 19th-century periodicals. It gives its contributors the space and freedom to develop their ideas at length and in depth”. http://www.lrb.co.uk/
The New York Review of Books’ website offers capsule reviews and previews of current and forthcoming issues. http://nybooks.com/
English as a Second language
Dave Sperling’s ESL Café is a superb site for all manner of issues relating to teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language. http://eslcafe.com/
Closer to Home: Support at the University of Kent
UELT is the University of Kent’s Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching. Offering a host of support facilities from study skills seminars to on-line advice covering many aspects of learning (and teaching) in Higher Education, UELT has it all. Moreover, this is provided in a particularly warm and welcoming way. http://www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/
The Royal Literary Fund sponsor a fully-dedicated writing tutor for the School of English. This position is held by Gillian McClure. She is on hand to offer personal writing advice for any student in the School of English.
'The Royal Literary Fund’s Fellowship scheme for writers was launched in autumn 1999 and is based mainly in UK universities and higher education colleges. RLF Fellows are established professional writers of literary merit, representing a wide range of genres, including biography, translation and scientific writing. In its first five years, the network of posts has reached every part of mainland Britain, from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth, Exeter to East Anglia, involving old and new universities and departments in science and technology as well as in the humanities'. http://www.rlf.org.uk/index.cfm.
Student Guidance and Welfare Division: “There is a network of services available on campus that aims to meet the needs of students by providing high quality specialised guidance and welfare advice”. The SGW provides access to the following:
- Accessible medical care
- Confidential counselling on personal matters
- Opportunities to explore spiritual and religious needs
- Assistance in making career choices
- Help for disabled students
- Information on welfare issues
http://www.kent.ac.uk/guidance/
Telephone: (UK) 01227 764000; (International) 44 1227 764000
The School of English Website contains everything you need to know about the School of English. In particular, you are able to view online the School of English Undergraduate Dossier, which, as Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah describes, 'is somewhere between an instruction book and a survival guide'.
http://www.kent.ac.uk/english/
