Links

If you need to read or write as part of your job, these are the resources we recommend. Pick a category below:

Fun

Dialectiser
This ingenious device will translate any web page into the dialect of your choice. We particularly recommend Cockney and Jive. `Scool bro.

Public Scribe
Having trouble writing something? Post it on this site and members will all have a go at improving your version. Of course, there's no guarantee that they'll do it well, seriously or when you need it, but it doesn't cost anything. Look out for gems like the Vietnamese truck company trying to break into the US market with the slogan 'rising up in Vietnam'.

Wordwizard
An entertaining, sometimes-scurrilous, sometimes-useful forum for people who like words. If you want to know the origins of a word or phrase (such as `frogmarch') you can post it here and the members - who range from obvious imbeciles to impeccable scholars - will respond.

Lucy Kellaway
If you work with words or large companies, and we do both, then Lucy Kellaway is essential reading. She's funny, down-to-earth and capable of skewering whole industries with a rattle of her typewriter. The FT makes you pay to read her, but you can listen to her reading a selection of her columns free.

Style Guides

The Times' Style Guide
This is a very thorough style guide: solid, traditional and unlikely to cause exception. Sometimes it is rather old-fashioned - for example, it prefers `an hotel' to `a hotel' - so use it for traditional or pedantic audiences. It is organised alphabetically, but with separate sections for the armed forces, royal and noble titles, politics, etc.

The Guardian's style guide
The Guardian's style guide is much less conservative than The Times'. Its preferences are often clearer, fresher and more modern than those of The Times, which makes it more suitable for younger, more informal audiences. It is organised alphabetically.

The Economist's Style Guide
This style guide is broken down by subject, which makes it very easy to look up general rules. It strikes a pragmatic balance between formality and approachability, quoting Emerson in its section on capitals: `a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds'. Use this with general and corporate audiences. It is organised by subject.

Grammar Guides

The Open University's guide to the effective use of English
This is an admirably clear and easy guide to basic writing skills.

Get It Right
This is the most comprehensive and useful guide to the mechanics of grammar and writing that we could find. It was produced by the University of Central Lancashire's Department of Journalism for its own students, but the whole thing is available online. You can even take a quick proof-reading test.

Miscellaneous

Plain English Campaign
An independent pressure group fighting for public information to be written in plain English.

Bartleby.com - Great Books Online
Read out-of-copyright books online without paying. This is a wonderful site: where else can you go and read the Lovesong of Alfred J. Prufrock or the Song of Songs, the Arabian Nights or Don Quixote? There are also many reference books, including dictionaries, Fowler's The King's English and a fascinating book of etiquette from the `20s. If you can’t find something, try Project Gutenberg instead.

Abebooks - Because You Read
If you’re looking for a book - the obscurer the better - come here. This site links to the stock lists of thousands of second-hand bookshops all over the world (don’t worry - it tells you about the ones in the UK first). Type in what you’re after and the site will present dozens of editions at all sorts of different prices, and you can order it then and there.

Common Errors in English Usage
From Paul Brians' book of the same name, this site lists just about every mistake you could possibly make, and gives the correct version.

WordIQ.com
A searchable online dictionary, with an excellent thesaurus. Unfortunately, it mainly uses US English, but the British spellings are usually given too.

Presentation Helper
This is a useful website for advice and self-help on presentations and speeches. It covers presentations, PowerPoint, multimedia, job interviews, and speeches - including weddings and funerals.

The London Review of Books
This is the best magazine in the world. Browse online through their articles: the one by John Lanchester on Google is fascinating.

Wikipedia
Whatever you want to know about, this free online encyclopaedia is usually the best place to look first. It’s written by its users, but it’s surprisingly accurate - and if you disagree with something, you can change it.