Resources

Differences between British and American English

This is a cheat sheet for the differences between American and British English.

Oxford referencing

This is an easy-to-use guide to Oxford referencing.

Harvard referencing

This is an easy-to-use guide to Harvard referencing.

Spelling

Here is a cheat sheet to provide you with a convenient list of the most commonly misspelt words in English. Print out the attached pdf and stick it on your wall for quick reference.

Overused words

If you find yourself repeating the same words continually you will find this cheat sheet invaluable. Download the free PDF to find out which words are the most overused and suggestions for synonyms to replace them with. For example:

• important: significant, substantial, meaningful, critical, vital, notable

With this cheat sheet your work will become an absorbing read!

How to proofread your own work

Here are 10 easy ways to proofread your own work.

These are:

1. Wait a few days before proofreading your work.
2. Avoid distractions.
3. Read your work out loud to someone.
4. Double check spellings of academic, scientific and technical terms.
5. Proofread all parts of your work.
6. Print out a hard copy of your work.
7. Check your work for overused words.
8. Proofread small chunks of text at a time.
9. Use a spell checker.
10. Proofread your work slowly.

10 Tips from PhD Comics for getting your thesis in on time

There are many sources of advice out there for PhD students, the best one however is a comic strip called PhD: Piled higher and Deeper. The comics are amusing, accurate and there is a lot of wisdom in them. Here are the top 10 tips:

Tip 10: Plan ahead. It's all in the outline.

Writing a thesis can be a daunting prospect. 'Divide and conquer' is a great technique to make tasks more manageable. Once you have written your literature review, it's done. It's best to do this early on when