Recent Articles

It may seem unfair, but much of the time what you say doesn’t matter nearly so much as how you say it. Think about a really good speech by a politician or motivational speaker. While they’re talking, everything sounds great – it’s compelling, it makes sense, you’re nodding in agreement, you’re standing up to cheer.

The classic novels on this list are my (non-exhaustive) selection of ‘must-read’ books for anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of English literature. What counts as English literature spans over a thousand years, but you’ll find most of the great classics that well-educated people are often expected to have read – what’s known...

One aspect of English you possibly haven’t thought about yet is how to communicate appropriately in formal written situations, such as letters. This is a skill you’ll almost certainly need if you’re in the process of applying to UK schools or universities...

If you’re learning English in order to better your job prospects, the chances are that at some point you’re going to need to understand and employ a more specialised vocabulary. Working in a business environment will expose you to a raft of new words that don’t tend to be covered by standard English as a...

In an ideal situation, you’d have all the time in the world to write a great essay, but sadly it doesn’t always work out that way. There will always be times when you’re required to write an essay uncomfortably quickly, whether because of a tight deadline imposed by a teacher, or because you’ve been so...

Combining a job with further study can have a lot of advantages. The most obvious is that if your funding, loan or grant doesn’t stretch as far as you’d like, a job – even if it’s only a handful of hours a week – helps to pay the bills and might even give you some...

English is often cited as one of the hardest languages to learn, and one of the aspects that gives it this reputation for being tricky is its spellings. English spellings are full of contradictions and exceptions, meaning that it’s sometimes difficult to apply logic when you’re unsure how a word should be spelled. For example...

There are no end of myths circulating about British law. Some myths are actively harmful – for instance, the idea that there is such a thing as ‘common-law marriage’ in British law has left some unmarried but cohabiting couples in financial difficulties. Others are just a bit silly, such as the notion that it’s illegal...

Here at Oxford Royale Summer Schools, we’re immensely proud of the fact that students come from all over the world to study with us. This year, we’re expecting the number of different student nationalities to top 100, with students coming to us from as far afield as Angola, Azerbaijan, Nepal and even the British Indian...