How can the Visual Thesaurus help students replace trite words of emphasis with "words strong in themselves"? Continue reading...

Want to find out Topic A in the U.S. Congress on any given day? Check out Capitol Words, which computes the most frequently appearing word in the daily record. While Congress is out of session, you can browse through previous hot topics.

A website is a strange beast — it is your reception area, your office, your shop, your brochure, your catalogue... And all without being able to walk into it, sit down in it, touch it. But just as you wouldn't want your customers to get lost on the way to a sales meeting in your offices, or to leave your shop in frustration because they can't find the goods they're looking for, so it is crucial that the visitors to your website can find their way around your website and get to where they want to go as easily as they can follow a sign, open a door, reach onto a shelf. The science of designing sites that work for visitors is known as usability. Continue reading...

How do you get a novel published? Some books to help you perfect your pitch.

The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit

Making the Perfect Pitch

Give 'Em What They Want

How to Publish Your Novel

"Circumstances almost compel us to learn English, and this lucky accident has given us the opportunity of access into the richest of all poetical literatures of the world." It sounds like an idea that could be expressed today, but it was in fact written almost 75 years ago by a great artist who is our guest this month in the Poetry Corner. Continue reading...

The book review sections of major newspapers are branching out to the blogosphere.

Washington Post: Short Stack

New York Times: Paper Cuts

The Guardian: Books