Guides: General Education: English

eBooks

Sharpen Your Story or Narrative Writing Skills (2012) Author Jennifer Rozines Roy explains the process of writing various kinds of narratives, including fiction, nonfiction, and personal narrative. She describes a variety of genres, adventure, biography, history, fantasy, and folktales. With suggestions on setting, character, and plot development, she helps the budding writer with the steps of the writing process.
Basic Study Skills (2013) This book covers all aspects of study skills, from improving reading, writing, listening and thinking skills, to knowing how to study independently, conduct research and take tests and examinations.
Sharpen Your Good Grammar Skills (2012) Many young writers consider grammar boring and difficult. Author Jennifer Rozines Roy counters that perception with humor and encouragement. Helpful examples, simple explanations, charts, and illustrations make this grammar guide accessible to young readers.

Websites

Energy Australia Bill guide This quick reference guide helps you to understand what your looking for in your bills.
Everyday English These three short courses by open university Australia help people with speaking, reading and writing in English.
How to Improve Your Reading Skills "Having strong reading abilities can enable you to interpret and find meaning in all that you read, and when you continuously improve these skills, you can develop your ability to communicate effectively through writing." -- taken from website.
How to Improve your Reading and Writing Skills in the Workplace In the workplace, "You may have to read important documents and share relevant facts with others—that is why good reading and writing matters. Here are 10 ways to improve these skills in any workplace." -- taken from website.
How to Write an Email "This email guide helps you with the structure of emails, plus tips and phrases you can use." -- taken from website.
Informal Letter Format - How to write, parts, sample informal letters. "To write an informal letter in English, you need to know the way in which it is written. Informal letter writing is easier than you think. It is just like a long talk with a friend or relative." -- taken from website.
Informal Letters The focus of this page is the format of informal letters. Browse some of the other topics on the website for, paragraphs, diary entries and other different formats.
Punctuation Guide "Good punctuation is crucial for successful academic writing. Many students use little punctuation in their essays beyond commas and full stops. But to be restricted to just two forms of punctuation mark, when writing your essay, is like building a house using only a hammer and a saw: you can do it; but not very well." -- taken from website.
Tax Invoices This is a short guide explaining the different components that make up a tax invoice/receipt.
What are Text Features? The 6 Most Common Text Features "The most common areas for nonfiction text features are the index, table of contents, captions under pictures or diagrams, glossary terms, labels or features of graphs and charts, and bolded words. Each text feature has its purpose, but the overall goal of all text features is to quickly gain access to information in nonfictional material." -- taken from website.

Games

Knoword Test your vocabulary with this game. You may even learn some new words.
Spell It "10 quick questions: hear them, spell them, and see how your skills compare to the crowd." -- taken from website.
Wordsearch Can you find all the words on the page?
Wordshake "You are given a random assortment of 16 letters in a 4x4 grid and are set a time limit of 3 minutes. In that time you must spell as many words as possible." -- taken from website.

Short Stories

Before the Law - Franz Kafka A parable, about how inaccessible the law can be. Very short, can fit easily on one page.
Tobermory - Saki A man teaches his cat named Tobermory, to talk. Tobermory then proceeds to tell everyone what he thinks of them.
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman A woman suffering post-natal depression is trapped in a room with yellow wallpaper.

Glossary and Vocabulary

Collins Dictionary "Collins is a major publisher of Educational, Language and Geographic content, and has been publishing innovative, inspiring and informative books for over 200 years." -- taken from website.
Key WHS terms and Definitions "This information is designed to help WA organisations and their associated workforces (including volunteers) understand WA’s Work Health and Safety laws." -- taken from website.
Know your rights Glossary of work terms and rights from the Australian Red Cross. Scroll half way down the page for a downloadable glossary.
Oxford English Dictionary "An unsurpassed guide for researchers in any discipline to the meaning, history, and usage of over 500,000 words and phrases across the English-speaking world." -- taken from website.
Safe Work Australia Glossary A glossary of different workplace and safety related terms.

Videos

Purpose and Text Types "Explains the purposes for writing and their matching text types." -- taken from description

Advanced Reading Skills in the Workplace "Reading skills are required in all work-roles. However some require more advanced skills for you to follow your role completely." -- taken from instruction.
Distinguishing fact from Opinion "Distinguishing fact from opinion and recognizing when they are well reasoned and well supported are important skills in critical thinking and in reading. Learn how to evaluate when the writer presents weak or strong opinions based on evidence." -- taken from description.
How to write an informal letter Video showing the structure and format of an informal letter.
Reading Essentials "A torrent of e-mails, faxes, memos, reports, contracts, and newsletters threatens to drown the typical new hire in a sea of paper and text. With simple methods for tackling an immense volume of content, this program helps manage workplace reading tasks quickly and efficiently without overlooking important information." -- taken from description.
Routine Reading Skills in the Workplace Some of the materials you may be required to read in the workplace.

Books in the Library

Great Writing 1 (2010) The Great Writing series uses clear explanations and extensive practical activities to help students write great sentences, paragraphs, and essays.
Text types: a writing guide for students (2012) This book provides a ready reference tools for students, teachers and parents to assist in the production of thirty different types of written texts. This edition has been updated and expanded to include a greater variety of text types and examples including a number of electronic texts.
Business Reading: B1-C2 (2012) This book "will help you to develop your reading skills such as, reading for general understanding, reading for detail, and learning to understand the true meaning behind the message."
The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary Monolingual English (2003) A new edition of this popular topic-based dictionary which focuses on everyday, key vocabulary.
The Oxford Picture Dictionary (1999) A comprehensive, flexible, and up-to-date vocabulary reference and teaching tool for English.