Free academic writing & referencing guides

Guides

Plain-English reference for the writing problems UK students actually hit — referencing styles, dissertations, literature reviews. Written by our editorial team, not scraped.

Writing & referencing guides

Free, UK-focused guides for academic writing.

Free, plain-English reference for the writing problems UK students actually hit. Each guide covers the rules, real examples, and the common mistakes that cost marks — written by our editorial team rather than scraped from elsewhere.

Referencing styles

Harvard

Harvard referencing guide

Most-used style at UK universities. In-text citations, full reference list rules, and worked examples for books, journals, websites, edited works, government reports and more.

Read the Harvard guide →
APA 7

APA 7 referencing guide

Standard for UK psychology and education departments. Title-page format, in-text rules (single, multiple and group authors), DOI handling, reference list specifics.

Read the APA 7 guide →
OSCOLA

OSCOLA referencing guide

Mandatory for UK law students. Footnote format, pinpoint citations, neutral citations, primary vs secondary sources, the bibliography.

Read the OSCOLA guide →
Vancouver

Vancouver referencing guide

Used widely in nursing, medicine and biomedical sciences. Numerical citations, reference-list ordering, journal abbreviations, online sources.

Read the Vancouver guide →

Writing process guides

How-to

How to write a literature review

Step-by-step: from research question to systematic search, thematic synthesis, structure, and avoiding the descriptive trap that loses marks.

Read the lit review guide →
How-to

How to structure a dissertation

Chapter-by-chapter breakdown for UG, Masters and PhD level — introduction, lit review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, with word-count guidance.

Read the dissertation guide →

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