Oxford Australia Blog

Sharing our love of education, language, and books

Month: October 2016

  • Spanner crabs, platform 27, and a one-duck duck farm

    We had some interesting and entertaining correspondence from readers in response to our articles on Australian idioms in the last issue. In her article, Julia Miller was puzzled about the logic of the idiom mad as a box of spanners, asking ‘how can an inanimate spanner be angry or crazy?’ One reader, C. Roe (Qld),…

  • Moving crisis management from the ‘war room’ to the board room

    Organisations that suffer a major crisis have a more than one in four chance of going out of business. Yet despite this level of risk, many companies continue to leave crisis management in the hands of operational middle managers or technicians with little expertise beyond how to recover when things go wrong. Corporate crisis management…

  • Rendunculous Dahl-inspired words from the Oxford Roald Dahl Competition

    We would like to thank everyone who participated in the Oxford Roald Dahl Competition. The response was overwhelming – we received over 3000 entries – and all entries were very entertaining. We took great pleasure in reading through the hopscotchy, phizz-whizzing and rendunculous Dahl-inspired words – there are no limits to a child’s imagination! One school got in…

  • The 23rd Educational Publishing Awards

    The 23rd Educational Publishing Awards Australia (EPAAs) were held on the 6th of October. Organised by the Australian Publishers Association, the EPAAs celebrate excellence in educational publishing and exemplify the work publishers devote to producing world-class educational resources. More than ever before, they also showcase innovative development and delivery of digital content. Oxford University Press Australia…

  • Oxford Word of the Month: October – baggy green

    noun: (also baggy green cap) 1. the cap worn by an Australian Test cricketer. 2. this cap as a symbol of selection in an Australian Test cricket team. 3. an Australian Test cricketer. THE STORY BEHIND THE WORD OF THE MONTH The baggy green cap is an emblem of this nation. (Sydney Morning Herald, 28…