Dr Nicola Onyett, like so many of Queen Margaret's staff, does not confine her work to the classroom. A Chief Examiner for English Literature, one of two Chief Examiners in the department with Ruth Doyle Chief Examiner for English Language, Dr Onyett is also a published author. Hot off the press is the work she has co-authored with former York University colleague Dr Nicholas McGuinn, who, incidentally was Head of English at Queen Margaret's in the 1990s, Secondary English: Planning for Learning in the Classroom (published by Continuum and pictured).
Due for publication in March 2011 is Dr Onyett's Literature Guide for A Streetcar Named Desire as part of the Philip Allan Updates A-level English Literature Student Guide for which she is the series editor. In her role as series editor, Dr Onyett has also overseen the relaunch of guides on a range of popular texts including The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, The Winter's Tale, Othello, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice.