A week in the life of an ELT materials writer - 7 Sept 2023

This week has gone by quickly. I’ve been productive, not only in terms of getting work done but in other, small (but significant) ways too.

Although I share this newsletter every Thursday, I sit down to write it on a Wednesday. This Wednesday was special. I managed to get everything I needed to do today done before lunchtime and although there were more things I could have done, I decided to call it a day. One of the perks of being self-employed is being able to juggle work and free time, and to take time off spontaneously for whatever reason feels right. Today several things aligned. It was a perfect day in terms of the weather; warm but not too hot, sunny but not overpowering. Secondly, the four adults living in my house at the moment have all been working from home and have all been busy. Nobody resisted when I suggested we log off and go out for lunch. Then we did the whole Spanish sobremesa thing, where you stay at the table chatting for hours after the meal ends. It’s so important to switch off.

A nutty revelation

While I was working on my English through Literature project this week, I had to read through a section about words with silent letters, that a co-author had written. One of the activities called for the children to read a list of words aloud and circle the letter in each word which wasn’t pronounced. I scanned the list and zoomed in on an error … or so I thought. Before adding a comment suggesting she replace the word because it didn’t have a silent letter, I thought I’d look it up, just in case it was pronounced differently in Indian English (which is where the writer and the publisher are based). Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was me who was mistaken. The word was almond. This is what the Cambridge English Dictionary says about how it is pronounced:?

/?ɑ?.m?nd/ (UK)

/?ɑ?l.m?nd/ (US)

What’s interesting is that when I posted on Social Media about this, it prompted a lot of comments from people from all corners of the UK and the US who made it clear that it isn’t quite as straightforward as Cambridge would have us believe.

Later, a teacher sent me a private message to ask me whether she could share the whole almond story with her students in Slovakia, because she thought it would help to highlight the fact that even us so-called native speakers don’t always agree on how words are pronounced.

A sample unit

Very often at the start of a new project a writer will be asked to write a sample unit before getting stuck in to a whole course or book. This is a good idea for all involved. It serves to iron out any doubts or confusion and in most cases the end result, perhaps after a few minor tweaks, will serve as a model to follow for all the remaining units.

This is one of the things I’ve been working on this week. Not because I was asked to write a sample unit, but because I suggested doing so. Besides the reasons mentioned above, I had a very good extra reason for suggesting this stage. I’ve been offered a fee for X amount of work and until I get my head around the work, which isn’t straightforward - I need to refer to several existing coursebook, some sample exam-style questions, curriculum documents from previous levels, and more – I couldn’t know for sure whether that fee was fair. By doing one unit I was able to see exactly how much work is involved and how long the work takes me. Obviously, I’ll speed up as I go along. The first unit always takes longer. After doing the unit I was able to agree to the fee and the publisher was able to issue a contract. Assessing whether a fee is fair or not is one of the most challenging things freelance writers face. But that’s a blog post for another day.

AI fatigue

Last week I think I was suffering from AI fatigue, if such a thing exists. Everyone seems to be talking about it and some people seemed to be suggesting I needed to ‘take sides’. I took a few steps back and then this week I reread a six-page special feature on AI in The Society of Author’s journal, The Author. It includes articles written by different authors, each with a different focus, including some practical steps for how to protect your work, from the Chief Executive of the SoA, Nicola Solomon. Lots of food for thought, lots of things I want to ponder, such as how to determine the commercial value of human creativity. I’m still reading up and thinking about AI but I’ve found it useful in my work on a few occasions. The latest thing I used it for was to generate a list of women achievers from specific regions. I was then able to look up the women on the list and read more about them before selecting two for a paired texts activity.

You learn something new every day

I’d never heard of paired texts, sometimes called paired passages, until I started work with the Indian Publisher I’m currently working with. When I first saw the term in the syllabus document I assumed it meant paired reading, with an A and B version of the same text and then some kind of information gap activity done in pairs; a staple of ELT materials.

Not so. Paired texts are two texts which are linked in some way, such as a shared theme or a similar problem. One text might be fiction, a poem or an extract from a story. The other text might be non-fiction, such as a news report or an advert. Students then compare and contrast the texts, using their analytical skills to make connections. It’s quite common in a literature classroom but I’ve never seen it in a language classroom. I think it’s a brilliant way of helping students develop all kind of useful skills which they need beyond the classroom. I’d like to use it in future ELT materials and to maybe extend the idea to pair text with image or written text with audio or video. I need to read up a bit more on it first though, as I’m sure there’ll be right ways and wrong ways of doing them.

Cheap at half the price*

I bought a little gem of a book this week that I once owned but have lost: ‘Models and metaphors in Language Teacher Training’ by Tessa Woodward (Cambridge University Press). John Hughes mentions this book and some of Tessa’s work on one of our Writing ELT Materials videos. I was reminded of how good it is and how useful it might be when I come to prepare an upcoming workshop for teacher trainers on creating training materials. The book is out of print so when I couldn’t find my copy, I was wondering who might have a copy that I could borrow. Then I browsed online and found a second-hand copy in the Oxfam bookshop for 5p. FIVE PENCE. I guess they make their money from the postage which was 3.99. But still!

*What on earth does this expression actually mean?

Bits and bobs

This week’s bits and bobs included a phone call with my accountant, related to my self-employed status in Spain which was surprisingly painless and straightforward. It also included some far more painful email correspondence with a publisher about changing the bank account into which I get paid. I won’t go into detail because I’d probably end up swearing and that wouldn’t be appropriate. I’ve also been posting a lot on LinkedIn this week because John and I are having a live Q&A session tomorrow (Friday) at 13.00h UK time, for anyone who wants to come along and learn a bit more about online course, Writing ELT materials. If you fancy joining us, feel free to use the Zoom link I’ll put in the comments below.

I hope you’ve had a productive week too, and managed to make time for some down time.

Thanks for reading!

Kath