How To Write Graded Readers: Training Course For ELT Writers, #6

By Sue Leather

Sue Leather has been writing ELT Graded Readers for well over 20 years and in this engaging and informative module she shares her experience for others to learn from.
Sue starts with an overview of the Graded Readers market which helps the reader of this module to think about who the target audience is. She then moves on to look at the preparation and research that goes into writing a Graded Reader, including tips for approaching publishers with your work.
In the section entitled 'The Skills of Writing' Sue unpacks the skills required for crafting both an original Graded Reader and an adaptation of a classic, constantly reminding the reader to keep a balance between a good engaging story and an appropriate level of language input. She also includes a section on the drafting and editing stages which are so key to working with a publisher.
Punctuated with tasks (with full commentaries) to get the reader thinking about the Graded Reader genre, this is a practical guide to writing for an interesting, and growing, sector of the English Language Teaching materials market. Sue's enthusiasm for the genre is inspiring.
This module forms part of the ELT Teacher 2 Writer training course. The training modules are designed to help you write better ELT materials, either for publication, or simply to improve the quality of your self-produced classroom materials.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ELT
• Release date: Sep 18, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301031580

Book preview

HOW TO WRITE

GRADED READERS

Sue Leather

TRAINING COURSE FOR ELT WRITERS

SMASHWORDS EDITION

License Notes

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How To Choose And Use Images In Materials Writing

How To Plan A Book

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How To Write Audio Scripts

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How To Write Graded Readers

By Sue Leather

© 2013 ELT Teacher 2 Writer at Smashwords

www.eltteacher2writer.co.uk

We would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce their material:

Sue Leather. Bad Blood, (Page Turner: Series Editor Rob Waring) 1E. © 2011 Heinle/ELT, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions; Sue Leather, The Big Picture Level 1 Beginner/Elementary Book with Audio CD Pack, 2006, Cambridge University Press; Sue Leather, Dead Cold Level 2 Elementary/Lower Intermediate, 2007, Cambridge University Press; Sue Leather, Death in the Dojo Level 5, 1999, Cambridge University Press; Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press, from Oxford Bookworms Factfiles: Deserts by Janet Hardy-Gould, © Oxford University Press 2009.

How to Write Graded Readers

Contents

About The Author

1 Aims

2 Introduction To Graded Readers

3 Preparing To Write

4 The Skills Of Writing

5 The Skills Of Adapting

6 Drafting And Editing

7 Glossary

8 Bibliography

9 Commentaries On Tasks

About The Author

My name is Sue Leather. I was born near Manchester, in northern England, in a small town not very far from the moors that inspired Emily Brontë to write Wuthering Heights, just to give you an idea of the landscape. One of my earliest memories is sitting in my bedroom with a book, so I guess I’ve always loved to read. I went to university in Leeds, where I studied Spanish. That took me to Spain for two years, where I started teaching English, firstly working as an assistant teacher in a girls’ school in Salamanca. That was an interesting baptism of fire, as they say, but I had been to a girls-only school myself, so I had some idea of what to expect! After that, I then went back to England, qualified as a teacher and lived and worked in Cambridge for many years. In the year 2000 I went to live and work in the Netherlands. Since 2004, I’ve lived near Vancouver on the west coast of Canada, a lovely place to find inspiration.

As well as writing, I run my own