Group Stats
There are currently 875 members of the Educational Writers Group. Overall we gained 53 members and lost 44. The SoA’s current total membership is 10618, so EWG represents 8.25%.
EWG activities
The annual EWG seminary day was held on 9 June. Around 35 authors attended the day, which had parallel sessions, six speakers and plenty of opportunities to network. Several more authors joined the sessions via the live audio-stream. Topics included: the importance of textbooks, writing Graded Readers, generating income from online courses and the author-editor relationship. For a full report on the day, including details of the speakers, see committee member Mark Griffiths’ blog.
The EWG quarterly e-newsletter keeps members up to date with the Group’s activities and industry news. In the past year, many of the Group’s members have provided blogs on topics which are of particular interest to those working in this sector, and the regular interview slot has allowed members to gain an appreciation for the wider community of educational writers. If you would like to contribute to a future newsletter, please contact Bryony Hall.
The Group has a dedicated, private discussion page on Facebook, open only to those who are currently members of the SoA. To join, please click here.
Editorial Best Practice Award
The EWG award for Editorial Best Practice was launched this month. This new award allows members to publicly recognise those editors who have shown excellence in the way in which they have collaborated with their authors. For full details of the award, including how to nominate your editor, see here.
Awards for Educational Writing
The shortlist for the 2018 ALCS Award for Educational Writing will be released in mid-November, with the winner to be announced at a ceremony at the House of Commons on 4 December. This award, now in its eleventh year, honours a work of traditionally published non-fiction that enhances learning.
This year, the prize of £2,000 will be awarded for an outstanding example of traditionally published non-fiction that enhances teaching and learning for the 11-18 age group. The 2018 judges are teacher Philip Arkinstall, writer Elspeth Graham, and school librarian Océane Toffoli.
We are grateful to the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society for their generous sponsorship.
Committee
Many thanks to all our committee members: Sarah Ackroyd, Chris Barker, Peter Clarke, Ignaty Dyakov, Terry Freedman, Mark Griffiths and Julie Pratten.
There will be three vacancies for the committee from next June. If you are interested in standing, please contact Bryony Hall for further information.
Anne Rooney, Chair of EWG
October 2018