Mary Roulston6 Blenheim Lane, Wheatley, Oxford, OX33 1NJ

Tel. 01865 874094 Mob. 07795 900848Email: maryroulston@gmail.com

Profile Statement

Experienced Commissioning Editor, freelance ELT writer and content developer with a thorough and creative approach and excellent attention to detail. Adept at taking a project from concept to production and managing multiple components and effectively prioritising workload and deadlines. A broad background across ELT publishing, and teaching experience provides an excellent understanding of course concept, content, briefing, manuscript development, editing and design of print and digital course components.

KEY SKILLS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Key Freelance Projects Currently writing a primary course for a leading UK ELT publisher. Content development and editing of ELT course books, Teacher's Guides and

digital content for pre-primary and primary schools. These include: Show and Tell (OUP); Happy Campers (Macmillan); and Hide and Seek (Cengage).

Writing Teacher's Guides and content development for the new Macmillan Education pre-primary course Doodle Town. Writing digital material for pre-primary courses and Primary courses.

Editorial training given for editors working with pre-primary content.

Commissioning / Project Management Currently project managing a primary course for a leading UK ELT publisher. Commissioning and project management tasks including:

o Inception: establishing project plans outlining an overview of a new course or components, and specifications to present successfully for investment approval.

o Authors: identifying potential authors and briefing and commissioning sample material in order to find the best fit for the course.

o Briefing: producing successful author and editorial briefs to give a thorough course and task overview. Writing detailed requirements briefs for digital products and working closely with digital project managers.

While in-house at Macmillan Education: Commissioning Editor on Hats On Top. This was a new version so commissioned changes to the original following market feedback.

Commissioned the new Nursery Level which included an Activity Book, Big Book and Teacher’s Edition.

Commissioned all the new digital components of the course including a student activity disks with games, interactive stories and animated songs, teacher’s disk with interactive classroom and oversaw the teacher’s resource website.

Digital Writing Writing digital tests for the Macmillan Education course Tiger Time. Writing digital script for games and e-readers for very young learners. Writing

animation scripts for animated songs including for the hugely popular Hats On Top course song.

Manuscript Development and Content Editing

Content editing and development of many major pre-primary and primary courses for UK publishers.

Adaptation of best-selling courses for new editions and new markets. Content: specialising in primary and pre-primary courses thanks to extensive

teaching experience in the young learner classroom and class observations. Also able to draw on own experience as a parent and knowledge of TV, books and media aimed at young children, and also through voluntary work on play schemes and pre-schools.

Developed the globally successful, high level primary course, Brainwave. Developing the content on several of its components across the six levels including the Student Book, Language Activity Book, Teacher’s Edition and the reading mazes on the Student Website.

Copy/Sub Editing Editing: very keen eye for detail and a good knowledge of grammar and

punctuation. Excelling at thorough copy editing of manuscripts and articles to tight deadlines.

Word styling: applying word styling and formatting manuscripts in Word to feed into InDesign.

Proofreading Experience of all stages of proofreading. Experience with paper proofs and

digital proofs in Adobe and InCopy. Accustomed to working with large spreads of text, artwork and photos and also more text heavy pages such as Teacher’s Books and Readers.

Customer and Team Relations Continual liaison with internal and external project team members to ensure a

thorough overview of all components of a current project. Confident working in a busy publishing environment, effectively managing and

prioritising workloads originating from multiple sources. Effective communication across project teams and external parties to organise

meetings, monitor progress and provide feedback and support. Liaison with marketing department and reviewers in target markets during a

project, and post project completion, to collate customer feedback and project case study material.

CAREER HISTORY

Freelance ELT writer/editor October 2013 – present Macmillan Education Commissioning Editor January 2011 – Sept 2013Olive Press Media Co-director, editor and writer May 2006 – August 2009Lexis Idiomas English Teacher October 2000 – Sept 2005British Language Centre English Teacher November 1999 – October 2000

EDUCATION

CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Adults)MA hons Psychology (2.1)