How To Write Graded Readers

Prize-winning Graded Reader author, Sue Leather, shares her knowledge of the Graded Readers market, and helps the reader analyse the target audience and embark on the preparation and research that goes into writing. The skills of writing, adapting, re-drafting and editing are discussed and then consolidated with tasks (including full commentaries). 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 book provides:

  • a detailed overview of the genre.
  • practical advice on how to keep a balance between a good engaging story and an appropriate level of language input.
  • encouragement for you, as a writer, to explore the type of Graded Reader you would like to write.
  • tips for approaching publishers with your work.

This book forms part of the ELT Teacher 2 Writer training course. The course is designed to help you write better ELT materials, either for publication, or simply to improve the quality of your self-produced classroom materials.

Read reviews here and here.


Sue Leather

Sue Leather has been in the ELT field for thirty years. Originally from the north west of England, between 1985 and 2000, she worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and educational manager in Spain, UK and the Netherlands. She has an MA in Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. She has written a number of articles for ELT journals and magazines, and is a frequent presenter at international conferences. In 2000, she set up her own consultancy group, Sue Leather Associates, and works on educational projects all over the world. Her main interests within ELT are materials development, teacher training and trainer training.

Sue has been writing original learner fiction since 1990, and has written some thirty readers. Her Dead Cold, published by Cambridge University Press, won the Extensive Reading Foundation award in 2005. Sue is currently Co-Series Editor for Page Turners, a series of original fiction for National Geographic Learning. She now lives on the beautiful west coast of Canada, where she gains inspiration for her work.

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