Tag: bright red publishing

Textbook Stuff by BrightRED Publishing- English with Dr Chris Nicol

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This month we launched something new for BrightRED, our new podcast Textbook Stuff. It will shine a light on our Study Guides and offer the inside story on our books.  We have interviewed our expert teacher authors who have spent many months (and sometimes years) writing our Course Books and Study Guides.

Below you will find snippets from the discussion we had with our English author, Dr Chris Nicol. We discussed his frustrations at school and university, his journey to becoming an English teacher, advice for the English course and its exam and finally his career advice that has carried him through his impressive career.

You can find the full transcript here.

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Well, I went to a very good Scottish high school up in Arbroath many many years ago. I enjoyed school but I often got very frustrated by my teachers who were very intelligent men and women. But I often got exasperated by the fact that so many of their nuggets of wisdom were clouded in language that was very opaque which was difficult to get through for a 12- or 13-year-old, so my little hand was always going up in class and there was a lot of sighing from my friends, and the teachers, by asking questions like, ‘Oh what do you mean there? What are you saying?’ It was quite an exasperating process. This frustrating process went on all the way through my education.

Can you tell us about how you transitioned into a teaching career?

I had this idea that teaching might be of interest to me, but I wasn’t going to be a teacher like the ones I’d had at school. So, I took myself off and did a teacher training course and found myself a job in a girl’s public school. I immediately put to work what I learned at my own school that I wasn’t going to be that kind of teacher. I made my lessons directly constructed to talk to the students rather than talk at them and I really enjoyed the process very much.

What is the process of going back and editing your work like?

I think it’s a very very useful device to have someone whose judgement you trust listen to yourself reading it. And be prepared for much more critical comment than you would get if you just handed them a text and asked for their opinion.

How would you suggest students could improve their portfolio writing?

I think also you’ve been picking up a lot of writing skills without knowing it by your work for reading, for understanding, analysis and evaluation. All these techniques you’re pinpointing for the examiners, minor sentences, inversion, figurative language, word choice, parallel structures. You’re ready to talk about them in an exam, so why not make them work for you in your own writing? A lot of students just completely overlooked that they have wonderful techniques in their grasp which they could use to great effect for in their own writing.

And for school leavers what advice do you have if they are unsure what career path they want to take?

I think career wise nothing is set in stone and my own career such as it is, has been a path of serendipity. Really, I’ve always been in the right place at the right time. I have picked up knowledge from all kinds of areas. I haven’t been frightened to change career path when I felt I was getting bored or exhausted by a process. I think the world has many, many opportunities for young people and every job has something to teach you.

If you enjoyed these snippets of our conversation with Dr Chris Nicol you can read the whole transcript here or listen to the podcast here!

Thank you to Chris for taking the time to speak to us and we hope you are looking forward to our podcast guest for next month!

Links mentioned:

New Edition Higher English Study Guide: https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/shop/cfe-higher-english

Other Books in the BrightRED English range:

BGE Level 3 English Course book (Publishing March 2023): https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/shop/bge-level-3-english

National 4 English Study Guide: https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/shop/n4-english

National 5 English Course Book: https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/shop/national-5-english-course-book

National 5 English Study Guide: https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/shop/n5-english

Advanced Higher English Study Guide: https://www.brightredpublishing.co.uk/shop/cfe-advanced-higher-english

My Journey to Bright Red

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Starting a new job can be daunting for anyone, but starting your first job in an industry you’ve worked so hard to get into is scary and exciting in equal measures. I’m in my first week as Bright Red’s newest employee; as a Publishing and Marketing Assistant. However, my association with them started many years ago. I was introduced to the Study Guides and, at the time Past Papers, back in 2012 when I was sitting my Standard Grades and Intermediate 2s. To this day I maintain I would not have been able to achieve the grades I did in Chemistry, Physics and Computing without them.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2020, after finishing an undergraduate degree in International Politics I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career. I loved reading and being surrounded by books so I applied for a place on the MSc Publishing course at Edinburgh Napier University. I was successful! The course allowed us to learn about all aspects of publishing and an opportunity to get real life experience working in the publishing industry. I managed to secure a placement with none other than Bright Red. Over the ten weeks I worked with them I was able to develop many skills, such as proofreading, typesetting and dealing with over matter. This time brought out a passion for educational publishing I didn’t realise I had but it’s safe to say I was hooked.

Then when the opportunity to interview for an internship came along, I jumped at the chance. I became the first paid intern for Bright Red and spent from September to December learning even more from the team, which included creating social media strategies, writing e-newsletters and recording a video about the BGE Maths Coursebook.

After a rather fruitless job hunt at the beginning of 2022, I saw Bright Red were hiring for an entry level position and I bit the bullet and applied. I was successful again! Which brings us to today, the beginning of my first week in my new role. I know I have a lot to offer to the team and more to learn but I can safely say without Bright Red my life would look very different right now. So, you never know one day you could be relying on our Study Guides to pass National 5 Chemistry and ten years later you could be introducing yourself on the blog of a publishing company you have always admired.

Publishing student sitting at a desk in Bright Red office

A Warm Welcome from Bright Red

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Although we are a wee company, we try and support those who are just starting out in their publishing career whenever we can and offer work experience to students. For the past ten weeks, we’ve had the pleasure of having Emma in our busy but friendly office. She has been helping with both marketing and editorial tasks and has been getting a flavour of what it is like to work in the book industry.

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A teacher at the front of the class in a roomful of students

Everything’s Changing

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What’s not changing at the moment?  The world seems to be in a state of flux.  Zoom right in on Scottish education and it is a similar picture.  Teacher workloads and salaries are often in the spotlight, the introduction of primary testing is a hot topic and the challenges around increasing attainment are never far from the headlines either.  It can be quite hard to keep up with it all.

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Raising a glass to 10 years of Bright Red Publishing

Celebrating Ten Bright Years

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2018 marks our tenth year of Bright Red Publishing and we are so thrilled to be recognised as a company that produces high quality, effective Study Guides with Scottish students and teachers at the heart of everything we do. The last ten years have been challenging amidst many qualifications changes but also incredibly rewarding and we are delighted to have sold our one millionth book this year! Of course, none of this would be possible without our loyal authors and suppliers, as well as the incredible support of parents, teachers and students. Although the Bright Red team itself is made up of six people, we have a network of people who help us get our books to press and out into the world – from our wonderful authors, to printers, typesetters, reviewers, booksellers and so on.

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