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Contributors |
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Kerry has a first degree in computational linguistics and an MA in theoretical linguistics from the University of Manchester, specialising in syntactic theory. For several years she worked as a researcher at Manchester and Essex universities, where in connection with European projects on machine translation, she was involved in computational lexicography, co-ordinating research in computational descriptions of compounds and collocations, and presenting her work in various international academic contexts. In 1993 she joined Cambridge University Press as a lexicographer / editor and grammar consultant, and worked on a large number of Cambridge learner's dictionaries, including the English Pronouncing Dictionary, the Cambridge International Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs and the Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary in print and CD-ROM versions. In June 2001 Kerry moved to York, where she now works as a freelance editor / lexicographer and is involved in a range of dictionary and grammar projects. Among the publications she has contributed to are Advanced Grammar In Use (2nd Ed.) and the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary for Cambridge University Press, the Cobuild Elementary English Grammar (2nd Ed.) for Collins, Best Practice for Thomson Heinle, and for Macmillan Education: Inside Out, The Business, Macmillan Phrasal Verbs Plus, Macmillan School Dictionary, Macmillan Diccionario Pocket and MED CD-ROM. As well as being the regular author of the Macmillan Dictionary website's popular Buzzword column, she regularly writes for MED Magazine and co-authors grammar reference material for OneStopEnglish. She is the author of a book on new words in English, Brave New Words, published by Pan Macmillan. Most of her spare time is spent looking after her two sons Tom and Sam, though she enjoys walking, swimming and any opportunity to travel!
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Gwyneth Fox started her career as an EFL teacher in Rome. She returned to UK, where she lectured in Applied Linguistics at Birmingham Polytechnic, and ran teacher-training courses. She then returned to the classroom, and taught ESL at all levels in Birmingham schools, whilst continuing to train teachers. She was recruited to the Cobuild project at the University of Birmingham as a part-time researcher when it began in 1981. She continued to work with the project, taking over as Publishing Director in 1992, being responsible for all the dictionaries, grammars, and other EFL materials that were produced. During that time and since then she has travelled extensively, and has run courses, given seminars, and attended conferences around the world, giving plenary talks in Brazil, Spain, Poland, Mexico, UK and many other countries. She left Cobuild in 1997, but stayed at the University and lectured in linguistics and applied linguistics. From 1999 she worked as a consultant for Macmillan Education, with the title of Publisher, Dictionaries. She was the Associate Editor for the dictionaries, being involved with the planning of the projects and focusing on the quality of text. In January 2008 she withdrew from day-to-day involvement with the dictionaries, to become a consultant to the dictionaries publishing team, before retiring at the end of 2009. She is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Aston in Birmingham.
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I always find it difficult to answer the question ‘What do you do?’. My background is essentially English language teaching – I really enjoyed the creative aspect of making lessons for my students. Then I became a lexicographer at Cambridge University Press, where a large part of my time was spent developing the CD-ROM version of the Cambridge International Dictionary of English. This, in turn, led to web design and eventually software development, specifically programming in Flash. Learning to program is very much like learning a new language; there is a specific grammar and new vocabulary to learn. At the same time, it's important to bear in mind the programmer's dialogue with the user and to make interactive activities useful, relevant and fun for learners, no matter what their technical ability or experience. In recent years, I've been involved in the Macmillan English Dictionary as multimedia and map editor. I've also written content for the CD-ROMs that accompany the New Inside Out series (Beginner and Upper Intermediate levels), and recently completed a CD-ROM of computerized IELTS practice tests for Ready for IELTS. Whatever project I'm working on, whether it's proofreading, writing content, compiling glossaries, designing web pages or creating CD-ROMs, it all stems from my first 'real' job as a secondary school teacher in Lithuania fifteen years ago. As a freelancer, I enjoy the benefits of flexible working hours that enable me to chase after my three small children (all boys!). There's not a lot of time in my life for much else, but I do make a point of attending the Perth Russian Conversation Group every Saturday morning.
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Like most people who write dictionaries for a living, I became a lexicographer by accident. After several years working as an ELT teacher, course organiser, and as a translator and teacher of Italian, I was looking for a change. A friend spotted a job ad for bilingual lexicographers at Longman. I applied and got the job, and discovered something I had never suspected – that dictionaries are written by people like me. After two years at Longman I moved to COBUILD, where I worked on monolingual learner’s dictionaries. Since going freelance in 1999, I have contributed to a variety of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, including the Macmillan range of dictionaries, while continuing to do translations from Italian. For several years, I wrote a weekly web article about English and I now answer readers’ queries and write book reviews for MED Magazine. I’m a keen gardener and for several years I’ve had an allotment where I do battle with the Midlands climate, clay soil, and marauding slugs and pigeons in an attempt to grow fruit and vegetables for the family. When it’s too cold, wet or dark to garden (about half the year) I sing in a choir and go to yoga classes. |
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| Meet the Editor | ||||
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Sharon Creese
I work across the range of Macmillan dictionaries – both print and electronic – as well as on the various related resources, like dictation activities, e-lessons and, of course, MED Magazine. I have a strong editorial background having worked for many years as a journalist, technical writer and editor in fields ranging from the automotive and engineering industries, to finance, healthcare and education. I lived for a year in Colombia as part of my Latin American Studies degree, and subsequently completed an Applied Linguistics Masters degree at the University of Newcastle, focusing on bilingualism among Spanish / indigenous-language speakers in Latin America. My interest in South America even extends to my pets – I have two chinchillas (native to the Andes) who take great delight in destroying everything in their path! |
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Cover illustrations by © JJAVA - Fotolia.com (Your Questions Answered), Martin Shovel (Book Review) and http://www.wordle.net/ (MED Profile) |
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