The follow items were reported in the newsletter sent to SIG members on 9/10 September 2013:

1. The original National HE STEM Project 'Developing Writing in STEM Disciplines', from which our special interest group emerged, was singled out for special mention (page 25) in the Summative Evaluation of the National
HE STEM Programme, which reported to HEFCE and HEFCW in July.

  2. A group of SIG members at the University of Bath won the 'Most promising piece of work' award among the poster entrants at the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Annual Conference at Warwick University in July. The project team, led by Dr Julie Letchford in Pharmacy & Pharmacology and Dr Hazel Corradi in Biology & Biochemistry worked closely with the Information Librarian Dr Tom Rogers as e-learning specialist and Dr Trevor Day as writer/learning developer, devised an interactive online resource for undergraduate science students 'Evaluating Scientific Research Literature'. Hazel Corradi has developed a prezi presentation (http://prezi.com/1c-q75rqdfn9/winner-of-most-promising-piece-of-work/) based on the poster. The  four-module resource was developed with the University Library and the team hope to make it open access in the coming months. For further information contact project leader Julie Letchford (J.A.Letchford@bath.ac.uk).

  3. Jackie Dannatt (Jackie.Dannatt@bristol.ac.uk), a Tutor of English for Academic Purposes at the University of Bristol, gave a SIG presentation last year about her experiences on pre-sessional courses for the English Language Centre at the University of Bath, working with students for whom English is not a first language. Her presentation focused on her 'noticing' approach, in which students make comparisons between their own work and a reformulated version provided by the writing tutor. Jackie's work was presented at a BALEAP (British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes) Conference in 2011 and has been published this year as conference proceedings (downloadable below): Dannatt, J. (2013). Reformulation, noticing and the development of L2 academic writing. In J. Wrigglesworth (Ed.), EAP Within the Higher Education Garden: Cross-Pollination Between Disciplines, Departments and Research. Proceedings of the 2011 BALEAP Conference. Reading, Berkshire: Garnet Publishing.

  4. From mid-August Trevor Day, the SIG leader, took up the 0.5 full-time post of Development Consultant for the Royal Literary Fund. He will spearhead a new programme bringing professional writers into Higher Education to facilitate writing activities with staff and students. More news about that in the coming months.