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I'm an English teacher, and a word nerd. I spend my time speaking and writing about writing and speaking. 

 

If you're a year 11 or 12  student studying Advanced English you can jump to a sample of my  HSC text talks here.  Find more on You Tube.

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If you're interested in  being a words person, I've written three books all aimed at helping young people speak and write better. 

 

'The Australian Students’ Guide to Writing and Grammar' helps with sentences, paragraphs, nouns, verbs and heaps more. It explains why they matter, why they can be weird, and shows you how to use them to GET GOOD MARKS.

 

The 'Australian Schoolkids Guide to Debating and Public Speaking' is one-of-a-kind. Honestly, it's indispensable if you want to learn to present well, and master the argumentative arts. It has a northern hemisphere version: 'Teens Guide to Debating and Public Speaking'. I have another title in the pipeline, a graphic novel abot the history of deabte and the art of argument. Watch this space.

 

As  James Valentine's 'Consultant Grammarian'  we talked regularly about the world of words on ABC  Radio Sydney.That  show was voted one of the world’s best radio talk programs . (Easy to see why).  

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I teach Senior English at Ascham School in Sydney, was Director of Debating and Public Speaking at The Scots College in Sydney for ten years, and have organised heaps of Debating in loads of schools over a very long time. 

 

I'm the proud Mother of a philosophy academic, writer, columnist, and radio broadcaster who was once an International Debating Champion. I have a nice husband who is also a word nerd, and our  dog is called Katie. She will eat homework, if she's hungry enough.  No kidding.