British Council Innovation in ELT awards: ELTons 2016

THE MACMILLAN EDUCATION AWARD FOR NEW TALENT IN WRITINGAPPLICATION GUIDANCE

Do you write resources that are a hit in your school?

Do you write a popular and influential blog?

Are you running an interesting research project in ELT with potential to be

published?

The way teachers select and use resources in the ELT classroom has changed
significantly in recent years. Teachers are using materials accessed from a wide range of
sources and presented through a variety of mediums. The need for resources to be high
quality however, remains as vital as ever.
Publishing is also changing to meet these new demands and we would like to recognize
this through the Macmillan-sponsored ELTons award for New Talent in Writing. The award
is open to proposals big and small, from original lesson materials, research or articles to
ideas for fully-fledged products.
We welcome submissions from aspiring ELT authors who may have chosen to selfpublish, publish only locally, share within their own institutions or make their voices
heard through different media such as blogs and eBooks.
THE PRIZE
As we are looking to recognize new and upcoming authors who have not yet published
with a commercial publisher, the winner receives 1,000 and the opportunity to develop
their talent and publish their work.
WHAT TYPE OF PROPOSAL WILL BE CONSIDERED?
We will consider submissions as follows:

Existing writing or proposals for new materials in any field of English language
teaching and learning.

Materials can be for delivery in any medium: print or digital.

The author/author team must warrant to Macmillan Education (and indemnify

Macmillan Education against any claims) that the submission is original to them and
has not been previously published in any form through a commercial publisher.

Materials submitted must be predominately the work of the applicant/s. If third party
content has been used (such as songs, newspaper articles etc.) then full references
must be included, and copyright must have been cleared. If copyright has not be
cleared this may mean the submission has to be disallowed as it would not be
possible to clear rights and permissions. The advice is therefore to check rights and
permissions on songs, texts, photos etc. before including them.

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR THE MACMILLAN EDUCATION AWARD FOR NEW
TALENT IN WRITING?

Applications are welcomed from any person or team that meets the following criteria:

Applicants must not have authored any work published by an internationallyrecognized publisher (including, but not exclusive to: Macmillan Publishers Ltd,
Pearson Longman, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Marshall
Cavendish, Richmond Santillana, Cengage Heinle, Express Publishing, Garnet, Delta,
McGraw Hill). Small-scale and local publications and contributions to websites are
eligible to apply for this award.

Applicants must be working/or have worked in the field of education.

Only one application may by submitted by one group or individual.

Applicants must be 18 years old or over.

No British Council office or member of staff is eligible.

HOW ARE THE AWARDS JUDGED?

The ELTons will be judged by an independent panel of English language teaching

professionals. The judges decision will be final. As part of the judging process, the
ELTons judges will assess proposals or publications against the following criteria:
Creative The author will be able to show creativity and skill in writing. The
proposal or publication should offer one of more of the following: new and more
effective ways of learning English; motivating English language learning resources;
identify new trends in English language teaching make effective use of current
technology; provide solutions to acknowledged problems.
Functional The proposal or publication should be accessible to teachers and/or
learners and make appropriate use of resources, easy to implement and logically
organized. The proposal or publication should have clear potential to enable learners
to make progress in learning English or to help teachers improve students outcomes.

Please refer to the above criteria when completing Part 3 of the application form.
WHAT IS MACMILLAN EDUCATIONS ROLE?

Macmillan Education commits to considering the work for publication within two
years of receipt of final manuscript unless prevented from doing so by circumstances
beyond its control.

Macmillan Education reserves the right not to publish the work if it feels that it will
not be commercially beneficial to both parties. In such case, all rights revert back to
the author.

Macmillan Education commits to entering into a professional working

author/publisher relationship with the winner of the Macmillan Education Award
for New Talent in Writing. This includes assigning a publisher who will be the key
contact for considering the work for publication and who will negotiate terms and
conditions if the proposal is successful. All discussions will be subject to contract and
authors will be issued with a standard Macmillan Education contract. The publisher
(and his or her editorial team) will provide in-house consultation, product
development, copyediting, proofreading, design, and illustrations and photographs
where necessary.

Macmillan Education guarantees to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to ensure

that any product that is not taken forward remains the property of the author/s.

Macmillan Education shall have the right to ask the authors to make any revision to
the work in the interests of quality, pedagogy and uniformity of style. The publisher
shall have the final decision on the publication of the work.

Macmillan Education reserves the right to decide in what format the materials will be
finally published. All decisions as to the medium of publication, paper, cover,
illustrations, title, production, launch, advertising, price and terms of sale of the
work, and the number and distribution of free copies of the work shall be made by
Macmillan Education.

Macmillan Education commits to providing full sales and marketing promotion for the
final product when finally published including inclusion in the International ELT
catalogues.

HOW MANY ENTRIES CAN I SUBMIT?

The British Council will accept no more than one entry from any one person or team.
WHAT IF THE ELIGIBILITY OF A PROPOSAL IS UNCLEAR?
In the case where the eligibility of a proposal is unclear, the ELTons Management
Committee will decide on its eligibility. Their decision will be final. The person or team
may be asked to produce a rationale explaining how it meets the criteria stated above.
HOW DO I APPLY?
Before submitting a proposal or publication:
1. Entrants must ensure that they:

are eligible, by reading the eligibility guidance at the top of this page;

have read and understood the ELTons judging criteria PDF, available to download
above;

have read the British Councils Equal Opportunity and Diversity guidelines and that
their proposal meets these standards.

2. Entrants must complete the application form in full.

3. Entrants must submit sample materials consisting of one or more of the following:

Samples of existing writing or non-commercial publication, such as blogs, lesson

plans and materials, or methodology articles.

Outline of research and summary of results.

One complete unit, chapter or part of a series, including transcripts of any listening
components, descriptions of artwork or photographs, as well as guidance notes for
teachers or students if self-study.

A full description of digital products or components, including diagrams. Proposals for

digital materials do not need to be finished products but the author/author team will
describe why the technology is the best format for delivering the learning objectives
set out in the proposal.

If sample material is being submitted in digital form, it must be supplied with the
necessary passwords and must run on current industry-standard platforms.

4. Entrants must email the following to eltons@britishcouncil.org by 6 November 2015

Completed application form

Sample materials

Nasia Nikolova, ELTons, British Council, 58 Whitworth Street, Manchester M1 6BB, UK