Summary
Neil is a Teacher of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the Centre for Academic English (CfAE). He developed, designed and now coordinates the CfAE's Communicating Science Successfully boxset, a College-wide series of workshops designed to improve all aspects of academic literacy. He also teaches on the CfAE's doctorate programme and helped design the popular Advanced Academic Writing course, much praised for its ability to improve the communicative ability of writers who already operate at a high level. The course gives practical advice on how to increase the impact of a text and improve reader engagement by eliminating potential ambiguity and building a clear, cohesive narrative. Neil strongly believes that, given the right input, good writing is something everyone is capable of - and that it is also something readers very much deserve.
As well as teaching, Neil is a key member of the CfAE's curriculum review team. The CfAE is currently undertaking a large-scale review that will shift provision from a more generic offering to one targeted at the real and current communication activities learners undertake during their studies. Neil and the team have been tasked with designing a suite of flexible, stackable ‘core’ modules to improve individual learners’ communication competencies at the different stages of their academic journey; these core modules will be complemented by department-facing provision.
Neil is also a published historian and bestselling novelist. His first novel, published by Simon & Schuster, was selected for both the Richard & Judy Book Club and BBC Radio 2 Book Club. His second novel came out in hardback in July 2022 and is called All About Evie.
Neil is a Senior Fellow at Advance HE and has been nominated for the Student Academic Choice Award. He is a member of The Society of Authors.
BACKGROUND
Prior to working for the CfAE, he taught at the University of Nottingham, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and LUMSA University, Rome.
In addition to working at Imperial, Neil has taught at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal College of Art. He is a guest lecturer at the University of the Arts (London) and The Faber Academy.