Sue Ellis studied for her first degree, in Theoretical Linguistics and Language Pathology, at the University of Essex and is currently a Reader in Literacy and Language at the University of Strathclyde. Her research, teaching and consultancy interests are in literacy development, teacher education and in how to make literacy policy work in practice. Her current research projects are on children's understanding and use of characterisation in writing, and on literacy policy development in Scotland and Malawi. With Kathy Hall, Usha Goswami, Colin Harrison and Janet Soler, she has co-edited Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Learning to Read (2010). Elspeth McCartney is Reader in the Speech and Language Therapy Division in the Department of Educational and Professional Studies, University of Strathclyde. She has qualifications in both teaching and in speech and language therapy, and currently teaches and researches in the field of childhood speech and language impairment and therapy. Her major publications are in language interventions for children with specific language impairment and in teacher-therapist co-professional working practices and she has had many research grants on these topics. She is a fellow of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.