Miles Roddis – travelguide writer
Miles Roddis – travelguide writer
Miles Roddis (above) writes guidebooks for the publisher Lonely Planet. Some of them are below, and some on the right of this page.For some of these books he has made contributions, and for others he has been the major writer.
This exercise requires you to listen to the whole recording and answer these questions. There will be another opportunity for you to go into more detail about the process of producing a travelguide.
1 What three kinds of travelwriting does Miles Roddis begin by distinguishing between?
2 How does he describe Lonely Planet guidebooks?
3 What adjective does he use to describe three African countries which he covered?
4 What adjective does he use to describe Mediterrean countries which he covered?
5 How often does he get to visit Norway?
6 What contribution to Miles’ writing does his wife Ingrid make?
7 How many stages of travelwriting does Miles Roddis define, and what are they?
8 How many times has he written about Valencia city and the Valencia region?
9 What phase (or stage) does Miles consider the most exciting?
10 What distinction does Miles Roddis make between two kinds of guidebook writing?
11 Why is lunchtime described as also being ‘on the job‘ or as a ‘working lunch‘?
12 What phrase does Miles use to express the sense of ‘that is enough about that topic’ or ‘I have said / talked enough about this’?
13 What adjective does Miles use to describe himself on his return home, and why?
14 How does Miles describe the information he has collected at this stage?
15 The writing-up phase is different in two ways from the research phase. How?
16 What two areas does the writer concentrate on once he is back home?
17 How many drafts of a chapter might Miles make before being satisfied with its final form?
18 What verb is used to describe the book arriving in the post?
19 What are the designers’ contributions that the author mentions?
20 How does Miles describe the life of a travel-writer, at the end?