He holds Masters degrees in English Language and Literature, the Teaching of English for Specific Purposes and a PhD in academic writing practices. His interests lie in the analysis of published text formats and their application to successful and effective classroom reading and writing. He has published three studies in the ASLS's 'Scotnotes' series: on Ian Rankin's 'Black & Blue'; on Anne Donovan's 'Buddha Da'; on Eric Linklater's 'Private Angelo' and 'The Dark of Summer'.