Saturday 1st November marks the beginning of Academic Writing Month, or AcWriMo. Taking part in AcWriMo marks a decision to prioritise your academic work for the month, in whatever form works best …
November is Academic Writing Month. We’ve gathered six helpful tips for your scholarly writing—with academic citations of course.
This week, November 6-11, 2017, was not only the first full week of Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo) 2017, but it also marked the sixth annual #UPWeek event in celebration of University Press Week. Throughout the week, there were a lot of great resources being shared throughout the academic community, no doubt inspired by these events. Our collection this week has something for everyone beginning with some humor illustrating the life of a grad student and tips about academic writing; exploring the scholarly process involving university presses, scholars, and reviewers; taking new perspectives on the publishing process, idea development, and resulting impact; increasing accessibility of scholarly resources; and sharing ideas with a broader audience. As stated by Oliver Markus, "The secret to good writing is to use small words for big ideas, not to use big words for small ideas." Now go, write, and share your big ideas!
Get ready for NaNoWriMo with the Preptober Productivity Program! Overcome writer's block and boost creativity for writers with ADHD.
As we reach the halfway point of Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo) 2017, the posts this week reflect an increased awareness of the disruptive nature of Open Access in academic publishing, ways to increase diversity in scholarly writing, tips for productive reading and distraction resistance while writing, ways to beat your fear of writing, tools for academic writers, improving your use of comparisons, strategies for quickly tackling a writing project, and how to market your academic journal articles. Whatever you are working on this week, remember the words of Louis L'Amour and "Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on."
This week brought with it the close of our Textbook Awards program nomination period and the start of Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo). It also brought with it articles focused on creative process, tips to improve writing, and cautionary tales for textbook and academic authors alike. Articles include innovative textbook development using augmented reality and creative learning activities, secrets and tips for improving your writing, how to manage commitments, and topics of potential concern related to copyright, predatory journals, and peer review. As you begin this month of academic writing, keep in mind the words of Lailah Gifty Akita, "Wondering leads to writing", and stay curious, pursue new ideas, and write.
The month of November is Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo). Throughout the month, TAA will be sharing resources and information to support your academic writing efforts. Look for information shared by TAA on social media with #AcWriMo all month long and join the conversation.
When I saw that PhD2Published had announced AcWriMo 2015, my first thought was that they were announcing it early this year. Then I looked at my calendar and noticed that it was already October 29!…
Do you have a list of things that need writing? Do you never actually get to the end of the list? Feel as if you’re on a treadmill? You no sooner finish one thing than you need to start on the next…
For the past year I have been reading on some of my favourite blogs comments about #AcWriMo. If you have not heard of it yet, #AcWriMo stands for Academic Writing Month and is inspired by the NaNoW…
In a lovely conversation with my niece (who is studying Political Science at a prestigious
When it comes to academic writing, it is important to be diligent about collecting and organizing sources that will support your statements. The success of the overall project is often determined by the organizational skills you show during the research stage, and if you lose track of the sources of your ideas, you may also end up inadvertently committing plagiarism. The following five tools can help you manage your sources and organize citations in accordance with whichever citation format you follow.
Q: What role does the writing work space and environment play in productivity? A: Noelle Sterne, author, editor and writing consultant: “As an academic and mainstream writer and editor, I firmly believe that one’s writing workspace and work environment tremendously influence productivity. To discover your best writing environment requires self-analysis and candid (if uncomfortable) answers to several important questions. 1) What is your optimal time for a work session? An hour, three, fifteen minutes? My optimal session is about an hour and a half. But sometimes my brain bubbles like a hot spring, and I can work for three hours straight without hearing my stomach growl.
1) They reject the notion of "writer’s block" the way others shun gluten. Some people are truly unable to tolerate that vilified protein, but many more leap after a culprit to explain their dyspepsia or inability to refrain from carby deliciosity. Maybe cutting out a big food group makes it easier to stick to a diet than being careful about portion sizes of crusty bread and pasta puttanesca. Certainly there’s a comfort in diagnosis, relief in the idea that suffering can be linked to a thing that others also get. Likewise, it’s a lot easier to say that the muse has gone AWOL than to admit that writing is hard and requires discipline and sacrifice.
Every researcher and academic is like a one-person ‘start-up company’ to begin with, especially during their doctorate and possibly into their early post-doc phase. Indeed, perhaps researchers are…
NaNoWriMo is an exhilarating month of writing. Capitalize on that creative energy and carry it with you when December arrives. Don't stop writing!
This presentation presents strategies to help you revise your academic writing. In particular, Rachael talks about different sorts of revision and the optimal way…
One of the things that can affect your tax returns is the income that you report from writing in the form of royalties, advances, etc. Many of you will have literary agents and those agents will report to you what you've earned at the end of a year on a 1099. While the IRS says that agencies are supposed to report to their clients the gross income amount that was received, most agencies report on the net basis, and the IRS doesn't seem to be aware of, or care about that. But as an author, you really need to know on what basis your agent is reporting income because it could potentially affect your tax return.
Writing a scientific dissertation in preparation to earn your doctorate degree is a daunting task for most science majors. Unlike a dissertation written for a different discipline, your dissertation must refrain from using any suggestion of moral or ethical considerations.
One of academia’s secrets is that most people struggle to get enough writing done. This is partly because they believe some heinous myths about writing, and…
In order to be a more productive writer while juggling many other duties in his career, William Weare, Access Services…
Academics are often trained to write in a way that actually runs directly contrary to the principles of effective scientific writing, said Kristin Sainani, an associate professor at Stanford University, who has taught a popular open online course on writing in the sciences.
In a lovely conversation with my niece (who is studying Political Science at a prestigious
From writing grants to authoring scientific papers and textbooks, writing is an imperative skill at any stage of one's career. Join Kristin Sainani, of Stanford…
Why does it seem like there’s never enough time to write? One of the key challenges of academic life is balancing the many demands on our time; while writing…
As a postdoctoral research assistant, Huerta was integrally involved with P.O.W.E.R. Writing Services program at Texas A&M University, a program that provides…
A good writing practice—a habit of coming back to work on your project regularly—is the foundation of good writing. One of the biggest challenges to many writing practices is to keep going after receiving difficult feedback. And perhaps an even bigger challenge is the fear of receiving feedback, which often contributes to writer’s block. If you’re submitting to a publisher, a journal, to your dissertation committee, or anyone else who might provide feedback, it will help if you feel like you can use the feedback you get effectively. The following is a slightly edited excerpt from my book Getting the Best of Your Dissertation: Practical Perspectives for Effective Research:
Blogging can be an effective tool for promoting your academic works and establishing yourself as a voice of influence within your academic discipline, said Kevin Patton, author of several anatomy and physiology textbooks including the 2016 Textbook Excellence Award-winning Anatomy & Physiology 9e. “A blog provides a virtual ‘home base’ to share information about your writing, teaching, and academic interests,” he said. “It provides you an effective outreach tool to network with your peers and students, and allows you to tailor your messages to the specific audience you wish to reach.”
Why is increasing diversity in scholarly communications seemingly so difficult? What should we be doing differently?
What is a “scholarly voice” and how do I develop it?
On November 3rd, TAA co-hosted its first TweetChat event with SAGE Methodspace as part of Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo). The focus on this event was getting organized with your academic writing projects. Six questions were presented during the hour-long event on type of project, inspiration, organization steps, audience influence, desired impact, and next steps. The full conversation is available in the Storify record below. Mark your calendar and join the discussion this Friday, November 17th at 11am ET as we discuss writing productivity. Simply log in to your Twitter account and search for #AcWriChat. As questions are posted, tag your responses with the #AcWriChat hashtag. See you there!
Did you start a blog or Twitter account and post a couple of things before deciding you didn’t want to keep up with it anymore? Or, maybe you are still on the fence whether you should take the time to create a blog or Twitter account? Either way, more and more academics are getting involved on social media and seeing the rewards. There are more reasons listed below, but these are what we've determined are most important. So here you go, 8 reasons why academics should be on social media (in no particular order):
I experimented with various productivity and management tools when I wrote my dissertation. There were 3 tools that were always in my arsenal. This post details my top 3 dissertation management tools and how I used them. Tool 1: Google Calendar Google Calendar has been my go-to calendar for over 10 years. My favorite aspects
One of academia’s secrets is that most people struggle to get enough writing done. This is partly because they believe some heinous myths about writing, and…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was awarded a preliminary injunction by the U.S. Court of the District of Nevada against defendants OMICS Group Inc., iMedPub LLC, and Conference Series LLC, to stop them from engaging in alleged unfair and deceptive practices in the publication of online academic journals and the organization of scientific conferences. The injunction also requires the defendants to identify assets and account for their current finances, and to preserve financial records.
Like many members of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association, I hold a tenure-track position which includes—for the most part—the usual expectations. Scholarship is particularly important, with peer-reviewed publication the expected outcome of my research. Service to the profession is important, but less so. In my current position (Director of Public Services, Evans Library, Texas A&M University), I do not teach, but I am expected to demonstrate excellence in the performance of my duties. These duties, in my case, include leading about thirty-five employees who staff three service desks in two buildings (one of which is open twenty-four hours, five days per week). It is very challenging to oversee a busy public services unit and maintain a research agenda that will result in a sufficient number of publications to satisfy the University Libraries’ Committee on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure.
