Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: January 7, 2022

How do you write? As we begin the new year of 2022, it’s a perfect time to reflect on your writing goals, habits, accomplishments, and shortcomings from last year and look at what adjustments may be necessary for the year ahead.

Our collection of articles from around the web for this first week of 2022 includes The Scholarly Kitchen‘s year in review, Jane Friedman’s insight on what writers need to do, and the publishing industry’s projection on the continued effect of COVID-19 on returning to the office. The set continues with a vision for a new model library, Joanna Penn’s creative and business goals for the new year, and ends with four strategies for writing in a world of distractions.

Stephen King once described his answer to our opening question, saying, “When asked, ‘How do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time’.” It may be too much to look at the entire year ahead and plan your writing projects, so if necessary, start with just the next word in your project. Happy writing!

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Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: June 4, 2021

As textbook and academic authors, we often know where we want to go, perhaps have some idea of how to get there, but are often caught with feelings of ill-preparedness, lack of knowledge or resources, and a general sense of self-reliance to produce our results. From the outside looking in, we may appear to be working hard with nothing to show for the effort.

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How do you look in profile?

Being visible in your academic or research is essential to your long term career. It also affects how widely your work will be read and disseminated. Search engines like Google will care about who you are and how connected your writing is.

So how do you ensure that you look your best in your online academic profile?

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In between writer and author

Have you heard the recent song from American Idol and country music singer, Scotty McCreery? It’s called “In Between” and it’s a fun song that I think a lot of people can identify with because we tend to see ourselves as not all of one particular thing or another. It’s also quite fitting in a world where we often label people in a specific way and once identified as such, find it that much harder to see them as anything different.

As many problems such thinking can cause in our world of relationships, it can be that much more devastating when labels or identification is self-imposed, especially when that assigned identity is less than what we want to be known for.

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Student review of textbook provides valuable feedback

When was the last time you received honest feedback about your textbook from students? For many authors, feedback is provided during production from a team of editors. For a luckier few, instructor and student review may be part of the production process, especially for first editions. But rarely do authors have direct feedback from the students their book is intended to serve post-adoption.

Dr. Elizabeth Losh, associate professor of English and American Studies at William & Mary University, and author of Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing, has made student feedback a key component of her writing process.

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