Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: July 5, 2019

This week’s collection of articles from around the web is filled with resources and advice that you will want to save for present and future writing projects. It opens with some new books on writing that you might want to add to your personal library and then continues with specific advice on mistakes to avoid, data visualizations, how many references are appropriate, and graphical or video abstracts for your articles. Finally, there are some articles on other important topics including research funding, Plan S, and the need for outside jobs in grad school.

As you move forward on your writing projects this week, we wish you great success. Happy writing!

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The most useful textbook & academic posts of the week: January 5, 2018

As is often the case at the start of a new year, 2018 began with a wealth of change-focused and forward-thinking articles full of advice and projections for the year ahead. Specifically, our collection of posts for this week examine the end of stress for busy writers, mistakes that can hold you back as an author, and America’s public domain drought. They challenge the assumptions of trends in higher education, the value of writing self-efficacy, and what it means to be an academic. And finally, they suggest paths to success including themes rather than resolutions, tips for creating writing goals that work, a 5-day goal setting challenge, and a willingness to embrace your inner procrastinator.

Whatever 2018 has in store for you, we hope it includes progress and success in writing. After all, as Natasha Lester says, “Getting started on writing a book isn’t as hard as it sounds. You don’t need a plan and an outline. In fact, all you need are two things: time and one idea.”

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The three biggest mistakes academic writers make

I grew up in an academic family. When we would gather around the table at holidays, everyone but my bipolar aunt had a Ph.D. My ex-husband once told me he felt I needed to get a Ph.D. to be considered a grown-up by my family. So I know the culture. I am fluent in tenure and promotion, refereed articles and revise-and-resubmit, and the heaven and hell of the sabbatical and adjunct worlds.

As a creative writer and scholar who specializes in teaching mindfulness and writing as ways of dealing with chronic stress and healing from trauma, I bring my expertise in stress-reduction together with my personal experience of what it means to “be an academic.” I want to share with you some insights about the three biggest mistakes I see academic writers making.

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