How to balance the demands of teaching and working on your thesis

If you asked most people about the demands of a teaching position, they’d quickly agree that time extends beyond the classroom hours with grading and student interaction turning most part-time roles into full-time commitments of time and full-time roles into, well, more. Ask the same about the time involved in getting a graduate degree, especially during the research-intensive processes of a thesis or dissertation, and in most cases, you’ll hear of it being a full-time job unto itself.

So how can one person balance the demands of these two time-intensive efforts? For the answer, we sought the opinions of several TAA members, and as a bonus have included some additional resources to assist you if you are currently in or considering such a balancing act yourself.

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.”

Schedule time to market your work or pay the consequences

Committing to writing involves more than just working away at a new Word file. It also requires the commitment to promote and market the eventual work as well. This does not come naturally to everyone, but this dedication to help spread the word about the work is equally important as the content itself.

Whether it is a journal article, a monograph, a textbook, or some other form of academic communication, marketing is essential to the success of the material.

5 Questions to ask your publisher about their author websites

In today’s marketplace, authors need to be integrally involved with the marketing of their books, including making decisions about author websites. While many authors have the opportunity to use their publisher’s author website option, they should carefully consider whether that website offers the design elements, content features, and editing flexibility to best serve their needs.