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Can I help you in any way? Book recommendations

Can I help you in any way? Book recommendations“Hello, thank you for visiting. Can I help you in any way?” If you’ve browsed our TAA website, you’ve likely seen those words in the chat box that appears on the screen. We’re often asked by visitors if we’re “real”. Then those who realize that we are, and that we are there to help, ask questions that you may have as well.

In this series of “Can I help you in any way?” posts, we’ll highlight some of the questions people have asked through the TAA Live Chat feature of our site and the responses we have for those questions. In this post, we’re focused on a question about the best books on academic writing.

Recently a visitor to the site chat asked for a recommendation on “the best book on academic writing”. 

While there are many options, and the answer to this question is quite subjective, I offered two suggestions that seem to be often referenced in conversation with TAA members.

The first is Wendy Belcher’s, Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success

The second is Pat Goodson’s, Becoming an Academic Writer: 50 Exercises for Paced, Productive, and Powerful Writing, which was a 2018 TAA Textbook Excellence Award winner.

The visitor shared another book with me as well, John M. Swales and Christine B. Feak’s, Academic Writing for Graduate Students.

What books would you add to the list as “the best book on academic writing”? Comment below.

Can we help you in other ways? Check out the previous series posts on learning objectivesessay writingcourses and workshopspublishing strategiessoftware tools for writersquoting sourcesrevisions and editingOERdissertations, and self-publishing.


Eric Schmieder

Eric Schmieder is the Membership Marketing Manager for TAA. He has taught computer technology concepts to curriculum, continuing education, and corporate training students since 2001. A lifelong learner, teacher, and textbook author, Eric seeks to use technology in ways that improve results in his daily processes and in the lives of those he serves. His latest textbook, Web, Database, and Programming: A foundational approach to data-driven application development using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, MySQL, and PHP, First Edition, is available now through Sentia Publishing.