2021 TAA Council Election Results Announced

Five TAA members have been elected to the TAA Council, the association’s governing board. Paul Krieger has been elected Vice President/President-Elect, Juli Saitz has been elected to a third term as Treasurer, and Brenda Ulrich has been elected to a second term as Secretary. Stacie Craft DeFreitas and Dione Taylor have been elected to Council positions.

Krieger, a retired professor of biology, is the author and illustrator of the four-book series, The Visual Analogy Guides. In his position statement, he said he intends to focus on three major goals as VP/President-Elect: (1) Help TAA remain true to its mission of supporting textbook and academic authors as it has done so impressively over the years;

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Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: May 7, 2021

Academia serves a purpose of feeding the future, of taking minds with a limited set of knowledge and helping them realize that while they may have a perspective of vast understanding, the potential for growth and development of their understanding exists in a limitless amount of barren space. It is from this mindset that I believe C.S. Lewis claimed, “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.”

I have read that quote numerous times, and as an educator and author myself, taught and thought from the perspective that in a world of information overload, we are in a different era than Lewis and have a new responsibility of cutting down jungles to help our students see clearly.

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Why thank the editor?

Craving publication, we may view journal editors as the enemy, obstructing our fame, fortune, and at least one publication. And when the acceptance finally arrives (and with relentless perseverance, it will), we rejoice, send out email blasts to everyone we know, and reply to world-renowned conference directors with gracious replies. Before all this, though, we should do one thing that’s both considerate and diplomatic: thank the editor.

This action makes sense for several sound reasons:

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Your textbook isn’t being revised. Now what?

If your standard textbook revision cycle has come and gone, it doesn’t automatically mean that you aren’t being revised, and you can’t expect that your publisher will reach out to you either, so you’ll need to ask, says Donna Battista, vice president of content strategy for Top Hat.

“Get in touch with your publisher and just ask directly,” she says. “I think it’s always good practice to start from the perspective that everybody is going to work in good faith. Nobody wants to squat on your rights.”

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Words matter: Guidelines for pronoun usage

There exists no attribute more central to the human condition than one’s identity. Our identity – whether it is cultural, professional, ethnic and national, religious, gender, or disability – is a central tenet of representation. It affects how we communicate with others and our communication about others. Thus, it is important that we as scholarly writers and professionals are as cognizant of the identities of our audience as we are of our own.

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