Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: March 4, 2022
Are you in the mood to write? Perhaps you’re waiting for something. Perhaps you’re waiting for the right time, the right environment, the right words. But waiting isn’t writing. Pearl S. Buck said, “I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”
To help you get down to work, consider the articles in this week’s collection to help you move your project forward. Now is the time. Don’t wait. Happy writing!
Is It Too Late to Start Writing?
There are so many reasons why you might not have made the leap from aspiring to write to actually starting to do it yet. Maybe you doubt whether you’re good enough. Maybe writing has never seemed like an important enough priority to dedicate your time to. Maybe you think you’ve waited so long to start that it’s too late.
Here’s something we’ve all experienced: you’re reading and something happens to distract you. So you go back and re-read the sentence, get distracted again, and again, and then you have to back up and re-read the whole paragraph, and then the page, and then finally you’re just sitting there staring at it, thinking “wait, what’s happening?” and you realize that with all of the distractions, you’re actually kind of un-reading.
Book writing – on introductions and some-we-prepared-before
I still find that getting the first words down is hard. I’ve learnt now that what often works for me is writing an introductory chapter. Not the book blurb, nor the acknowledgements and thankyous. Something about the book as a whole. Typically, an introductory chapter lays out the rationale for the book and tells the reader what it will do.
Revision is, of course, a conceptual activity, but it is also a physical activity. When we revise, we aren’t just thinking about the ideas contained in our text, we are engaging with the physical manifestation of those ideas: words and sentences and paragraphs laid out on pages. That layout–how our text looks–makes a difference to our revision process.
Best Practices for Working with an Independent Editor
Most writers have read the wide-eyed articles from newly-agented writers detailing the pressure of revising and returning edits on a tight schedule and working with an assigned editor. But what if you’re the one hiring the editor? By their nature as entrepreneurs, every independent editor’s business practices vary. Ask your editor about these common expectations and practices before agreeing to any work.
Offensive or Inclusive Language in Scientific Communication?
Academic writing often aids in molding societal behavior and perceptions. Unconscious biases can result in unintentional stereotyping or exclusion simply through ill-considered word choices. As scholarly communicators, we are often seen as role models—to our students, peers, and even to society as a whole. Inclusive language in scholarly communication serves to acknowledge and celebrate diversity, extend respect to different sections of society, and ultimately promote equitable opportunities.
Trends in Academic Publishing Survey 2021
In 2021, Deanta surveyed academic publishers across the globe to discover how the industry was reacting after a Covid-hit 2020. The results of that 2021 survey revealed how the skills that publishers need were diversifying and, although confidence across the industry was high, evidence of immediate meaningful change was low, even though our survey did suggest that change may be coming.
