TAA recently added three new 90-Minute Virtual Workshops by James Lang, former Professor of English and the founding Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University: 1) “Writing Like a Teacher: Expanding the Audiences for Your Research”; 2) “Queries, Proposals, and Agents: The Mechanics of Submitting to Trade Book Publishers”; and 3) “Writing Accessible Prose: Attention Tools on the Page”. These TAA-sponsored virtual workshops are offered to institutions on a first-come first-served basis. Learn more about how you can bring these or other TAA virtual workshops to your campus for only $1,000.

Writing Like a Teacher: Expanding the Audiences for Your Research

Are the faculty at your institution engaged in research that deserves to find a wider audience? Are you an academic or teacher that would like to cross over the border between writing for you disciplinary peers and writing for more public audiences? This interactive workshop argues that the way to establish these goals is to draw upon our hard-won wisdom as teachers to create effective learning experiences for readers. This approach draws lessons from Jim Lang’s work as a book series acquisition editor, his multiple books aimed at general academic audiences, and his dozens of published magazine and newspaper essays. Participants will learn about the power of questions to drive writing projects, the use of evidence in public writing, and the importance of developing a unique writing voice. Learn more

Queries, Proposals, and Agents: The Mechanics of Submitting to Trade Book Publishers

This workshop will cover the logistics of submitting nonfiction book proposals to trade publishers: major commercial presses, university presses with trade lines, and independent or smaller publishers. We’ll walk through the mechanics of queries and book proposals, with plenty of opportunities for questions from participants. But we’ll also go beyond the basic advice that can be found online for submitting book proposals to publishers and review some smart strategies for getting work into the hands of editors. Finally, we’ll consider a common question for aspiring trade book authors: Do I need an agent? Whether participants have completed their manuscripts or are still working with the germ of an idea, they should leave this webinar armed with the tools they need to find the right publisher for their work. Learn more

Writing Accessible Prose: Attention Tools on the Page

Calls for accessible writing from academics or experts tend to focus on reducing sentence complexity or reducing jargon. These are good ideas, but they are just starting points. In this workshop we will first consider how successful nonfiction authors expand their evidence base, stepping outside of their disciplinary evidence traditions to appeal to a wider audience of readers. They engage readers with stories, examples, literary techniques, and more. Then we will dig deeper into the attention tools of writing by analyzing a small number of writing techniques we can use to create an engaging reading experience and keep readers focused on our key ideas. Learn more