When I completed my doctoral journey in 2007, I had the opportunity to write for publication. And soon, I realized that there was a unique interest from readers in my sharing ‘from the heart’ about my field of discipline, educational leadership. I began what has become a long series of books on the fascinating world of school leadership—and through the eyes of principals and other educators down in the trenches. Many of these projects have been co-authored or co-edited, as I have found others who have lived the work have such interesting stories and insights to share.
2/21 TAA Webinar on Navigating Your Writing Process
Do you ever find yourself writing in circles, struggling with decision fatigue or a lack of purpose in your scholarly writing? Do you wish you had a structure for your writing process that felt expansive and flexible enough to account for the complexities of scholarship creation?
Join us Wednesday, February 21 from 1-2 p.m. ET for a one-hour webinar, Navigating Your Writing Process as a Purposeful QuEST. Margy Thomas, PhD, of ScholarShape will walk you through the simple yet powerful QuEST framework as a way of structuring your writing projects in any genre.
Textbook, Academic Authors Report Very Little Communication with Publishers Regarding AI
Eighty percent of respondents to the Textbook & Academic Authors Association’s latest survey, “Generative AI, Your Publisher & You,” said they have not had conversations with their publishers about their position on AI, their use of AI in their work(s), and/or contract clauses related to AI. The purpose of the survey, conducted between December 12, 2023, and January 8, 2024, was to help members advocate for themselves in conversations with their publisher(s) about generative Al (like ChatGPT) in contracts, policies, and statements.
Navigating Writing with ChatGPT
Utilising ChatGPT as a supporting technological tool for writing can increase productivity. Here, I will share my personal experience with the model; how it assisted my writing practice, and the issues writers must be aware of.
ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. It generates human-like responses to questions and performs other language-related tasks based on training data, mainly from the Internet. Its ability to use language, process data and arrive at conclusions has made it one of the top technological developments in 2023 globally. Here are four ways to utilize ChatGPT in your writing process:
How ChatGPT Improved Textbook Author’s Amazon Book Description
Dr. Margaret Reece, author of Physiology: Custom-Designed Chemistry, recently used AI tool ChatGPT to revise her book’s description on Amazon. The following illustrates how the process worked, including a before and after description and the prompt she used. “I did some minor editing of the AI response, but I think it is much better than the original,” she said.
Overcome Stalling and Start Writing Your Dissertation
You’ve reached the first dissertation milestone—approval of your prospectus. Great! You couldn’t wait to plunge into the next step, writing the proposal. But now that you’re here, somehow it’s not working. With all the best intentions and surrounded by all your scholarly materials, you’re spending long fruitless hours in your study or the library. The days are slipping away, your friends are out eating pizza, and your family wonders what you’re really doing for all those solitary hours. You feel paralyzed.
To cheer yourself up, remember that the proposal becomes the first three chapters of the real dissertation. But this fact probably offers little consolation. Your completed proposal seems like a sky-high wall with not even a step stool in sight. Where is that danged first step?