What motivates you to write?

What is the one thing you need when you sit down to write? I don’t mean the obvious pen and paper or computer, but that one other thing that you always have when you write? Maybe it’s a tall-soy-caramel-macchiato and a corner booth at the local coffee shop. Maybe it’s a stack of papers with all of your research, or an expanding file folder packed full, yet obsessively organized, with research material. Maybe it’s not even a physical thing or place. Maybe it’s nothing more than a seed of an idea or a spark of inspiration.

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Why print is still winning

The debate about digital textbooks (etextbooks) and whether they will replace their physical counterparts continues this week with recent findings from the University of Washington. Their study showed that roughly 25% of students who were given free versions of etextbooks still purchased a physical copy of the same book.

“These are people who aren’t supposed to remember what it’s like to even smell books,” said Naomi S. Baron, an American University linguist who studies digital communication. “It’s quite astounding.”

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8 Reasons why academics should be on social media

Did you start a blog or Twitter account and post a couple of things before deciding you didn’t want to keep up with it anymore? Or, maybe you are still on the fence whether you should take the time to create a blog or Twitter account? Either way, more and more academics are getting involved on social media and seeing the rewards. There are more reasons listed below, but these are what we’ve determined are most important. So here you go, 8 reasons why academics should be on social media (in no particular order):

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