Author Tech Tool Suggestions: For the Tech Bewildered

By John Bond

We are living in a Golden Age of technology for authors. But sometimes these new or improved tools can be intimidating. Here are some simple steps for getting started on considering these tools that might improve your writing output and quality.

Before we start, take an inventory:

  • Currently am I making the best use of my time?
  • Will new tools make me more productive?
  • What’s wrong with your current tools?
  • What is available to you now through your institution?
  • What’s your motivation for a change?

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Academese: Are You Narrowing Your Audience By Not Speaking Their Language?

By Sierra Pawlak

During TAA’s May 2024 Conversation Circle, several members shared their experiences with ‘academese’ and tips for how academic writers can avoid it in their writing. Academese is characterized by writing that is heavily filled with jargon, overcomplicated language, and/or convoluted sentence structure (Wikipedia).

“The biggest sin in academic writing is the passive voice,” said Barbara Nostrand, an Aquisitions Editor at Gakumon and Senior Fellow at the de Moivre Institute. “It makes it much more difficult for the reader to understand what’s been written, and it’s completely unnecessary.” She recommends using the active voice instead, for example, ‘I saw’, ‘I observed’: “A trick to doing that is to move the verb as close to the beginning of the sentence as possible.”

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Before You Start Writing: Identify the Journal You Want to Publish In

By Sierra Pawlak

Dave Harris, an editor and writing coach from Thought Clearing, says identifying the journal you want to publish in early helps you decide what goes into the paper you write.

“You want to identify what journal you’re writing to first, because every journal is different, and if you’re not doing a good job of targeting your article to a specific journal, you’re going to have a harder time getting accepted,” he said, during the April 2024 TAA Conversation Circle discussion on the topic of literature reviews. “At some point where you’ve got this research project that you’ve done and you’re trying to write it up, that’s when you say, ‘here’s the journal I want to go to,’ and you start there, thinking about how to frame your material to suit the journal.”

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TAA Featured in Episode of The A&P Professor Podcast

TAA was featured in an episode of The A&P Professor podcast on April 12, “Pulse of Progress, Looking Back, Moving Forward,” with host Kevin Patton, an award-winning anatomy and physiology textbook author. Kevin’s comments about the benefits of TAA membership and invitation to attend TAA’s 2024 Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring come in at 50:22.

In the episode, Kevin says: “With a strongly supportive network of colleagues, TAA provides many resources and active, engaging opportunities for growth and network-forming. TAA meets the needs of those interested in creating textbooks, lab manuals, workbooks, and other learning resources, as well as those who focus on academic writing, such as journal articles, dissertations/theses, monographs, and scholarly or other nonfiction works.”

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Journal, ‘Prompt’, Seeking Site Editor, Associate Production Editor

The editors of Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments are seeking applications for two positions: Site Editor and Associate Production Editor. Review of applications will begin on April 19th. Learn more

Prompt is a scholar-run, open-access, peer-reviewed online journal. It publishes academic writing assignments, accompanied by reflective essays, from all academic disciplines. Its articles bring together theory and praxis to promote better teaching of writing as well as illuminate the complexities of teaching writing in context. The journal publishes two issues a year with an average of 4 to 6 articles per issue. More information about the journal, including recently published articles and issue archives, is available here.

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Writing Your Scholarly Journal Article: Advice on Getting ‘Unstuck’

Important to getting “unstuck” when you’re writing, is to know why you’re stuck, and to recognize how many different ideas or thoughts can contribute to being stuck, says Dave Harris, an editor and writing coach from Thought Clearing.

“A lot of people have little barriers here, and little barriers there, and they pile up and add up,” he said. “Analyze your ‘stuckness’ and recognize the parts that are you being afraid, and the parts that are you not defining your project right, and the parts that are entirely outside of your ability to control but have to negotiate anyway.”

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