Literature reviews are common elements in academic writing, found in dissertations or theses, but also in journal articles, book introductions, book chapters, and even course exercises. Despite its prevalence in academia, the process of writing a literature review is often daunting to an academic author.
In her recent TAA webinar, “Demystifying the Literature Review”, Dr. Daveena Tauber, Founder of Scholar Studio shared four tips that can make the process easier.
With membership in TAA, you are not alone. You become part of a diverse community of textbook and academic authors with similar interests and goals. We are pleased to announce the addition of 34 new TAA members who joined us in June 2018.
This week’s collection of articles from around the web contains a variety of topics of interest or concern to authors. If you’re considering tools to support your scholarly writing efforts, there are articles related to Revision Assistant, Google Drive, and the latest in search. Ethics-minded? We have articles on using tweets as data, sharing story ownership, and interpretation of results. Thinking about your publishing options? There’s continued discussion on open access models. Just trying to move forward in your scholarly writing? We also found time-saving tips for writing papers and methods for being a “star PhD student”.
Erica Jong once said, “I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.” This week we encourage you to finish something. Be brave. Be brilliant. And write without fear of judgement.
In his recent webinar, “Making Textbooks Accessible to Students With Disabilities”, Robert Martinengo, Publisher Outreach Specialist for the CAMI project at AMAC Accessibility, said that the issue of accessibility is even more important when it comes to digital products.
“The ability to navigate through a digital textbook is a critical component of accessibility,” he said. “Navigation is enabled by consistent and rational use of tags throughout the text.”
In addition to effective navigation, accessible manuscripts should also include these four elements, said Martinengo:
TAA member Tracey S. Hodges is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama and an academic author in the literacy discipline.
She most recently published an article entitled “Transacting with characters: Teaching children perspective-taking with authentic literature” which details a study conducted with her co-authors Erin McTigue, Katherine Landau Wright, Amanda Franks, and Sharon Matthews. To date, she has published 13 journal articles.
TAA member and former TAA Council President Dr. Mary Kay Switzer will be an honored feature in noted Chinese author Albert Chang’s book and paintings, “Six Women,” to be exhibited in Tokyo in April 8-10, 2019. Chang and Switzer began their collaboration at California State University Pomona. Switzer has been designated Professor Emerita at that university. She is currently living in Tempe, Arizona where she is involved in theatrical productions.
