Do you ever feel like you’re working on a million tasks at once, but not making progress on any of them? As an academic, it’s likely that you are juggling multiple commitments and projects. Even the most determined of us can find ourselves overwhelmed at the scope of our responsibilities. If you find yourself struggling to keep track of your writing amidst all your other professional obligations, you’ll want to join us Thursday, November 9 from 3-4 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “The Academic Juggle: Managing Your Writing in a World of Commitments”, presented by Jane Dr. Jane Jones, academic editor and productivity coach at Up In Consulting.
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: November 3, 2017
This week brought with it the close of our Textbook Awards program nomination period and the start of Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo). It also brought with it articles focused on creative process, tips to improve writing, and cautionary tales for textbook and academic authors alike. Articles include innovative textbook development using augmented reality and creative learning activities, secrets and tips for improving your writing, how to manage commitments, and topics of potential concern related to copyright, predatory journals, and peer review. As you begin this month of academic writing, keep in mind the words of Lailah Gifty Akita, “Wondering leads to writing”, and stay curious, pursue new ideas, and write.
Open educational resources or traditional textbooks?
3 experts weigh in
An August 15, 2017 article in the Lansing State Journal, “LCC takes aim at pricey textbooks, offers free course materials”, shared a decision by Lansing Community College to offer students freely available open educational resources (OER) rather than traditional textbooks during the fall 2017 semester. Sixty-four professors in 24 courses will be taking part in the initiative.
The decision to use OER materials, said Regina Gong, a librarian and open educational resources project manager at LCC, was based on the College’s desire to reduce the “cost for incoming students who have to take introductory courses before moving on to higher end classes.”
In a recent discussion about the article in TAA’s LinkedIn group, three experts weighed in on LCC’s OER initiative, answering the question: “How many of you are working at schools considering or adopting this model? Thoughts?”
AcWriMo is here!
The month of November is Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo). Throughout the month, TAA will be sharing resources and information to support your academic writing efforts. Look for information shared by TAA on social media with #AcWriMo all month long and join the conversation.
9 Reasons to design your own author website
In part 1 of her webinar series, “Designing a Web Presence for Your Book (Beyond the Publisher Website)”, Dr. Katie Linder, creator of The Academic Book Promotion Toolkit shared valuable tips for considering your options when designing a web presence for your book. Among these tips were questions for consideration on whether your book needs a website, pros and cons of publisher vs. author sites, what to include on a book website, and dos and don’ts of website design.
In this article, we focus on nine reasons you should consider creating your own author website for your book. As presented by Dr. Linder, some of these reasons are disadvantages of having a publisher website, and others are advantages to creating an author website for your book.
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: October 27, 2017
This week, October 23-29, 2017, marked the tenth annual Open Access Week. The articles collected this week include information on open education, Open Access textbook publishing, starting an Open Access journal, requirements for a sustainable knowledge commons, the editor’s role in a changing publishing industry, and equity and inclusion in scholarly publishing. As this month comes to a close, we are also preparing for Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo) starting next week. Be sure to check out the last link with information about AcWriMo events co-hosted by TAA next month. According to Amit Kalantri, “The most difficult thing about writing; is writing the first line.” This week, start something. Write that first line.