My Day Off

This piece follows directly from last month’s on taking time off. The author explores why taking a day off is so hard and describes her attempt.

Finally, I decided to take a day off. I work at home and, as anyone knows who does, that means all the time. No boundaries, no borders, no warning bell blaring at 9:00 at night or security guard barking “Closing!” When you quit is dictated only by hunger, exhaustion, or an occasional family emergency.

Ironically, I’ve often published advice to others to stop work and smell the rest of life. And yet, the doctor can’t comply with her own prescription.

My Day Off Read More

Industry News Roundup: November 2023

McGraw-Hill Hosting 11/30 Webinar on Navigating Generative AI in Higher Education.

McGraw-Hill is offering a free, 45-minute webinar on Thursday, November 30, at 12 PM ET, entitled, “AI EmpowerED: Navigating Generative AI in Higher Education.”

Panelists from McGraw Hill School Group, the University of Pennsylvania and Central Washington University will engage in a lively discussion of Generative AI’s potential to shape the way we learn, teach, and work, and how to address the challenges it poses in higher education. Topics include: What Generative AI is and how it’s different from traditional AI; The benefits and challenges associated with Generative AI; Strategies for using Generative AI cautiously and ethically; How Generative AI is shaping the skills we need and the importance of lifelong learning; and Effective ways to become more familiar with Generative AI and incorporate it into your teaching practices. Register

Industry News Roundup: November 2023 Read More

TAA Member Phil Wankat: Archival Articles on Money From the ‘TAA Report’

The fifth installment of TAA Member Phil Wankat’s curation and commentary of the archival issues of the TAA Report (now The Academic Author), Money, is now available. Articles include “Frustrations of a University Book Author,” “The Simplified Employee Pension,” “The New Paradox of the College Textbook,” and more.

Wankat selected articles that have information that is still valid today, and included commentary on each. We will be adding these articles to the web page, “Articles from TAA Report Archives (now The Academic Author) with Commentary,” over the next few months. The articles are organized into 10 categories, including Authors Needed, Cartoons, Contracts, Ethics, Money, Production, Recognition and Rewards, Software, Textbooks as Scholarship, and Writer’s Block. 

TAA Member Phil Wankat: Archival Articles on Money From the ‘TAA Report’ Read More

Choosing a Knowledge Level for Your Target Reader

Your research is done. You have been thinking about getting down to writing for a while. You have decided on your format (e.g., poster presentation, peer review journal article, monograph, textbook). Maybe you have a target publisher or website in mind.

Before you start to write, think about your target reader (or conference attendee or book customer) and what their level of knowledge is. This may seem like a given but take a moment.

Choosing a Knowledge Level for Your Target Reader Read More

The Psychology Behind Writing: Tap into Your Natural Personality to Assist Your Academic Writing Process (Part 4)

Hello fellow TAA members, thank you for reading this fourth post of “The Psychology Behind Writing.” With monthly offerings, we’ll get into some of the psychological processes that support our academic writing as well as the ones that derail our writing. And, we will definitely explore strategies for amplifying the positive and mitigating the negative. Read the first post, second post, and the third post in this series.

Decisive Writers vs. Inclusive Writers

As many of you might know, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is structured with 4 personality scales, each with two “opposite” preferences that rest on a continuum of intensity for that personality scale.

The Psychology Behind Writing: Tap into Your Natural Personality to Assist Your Academic Writing Process (Part 4) Read More

TAA Member Phil Wankat: Textbook Ethics From the ‘TAA Report’

The fourth installment of TAA Member Phil Wankat’s curation and commentary of the archival issues of the TAA Report (now The Academic Author), Ethics, is now available.

Wankat selected articles that have information that is still valid today, and included commentary on each. We will be adding these articles to the web page, “Articles from TAA Report Archives (now The Academic Author) with Commentary,” over the next few months. The articles are organized into 10 categories, including Authors Needed, Cartoons, Contracts, Ethics, Money, Production, Recognition and Rewards, Software, Textbooks as Scholarship, and Writer’s Block. 

TAA Member Phil Wankat: Textbook Ethics From the ‘TAA Report’ Read More