The Psychology Behind Writing: Tap into Your Natural Personality to Assist Your Academic Writing Process (Part 1)

Hello fellow TAA members, lovely to meet you and thank you for reading this inaugural post of “The Psychology Behind Writing.” Over the next 12 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. 

Active Writers vs. Reflective Writers

Let’s start this series by looking at our natural personality preferences and how these influence writing processes as well as the preferred approach of our chosen discipline. We’ll use the tried-and-true Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as our personality framework and starting point.

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Submit a Proposal for the 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association Conference Committee invites proposals for its 2024 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Nashville, June 21-22, “Author Talk. Music to Our Ears.”

Presenting at TAA’s 2024 TAA Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring provides an opportunity to share your knowledge, experiences, and ideas with other textbook authors, academic authors, and industry professionals.

The goals of this year’s program:

  • Explore and exchange ideas on the future of the textbook and academic authoring and publishing industry, especially emerging trends like AI.
  • Share successful writing tips and strategies and inspire you to complete your writing projects.
  • Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic and educational materials.
  • Sessions will take place in three different tracks: General, Textbook, and Academic. Preference will be given to sessions that incorporate innovative and interactive elements.

We welcome proposals from first-time and veteran presenters! The deadline for submitting a proposal is October 15, 2023 (Look for Call for Proposals link at top of site).

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2024 TAA Textbook Award Nominations Open Sept 1

It’s almost time! Nominations for the TAA Textbook Awards will open in two weeks. Starting September 1st, we’ll start accepting nominations for our three prestigious awards:

  • McGuffey Longevity Award – to recognize long-standing textbooks and learning materials that have been in print for at least 15 years.
  • Textbook Excellence Award – to recognize excellence in current textbooks and learning materials.
  • Most Promising New Textbook Award – to recognize promising textbooks and learning materials in their first edition.

Learn more and start preparing your nomination.

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Command Your Pet Words

Pets can be wonderful—I loved my orange and white cat. But when I received an editorial critique before publication of my short story “Casey,” I was horrified to learn it sheltered a whole menagerie of unwanted editorial pets —words, phrases, and grammatical constructions.

“Casey” is a story about a middle-school boy who feels like an outcast and later discovers he has healing powers. When I received the acceptance email, I was elated. Then the editor emailed me again: “Every author has pet words and phrases. Part of my job is to point them out so you can get rid of them.” She attached the manuscript and highlighted a herd of my pet words and phrases, in oxblood.

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TAA’s Textbook Awards Are Coming Back!

The TAA Textbook Awards are coming back, and we’ll begin accepting nominations on September 1. Get ready to apply! We’ll be accepting nominations for the following awards:

McGuffey Longevity Award – to recognize long-standing textbooks and learning materials that have been in print for at least 15 years.

Textbook Excellence Award – to recognize excellence in current textbooks and learning materials.
Most Promising New Textbook Award – to recognize promising textbooks and learning materials in their first edition.

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