Has a colleague asked you to be their writing accountability partner? Accountability partners provide guidance, support, and motivation for a writer to forge ahead and stay on course with their writing. They also have a general interest in the writing success of the other person and can offer their own, different experiences, perspectives and ideas. All these things combined will help a writer overcome their challenges and barriers to writing success so they can be more productive, motivated, and able to reach their writing goals. To be an effective writing accountability partner, you need to be able to do these four things:
Peer Review Week [#PeerRevWk15]
This week is the first ever Peer Review Week. ORCID, ScienceOpen, Sense About Science, and Wiley launched this idea and will be sharing various posts, webinars, and other activities throughout the week. Many more organizations and scholars are expected (and already are) tweeting and blogging about peer review. You can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag: #PeerRevWk15.
The nuts & bolts of writing a book review
As a scholar and a writer, I am surrounded by books. I buy books at conferences. I buy books online. A stack of books grows on my desk, and even finds its way onto any horizontal surface in my living room. I identify them from reading the reference list of journal articles. I get recommendations from peers.
One of the services I can provide my peers is to write a book review on one of my most recently purchased books. A review serves to help my colleagues decide whether or not they wish to read the book.
6 Reasons to participate in a writing boot camp
Ashley Sanders, a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University and leader of TAA’s Dissertators United Chapter Writing Boot Camps, (the second boot camp, “Writing With POWER”, will be held Sept. 20-21. Register today) shares these six reasons to participate in a writing boot camp:
5 Approaches to writing group success
Writing groups offer their members a wealth of benefits. In fact, studies indicate that membership in a writing group can actually help boost your publication rate. In an examination of the publication rate of 48 female medical school faculty before and after participating in a writing group, Sonnad et al. found that the professors’ average publication rate increased from 1.5 papers per year to 4.5 papers per year after joining the writing group. Cumbie et al. also describe increases in productivity among writing group members, reporting “significant and positive writing outcomes in the form of manuscripts submitted for publication, abstracts submitted for conference presentations, [and] grant proposals developed.”
12 Strategies for writing group success
Writing groups provide an opportunity for faculty authors to connect with their peers, create a sense of community, and find collaborators for joint projects. By meeting regularly as a group, author members can provide one another with peer support and accountability while sharing advice that can help improve writing skills and lead to greater publication success.
Providing valuable resources and grant funding, TAA’s Chapter Program offers an excellent foundation for establishing a successful faculty authoring community. Following are twelve TAA Chapter Program strategies designed to increase the power and success of chapter writing groups.