Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: April 8, 2022

Where are you starting with your writing? Anne Lamott says, “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” Whether you are starting as a graduate student, a post-doc defining your research agenda, a new writing project, or a more extensive writing career, your new “first” effort will be a start (perhaps terrible) but not the end.

In this collection of articles from around the web, we find advice on academic authoring in the first person, writer’s block, research agendas, and protecting your ideas. We also find content on achieving goals as young writers, making writing a career, and considering University Presses for your next publication.

Whatever you are writing, start where you are and move forward. Happy writing!

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Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: February 18, 2022

As we started this week, many of us celebrated Valentine’s Day recognizing the loves in our life and, perhaps, feeling celebrated ourselves. For others, this same holiday can be one of heartache and defeat as life may not be as satisfying as desired or past loss may weigh heavy on our hearts. Regardless, we as authors can rejoice because Edna Ferber tells us, “Life can’t defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death.”

If your relationship with your writing needs a little TLC, consider some of the ideas in the articles below to breathe new life into your projects and learn to love again. Happy Writing!

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Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: January 7, 2022

How do you write? As we begin the new year of 2022, it’s a perfect time to reflect on your writing goals, habits, accomplishments, and shortcomings from last year and look at what adjustments may be necessary for the year ahead.

Our collection of articles from around the web for this first week of 2022 includes The Scholarly Kitchen‘s year in review, Jane Friedman’s insight on what writers need to do, and the publishing industry’s projection on the continued effect of COVID-19 on returning to the office. The set continues with a vision for a new model library, Joanna Penn’s creative and business goals for the new year, and ends with four strategies for writing in a world of distractions.

Stephen King once described his answer to our opening question, saying, “When asked, ‘How do you write?’ I invariably answer, ‘one word at a time’.” It may be too much to look at the entire year ahead and plan your writing projects, so if necessary, start with just the next word in your project. Happy writing!

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Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: October 22, 2021

Stephen Mitchell once said, “Education is no longer thought of as a preparation for adult life, but as a continuing process of growth and development from birth until death.” In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we see insight into that continuous process from the writing and research perspective.

We begin with an understanding of academic writing, look at challenges with research funding, explore proper citation to avoid plagiarism, and examine ways to increase productivity by using our analyzer switch.

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