Why is writing so terrifying? Dr. Michelle R. Boyd’s Becoming the Writer You Already Are explains why being afraid of writing is neither strange nor shameful. And introduces the Writing Metaphor, a tool that illuminates what you already know about overcoming writing challenges. Becoming shows you how to consult, trust, and follow that process. So you can live a pleasurable, productive, satisfying writing life.
A Copyeditor’s Suggestions for Tightening Up Your Prose
By Laura Poole
I’ve been copyediting scholarly nonfiction for many years now, and I have some gentle suggestions to academic writers who would like to tighten up their prose.
These are all suggestions at the phrase level, not the sentence level, to reduce wordiness, impose active voice, and improve flow. There are NOT hard-and-fast rules and should not be done as a knee-jerk reflex. There are times when these suggested edits won’t work or will change the meaning of the phrase; in these cases, don’t do them!
2025 TAA Conference Bookstore Featured Book: ‘Publish & Flourish’
Triple your productivity. Write prose that is clearer, better organized, and more compelling. Publish in better journals and get more grants. Ninety scholars who followed the steps were studied, and 95% reported that their writing improved. They also increased then number of manuscripts submitted from a rate of two per year to nearly six. You can too, with Tara Gray’s, Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar.
Routledge Sells Out Authors to AI
by Janet Salmons, PhD
An unassuming post on LinkedIn asked “Have you ever published with Taylor & Francis, Routledge, CRC Press, F1000 or Dove Medical Press? If so the rights for AI to harvest your work have been sold to Microsoft which it will use to power MS Co-Pilot.”
Really. Funny thing, I never heard a peep about this from Routledge, even though I have three books published with them. I wrote to ask what the heck is going on, and received this response from a Taylor & Francis/Routledge Editor:
Busy TAA People: Andrea Honigsfeld, Audrey Cohan, Author New Book
Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld, a Professor of TESOL Teacher Education, and Dr. Audrey Cohan, Senior Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Studies, both of Molloy University, co-authored a new book, Collaboration for Multilingual Learners With Exceptionalities: We Share the Students, published by Corwin, a Sage company. The book includes models, strategies, and real-life stories to strengthen readers’ collaborative practices. The authors won the Most Promising New Textbook award from TAA in 2016 for their book, Serving English Language Learners. Congratulations, Andrea and Audrey!
Princeton University Press Offering Grants to Historically Excluded and Underrepresented Scholars
Princeton University Press is offering grants for authors who represent groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields who are interested in developing a nonfiction book proposal. Applications are open August 12 to October 11, with selected candidates notified in December. Coaches participating in the grant program include TAA member Michelle Boyd, PhD, Inkwell Writing Retreats; and Margy Thomas, PhD, ScholarShape.
Selected grantees will be paired with a writing coach to collaborate on the development of a proposal for general interest books, scholarly monographs, or textbooks in physics and astronomy, earth science, biology, natural history, neuroscience, computer science, and the mathematical sciences. The opportunity is open to first-time and previously published authors who are writing in English from anywhere in the world.