11 Tricks and tips to get those words on a page

Whether we’re in the throes of a dissertation, article, or book, most of us have trouble writing—starting, continuing, finishing. Especially after our original flush of enthusiasm and amazed production at the first few paragraphs or pages, we find that each of our writing projects carries its own problems.

From my own experiences with tortured writing and those of my academic coaching and editing clients, here I’ll share eleven tricks and tips to help you ease into or continue your writing. If you need convincing, included too are credible rationales for how each method can help you.

Join us 5/18 for the TAA webinar, ‘5 Ways to Use Your Dissertation for Publications’

You spent a lot of time conducting research and writing a dissertation, thesis, or capstone project. You are well aware of the pressure to get your work published, in order to get hired or advance in your academic or professional field. Where do you start?

Janet Salmons, PhD, of Vision2Lead, Inc., mined every element of her dissertation to launch a publishing strategy that has resulted in five books, numerous chapters and cases, articles and blog posts. She created a typology of five options for drawing from, building on, or applying your student writing. This webinar is relevant those who have graduated recently as well as to people whose dissertations have been sitting on the shelf for a while.

TAA Vice President’s Message: What TAA means to me

I am excited for TAA’s upcoming 29th Annual Conference in June! In just a few short months I will join fellow textbook and academic authors at the Hotel Contessa in San Antonio for two full days of connecting, collaborating and being inspired by fellow TAA members. This will be my fourth conference since joining TAA in 2012. Last year at the conference I shared with some colleagues what TAA means to me, and how being a part of TAA has advanced my writing career and helped me to become more successful. I compared my experience, prior to joining TAA, as being born with three eyes. While having three eyes could be a positive attribute, I felt isolated, misunderstood, underrepresented. Different. As a textbook and academic author in a community college in Alabama, I had no method of connecting with other authors.

TAA once again stands up for authors in Google Books case

More than a decade ago, in 2004, Google initiated a program, in concert with several university and large public libraries, to scan and digitize the entire contents of millions of books without regard to whether they were or were not still under copyright, ultimately making complete digital copies of more than 20 million books. Google’s goal was to expand its search business to include print works as well as online works. It spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this project, suggesting what Google believed to be its commercial potential.