Summer is coming to a close. Maybe you are even already back in session. Were you able to meet your summer writing goals? What would you have done differently? Now is the time to make note of what worked well and what didn’t work so well. Keep this on hand so you have a better plan in place or a better understanding of how you work so that you can (if need be) accomplish more next summer. You may not feel you need to accomplish more, but you may feel that you need to work more efficiently.
5 Must-use social media tools for academics
You know the old adage “work smarter, not harder”? That’s exactly what the following tools will help you do when it comes to sharing, creating, and scheduling messages for your social media platforms. While there are hundreds, if not thousands of tools available on the web, the five listed below—ones I actually use frequently and love—are user-friendly and excellent resources for you as an academic using social media. Did I mention that these tools will also help save you time?! So get creating, get sharing, and get social with these five must-use social media tools:
Select 2015 TAA Conference presentations now available on demand
Select presentations from TAA’s 2015 TAA Conference in San Antonio, TX are now available on demand. Access to these presentations is free for all TAA members. Learn how to jump-start your academic writing, reach your productivity peak, publish a disciplinarily education paper, make your textbook more memorable to your audience, design and author better assessment exercises, be an effective collaborator, write a non-fiction book proposal, and more! Visit TAA’s library of Presentations on Demand
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: July 31, 2015
What tricks or strategies do you use to get yourself started and to get the words flowing? For me, on days when I need an extra push of motivation, I retreat to my favorite local coffee shop where there is nothing there to distract me. Words, sentences, and entire pieces are also always sure to form in my head while jogging or biking. When finally I return home the words never quite flow as eloquently onto the page as they did in my mind during that bike ride, but at least I have a starting place and an idea for what I want to write or how I want to write it. In other words, as soon as I un-focus my mind from a writing task and hop on my bike or lace up my running shoes, the words finally come. Does this “trick” work for you? If not, what other tricks and strategies can you share that you use to get you started writing?
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: July 17, 2015
No piece of writing is perfect when first written—that’s why they call it a first draft and why editing exists. Pat Thomson offers a bit of comfort in her piece this week in that all academic writers (or any writer for that matter) face the same struggles. She focuses on being ‘stuck’ with a writing piece and how to move thru it. Today, just focus on getting started and let the rest fall into place. The rest will either fall into place or, if nothing else, give you direction for where to go on the page next time you sit to write. Either way, just start and know that you can (and will) edit later.
Hunger, home and history: Our legacies as academics
My Irish ancestors who came to America in the late 19th century called July “the hungry month” because the stored food from the year before was used up and the new crops were not yet in. I remember during summers as a child how my mother, a philosophy professor, would eat chips by the pool and say, “I don’t know why I’m always so hungry in the summer.”
I grew up to become an academic and writer and when I researched this history, I was able to make connections between my family history and our globe’s larger, collective histories.