academic

Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference to feature sessions on contracts and royalties

March 15, 2019 By Maureen Foerster Leave a Comment

TAA’s 32nd Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference speaker and mentor panels will feature several publishing industry professionals with expertise on topics such as intellectual property, copyright, publishing contracts, and royalties. The conference will be held in Old City, Philadelphia, June 14-15, 2019.

Intellectual property attorney Brenda Ulrich, a partner at Archstone Law Group PC, will kick off the conference with a session titled “Legal Issues for Independent Contractor Authors and Self-Publishers.” This session will explore legal issues in the “post-traditional publishing contract world.” [Read more…]

How not to complete your dissertation

February 1, 2018 By Noelle Sterne, Ph.D. Leave a Comment

From my longtime academic coaching and editing practice guiding doctoral candidates through the peaks and gullies of completing their dissertations, I have noticed that women in doctoral programs can easily become diverted by compassion for others in trouble. Well-meaning decisions and actions may result in calamitous consequences to a dissertation.

Although my experience has been primarily with women, if you are a man reading this, you may recognize some of these scenarios. In these stories of doctoral candidates (names and identifying details changed for their protection), you will see that tender-hearted consideration at the wrong times dangerously waylaid dissertation progress. If you are a doctoral candidate writing (or not writing) your dissertation, perhaps these tales will confirm decisions to let no major interruptions prevent the completion of your dreamed-of doctorate. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Dissertations, Featured Posts, Graduate Students Tagged With: academic, academic writing, dissertation, faculty writing, phd, productivity, scholarly writing, writing

Two types of university friends you may have never thought of (part 1)

October 25, 2016 By Noelle Sterne, Ph.D. Leave a Comment

librarian Graduate students on the road to doctoral Oz often feel more isolated than a vegetarian at a barbecue. Especially if you have a laissez faire chair and committee, you may believe you’re abandoned and unloved. You’re not. In my work as editor and coach for struggling dissertation-writing students, I know well that many other people in the university community can comfort, calm, and care for you. Here I’ll remind you of two types who can help ease your dissertation traumas. (Next post: two more.)

Librarians Love You

Even in this age of access to many online databases, librarians can help you greatly as you plow through the dissertation. Once you recognize the immense resources at their keypads, you can enlist their aid to save yourself time, effort, and digital runarounds. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Dissertations, Featured Posts, Graduate Students Tagged With: academic, dissertation, writing

Join us 9/24 for the TAA Webinar: ‘Designing Your Online Presence to Communicate Your Academic Brand’

September 21, 2015 By TAA Leave a Comment

Lee Bessette

Paula Thompson

Increasingly, PhD students and junior scholars are creating an online presence to promote themselves and their work. Academics are also designing an online presence to assist in their transition to a career outside of academia or a different academic path within the university. But, there are so many platforms to choose from. How do you evaluate which ones to use, given the number and variety of options? Join us Thursday, September 24 from 3-4 p.m. ET for “Designing Your Online Presence to Communicate Your Academic Brand”, presented by Lee Skallerup Bessette, a Blogger and Social Media Advisor, and Paula Thompson, an Academic Coach, both from Academic Coaching & Writing, for an introduction to the most popular platforms and tools to help you decide which ones might be right for you. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Social media for academics Tagged With: academic, academic author, academic publishing, blogging, faculty writing, marketing, social media for academics

How to publish an article in an academic journal: Avoid rookie mistakes

January 22, 2015 By Tanya Boza Leave a Comment

I have reviewed an insane amount of articles this past year and have noticed that many of these articles should never have been sent out for review, because they were missing key components.

The authors of these articles thus waited three months for someone to tell them that they do not have a clear argument, that there is no literature review, or that they need to describe their ethnographic methods. Sometimes they waited this long or longer only to hear other fairly generic advice.

I frequently am in the process of submitting an article to a journal. As such, I was inspired to write this article both to make sure that I practice what I preach, and to offer some examples from my own writing that might be useful as you prepare your own article. This article is primarily directed at authors of empirical social science articles, but I believe the main points may be applicable to other fields as well. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Posts, Journal articles Tagged With: academic, academic publishing, academic writing, authoring, publishing, writing advice

The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: November 7, 2014

November 6, 2014 By TAA Leave a Comment

"The secret of it all is write...without waiting for a fit time or place." -Walt Whitman By now your semester is in full force, but has your writing been on the back burner? Whether you are looking for a little motivation to help you set your writing goals, tools to help you find sacred writing time, or inspiration to help you get words on the page, the following posts will help you. Did you come across any stellar motivational or helpful posts this week? Share them in the comments below. Happy writing! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Most useful textbook & academic writing posts Tagged With: academic, academic writing, dissertation, faculty writing, scholarly writing, textbook writing, time management, writing, writing advice, writing tips

The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: October 31, 2014

October 31, 2014 By TAA Leave a Comment

As promised, I’ve gathered a long list of You would rather pack book than clothes when you go on vacation. most useful posts for your must-read list this week. This week’s list is full of great writing tips and tools to help you move your writing project forward. Although only a month into this weekly series, I have to say these are some of my favorite and (hopefully) most useful posts yet. These are never in a particular order, just randomly placed, so make sure to read all the way to the bottom as they are no less important! Happy Halloween and, as always, happy writing! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Most useful textbook & academic writing posts Tagged With: academic, academic writing, author website, coauthoring, how to handle rejection, proofreading, scholarly writing, textbook writing, writing, writing advice, writing tips

Higher education publishers’ aspirations to become software developers

September 23, 2014 By TAA Leave a Comment

Expanding upon an article in the September-October 2014 issue of TAA’s print newsletter, The Academic Author, Sean Wakely, Founder and Principal Adviser at Academic Author Advisers, posted an article on his blog that covers the topic of higher education publishers’ aspirations to become software developers.

In his post, Wakely examines publishers’ digital solution to declining print sales and used books and whether publishers are ready to meet the challenges posed by the “digital transition”.

In future posts, Wakely plans to cover publishers’ changing product vision and the acquisitions editor’s evolving role.