How can you improve your writing and productivity, collaborate and network more easily, find new and unexpected experiences, disseminate your research more widely, and build your reputation? Start a blog. Academics can realize many benefits from blogging. This infographic shares ten of those benefits:
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: February 5, 2016
“I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” —W. Somerset Maugham Do you sit and write religiously at the same time every single day? Disciplined like a marathon runner is to running every morning? Sometimes discipline and routine come easy. We have a goal that we want to achieve or a passion we are pursuing. But this isn’t always the case. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to be disciplined. We have to force ourselves to show up every day. Rewards and fast approaching deadlines do this well. Even frequent breaks and change of scenery can help. But what other strategies do you use? What do you do on those days when anything at all seems more appealing than sitting to write? Happy writing!
Join us 1/27 for TAA webinar on blogging for academics
You’re an academic, busy with research and teaching. You don’t have time to blog! Wrong. Not only can you blog, you can use your blog to get your work before a much wider audience and to lead an ongoing conversation about your topic. Join us Wednesday, January 27 from 4-5 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “Blogging for Academics: A Journalist Turned Academic Offers Tips, Techniques, Inspiration and a Few Warnings”, presented by Mark Leccese, author of 
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: January 22, 2016
It’s so easy for us to say, “I’ll do that tomorrow”, “I’ll start on my writing projects, tomorrow” and tomorrow keeps getting pushed further and further away. Procrastination is easy. Yet, never satisfying. Chances are you have the time to get started today. So start! End the infinite tomorrow and do as Benjamin Franklin reminds us, and, “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
How to build an academic brand online
If you Google your own name, are you happy with what the search results show about you and your work? If not, you may want to take steps to improve your online presence to better reflect your academic brand, which articulates your unique expertise and affects the way you are perceived both online and in the real world.
In a recent TAA webinar entitled, “Designing Your Online Presence to Communicate Your Academic Brand,” veteran higher ed blogger Lee Skallerup Bessette and academic branding coach Paula Thompson, both of Academic Coaching & Writing discussed ways to create or enhance your online presence to promote yourself and your work.
Join us 9/24 for the TAA Webinar: ‘Designing Your Online Presence to Communicate Your Academic Brand’
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.<