Writing groups offer their members a wealth of benefits. In fact, studies indicate that membership in a writing group can actually help boost your publication rate. In an examination of the publication rate of 48 female medical school faculty before and after participating in a writing group, Sonnad et al. found that the professors’ average publication rate increased from 1.5 papers per year to 4.5 papers per year after joining the writing group. Cumbie et al. also describe increases in productivity among writing group members, reporting “significant and positive writing outcomes in the form of manuscripts submitted for publication, abstracts submitted for conference presentations, [and] grant proposals developed.”
TAA Executive Director’s Message
“Only connect!” –E.M. Forster from Howard’s End As I sat down to write this column about networking opportunities at TAA,…
Tips for putting words on the page
Excerpted from an article that originally appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education by Rachel Toor.
“Frequently I talk with academics who feel they don’t write enough. Even people with a tenure blade dangling over their cervical vertebrae don’t usually have to reach far to find justifications for not getting stuff done. I don’t want to use the word ‘excuses,’ because they are often valid and real problems, and I don’t want to minimize how hard it is to have something to say and find the right way to say it.
Recommended Reading for Academic Writers
Academic Writing: Individual and Collaborative Strategies for Success (The New Forums Scholarly Writing Series) by Ed Neal Academic Writing for Graduate…
How to determine author order when collaborating with multiple authors
When multiple authors collaborate to write a journal article, the task of determining authorship order inevitably arises. In some situations,…
The value of using social media to broaden your academic reach
Tanya Golash-Boza, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced. She is widely published, with her academic works including academic and trade books, textbook chapters for edited volumes, and journal articles. Currently she is working on two primary projects, one being a book on the lives of people deported from the United States, and the second being a sociology textbook on race and racism. Golash-Boza has successfully utilized social media in her academic career for the past several years. She is the author of three popular blogs, including her academic blog entitled Get a Life, PhD, Weekly Tips on How to Succeed in Academia and Have a Life Too.
Here Golash-Boza shares her insights on the value of utilizing social media to broaden your academic reach.