Do you ever feel like your writing needs a change of perspective? Do you feel as though your creativity has run short or that you see your own bias in your writing rather than the true results of your research? According to Sydney J. Harris, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”
4 Steps to developing an effective textbook chapter
Thinking about writing a textbook can be much like planning to climb a mountain. A daunting task that may be overwhelming and requires both endurance and strength before even getting started.
As we prepare to climb the mountain, however, we’re going to focus on taking it one step at a time. Relating this to textbook authoring, the steps in the development of chapters involves the creation of carefully crafted headings specific to pre-defined topics that are thoughtfully enhanced by pairing content with feature strands to engage the reader and exercises which reinforce learning located within or at the end of the chapter.
Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: March 5, 2021
As academics, we seek to gain and share knowledge, we look for answers and question the ones we know, and we encourage students and colleagues to continue learning and expanding their breadth of knowledge. But what happens when we don’t find an answer or, worse yet, don’t feel like we have the answer to give to someone else?
As academic and textbook authors, we are the authority – the knowledge source – in our discipline, so how could we possibly not have an answer to give, and if we don’t, then maybe we need to question whether we belong in that position of responsibility as a writer after all, don’t we?
Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: October 2, 2020
This week’s collection of articles from around the web is full of questions. Questions about our writing practice. Questions about the science of academic writing and scholarship. Questions about the future of the publishing industry.
Beginning with “what’s the worst that could happen?” and ending with “what’s on the horizon for publishing and open access?” these articles inspire fresh perspective on our textbook and academic writing processes.
Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: July 31, 2020
This week’s collection of articles from around the web contains many strategies for writing that can make your writing process more effective and your results more powerful.
We begin our collection with misconceptions about being a writer, tips for reaching your writing goals, and being a trustworthy researcher. We continue with advice on writing what you want to know, writing imperfectly, organizing your writing, improving your essays, and reading to improve your writing. Finally, we explore revision strategies, tone, writing with a busy schedule, blogging, and fostering racial empathy through your reading and writing practices.
Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: July 10, 2020
“Every writer I know seems to agree on the same thing: You need to write, a lot.” This unattributed quote could be attributed to nearly every aspiring author who has received advice from a successful one, but as much as we know that we need to write, a lot, it’s certainly easier said than done, most days.
In this collection of articles from around the web this week we have found some specific advice on how to get stuff done, how to write your first few pages, how to overcome the lure of planning, tips for sticking to a writing routine, writers’ tools for better productivity, and how to harness the power of coauthoring.