By John Bond
I have spoken to a fair share of happy authors over the years. Conversely, I have spoken with some disenchanted ones. They may have submitted their book idea (or whole manuscript) to several publishers and gotten no offer of publication. Also, some authors may submit a manuscript they labored over to a peer review journal and gotten nothing but the dreaded reject. No doubt this is a disheartening experience. It can hurt.
Is research literature a foundation on which you build your own work, or an ocean in which you drown? Literature Review and Research Design: A Guide to Effective Research Practice by Dave Harris offers practical perspectives on using literature in the design and development of your own research project, with special attention on writing the project’s literature review. Published by Routledge.
By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD
When reflecting on your writing progress this year, it’s common to focus on what didn’t go well, such as receiving a rejection letter, struggling with a writing project, or getting negative feedback. While these setbacks can provide valuable lessons, it’s equally important to acknowledge what went well. In his book Flourish, Martin Seligman advocates for a helpful exercise called “What-Went-Well.” In his own words, here’s how to do it:
Write down three things that went well […] and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you have a physical record of what you wrote. The three things need not be earthshaking in importance, but they can be important. Next to each positive event, answer the question “Why did this happen?”
TAA member James V. Morrison, the Stodghill Professor Classics at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, has been awarded a Publication Grant from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association to cover image permission costs for his forthcoming academic book, Comedy in Literature and Popular Culture from Aristophanes to Saturday Night Live. The book will be published by Routledge in 2025.
“I was delighted to learn that I have received a $1,000 Publication Grant from TAA,” he said. “It is very generous of TAA to support this work of comparative literature and performance: the images are especially valuable for sections in the book discussing parody, satire, and caricature.”
By Dave Harris
When we notice egocentrism, it is usually a bad thing: who likes the know-it-all who thinks only of themself? But lack of egocentrism is also bad: we need to know where we stand on issues; we need to trust our own knowledge enough to commit to projects and tasks, and to commit to words on the page. I want to emphasize the importance of egocentrism in reading as a crucial factor in using the research literature effectively, and how writing is an effective tool for building the right kind of egocentrism.
TAA’s newest eBook, “Academic Journal Articles: Decoding Academic Writing,” contains helpful information tailored to the needs of scholarly journal article authors, from learning how to write for academic journals and organizing article content, to finding the right home for your journal.
