TAA’s virtual conference kicks off tomorrow!

Are you excited to be part of TAA’s Virtual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference this year? The conference will kick off with a half day of programming on June 18, and presentations continuing June 21-24 and will feature a variety of session formats as well as networking opportunities.

All presentations will be hosted on Zoom, with 30- and 50-minute session formats welcome. Our Zoom formatting will allow for audience voice and video participation, chat features, break out rooms, question and answer formats, panel presentations, and more.

Reflecting on #TAAConf2019

It’s hard to believe that the 32nd Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference – #TAAConf2019 – has come and gone. If you were with us in Old City, Philadelphia, I’m sure you heard the sentiment expressed more than once – “this might be the best TAA conference yet.”

Having been in attendance for the last five, I can certainly say, for me, that it’s been the best of those. When a day at work hardly feel like work, it’s a good day. Add to that day more than 100 passionate and encouraging colleagues, and it’s a great day! That’s what my two days of “work” this weekend felt like.

For those of you in attendance, please feel free to add your experiences to the comments below. For those of you who weren’t able to join us this year, here’s a little of what you missed at #TAAConf2019.

Improving your research, writing, and publishing through networking

To many, the word networking is business-speak, a bit like strategic planning, buy-in, thinking outside the box, leverage, or core competencies.

But your network, however big or small, can be the key to improving all aspects of your academic output. It is no coincidence that this blog entry appears the week of the Textbook & Academic Authors Association Annual Conference in Philadelphia. This event, and others like it, offer the best opportunities to make connections and therefore improve your scholarly work.

7 Myths about habit formation…busted

At the 31st annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Santa Fe, NM, TAA members Erin McTigue, Tracey Hodges, and Sharon Matthews presented a session titled, Moving from “Pesky” to “Productive”.

In this presentation they shared advice on developing a healthy, sustainable writing habit. To establish a growth mindset capable of accomplishing this goal, they acknowledged seven common myths about habit formation – and the reality of each.

How to actually complete your writing projects: One bite at a time

In her 2018 TAA Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference presentation, “Hunks, Chunks, & Bites: Plan Writing Projects So You Actually Complete Them!”, Meggin McIntosh shared some practical advice on tackling projects in a way that gets them done.

According to McIntosh, academics have between 20 and 50+ writing projects at any given time, but “people don’t do projects.” Projects can be broken into hunks, but you don’t do hunks. Hunks can be broken into chunks, but you don’t do chunks. Chunks can be broken into bites. You do bites! Here’s how.