What Can You Do If Your Work Is Plagiarized?

By Sierra Pawlak

During the July 2024 TAA Conversation Circle on the topic of plagiarism, Micki Caskey, a Professor Emerita at Portland State University, shared her experience with having her work plagiarized.

“It was a shock to me that my work had been taken,” she said. “The reason I cared is because I worked really hard on that project. This was work I had committed a lot of intellectual space to, and I just was aghast that someone would take it. It’s not that I am the greatest author in the world, I just would like to be credited for the work that I’ve done.”

Caskey discovered her work had been plagiarized in 2021 when she went to update a piece she originally wrote in 2007 and had updated in 2014, a research summary on the developmental characteristics of young adolescents.

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How Social Connections Can Positively Impact Writers

By Angelica Ribeiro, Ph.D.

As a writer, you have likely experienced negative emotions at some point. Whether it is receiving a rejection letter for your manuscript, facing criticism for your ideas, or getting stuck in your writing, it is normal to feel this way. The key is to learn how to cope with these emotions rather than trying to eliminate them.

Social connections can be a great tool for managing negative emotions like stress, frustration, and disappointment. Robert Waldinger, the leading author of The Good Life, explains how warm social connections can regulate your negative emotions:

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WIPO Publishes Contracts Toolkit for Authors and Publishers

The World Intellectual Property Association (WIPO) has published a new toolkit for authors and publishers that includes “a checklist of the most essential considerations while drafting and concluding a contract.”

Contracts in Publishing: A Toolkit for Authors and Publishers, was drafted by Brian Wafawarowa, Chairperson of the Publishers Association of South Africa (PASA), and Isobel Dixon, a renowned South African poet and Head of Books at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency in the UK, in consultation with several international author and publisher organizations.

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Cengage Seeking New Textbook Authors

Cengage, the leading provider of higher education materials, is currently seeking new textbook authors across all disciplines to join its creative team.

“While we’re eager to collaborate on full-length narratives, we’re equally interested in working with writers on smaller, focused projects as well,” said Erika Longstreth, Cengage’s Author Relations Manager. “If you’re a writer looking to contribute your unique viewpoint, whether through a comprehensive narrative or more targeted endeavor, we’d love to hear from you.”

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New Sample by Jamie Pope, ‘Anatomy of An Author’s Email or Letter to Adopting Faculty or Committee’

TAA members can download this new sample from TAA’s Templates & Samples Resource Library, “Anatomy of An Author’s Email or Letter to Adopting Faculty or Committee,” developed by Jamie Pope, co-author of Nutrition for a Changing World. It walks authors through the essential elements of what to include in the letter to potential adopting faculty or a committee, with concrete examples based on what she does when she is reaching out to these groups for her own book.

Access to TAA’s Templates & Samples Resource Library is included with TAA membership. Not a member? Join TAA for only $30.

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Academese: Are You Narrowing Your Audience By Not Speaking Their Language?

By Sierra Pawlak

During TAA’s May 2024 Conversation Circle, several members shared their experiences with ‘academese’ and tips for how academic writers can avoid it in their writing. Academese is characterized by writing that is heavily filled with jargon, overcomplicated language, and/or convoluted sentence structure (Wikipedia).

“The biggest sin in academic writing is the passive voice,” said Barbara Nostrand, an Aquisitions Editor at Gakumon and Senior Fellow at the de Moivre Institute. “It makes it much more difficult for the reader to understand what’s been written, and it’s completely unnecessary.” She recommends using the active voice instead, for example, ‘I saw’, ‘I observed’: “A trick to doing that is to move the verb as close to the beginning of the sentence as possible.”

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