The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: October 9, 2015

I think everyone needs to print this quote and tape it someplace clearly visible on his or her desk, computer, or writing space. Look at it every time you sit down to write. Quiet the voices of negativity and just write. You are capable of writing well, of writing that is worthy of others to read, you just have to believe it and shut down the voices that tell you otherwise! One of my favorite quotes, and one that fits perfectly here, was said by Muhammad Ali, “To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.” Believing in your abilities to write is half the hurdle. Once you believe that, getting words onto the page will become easier. Happy writing!

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GUEST POST: 4 Ways to work-life balance in 4 minutes

Perhaps you’ve heard the term “work-life balance” so often that it makes you want to punch someone in the face  — but you don’t have time to do that because as you read this, it’s not even 8 am, you’re late for a deadline, you have a class to teach, your daughter’s soccer coach wants to talk to you later today, you have 24 unread emails, and you forgot (again!) to pack a healthy snack for your daughter to eat before practice.

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Featured Member Kathleen King – Motivation, marketing & the ‘easy fix’

Kathleen P. King, professor of Adult and Higher Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa, is an award winning author of 30 books, most recently 147 Tips for Emerging Scholars and The Professor’s Guide to Taming Technology, and more than 175 journal articles and research papers. She is known for her sessions and innovative topics and is a popular international keynote and conference speaker, mentor, and professor. King’s areas of research include instructional technology, faculty development, and mentoring. Here King shares what motivates her to write, tips on marketing your works, and the ‘easy fix’:

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Make your dissertation your priority

As you undoubtedly already know, writing a dissertation is different from anything you’ve ever done. This enterprise requires you to adjust, if not radically change, your lifestyle. If you ever really want to complete the dissertation, and in a timely manner (if that isn’t an oxymoron), you need to rethink your priorities.

Your a full-time job, of course, should be high on the priority list. You may have been used to putting family first. But rethink this priority. Heartless and psychologically suspect as this statement may sound, you can make it up to them in many other ways—later (that’s another article).

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