The beginning of a new academic year is a great time to set intentions and think about goals. Goal setting can seem arbitrary or ambiguous, particularly for large projects that take months or years to complete. What if you thought about your goals in terms of the final product of a semester? Deliverables. Deliverables are the concrete items you will deliver to yourself or others at the end of a period.
Need help with a writing project? Apply for a one-hour editing or coaching session from TAA
What could you do with one hour of editing or coaching?
TAA members can apply to receive a one-hour editing or coaching session from one of our professional editor or coach partners. You can accomplish a lot in one hour! Get a partial copyedit or developmental edit of several pages of your academic journal article or book chapter, or receive one-on-one coaching to help you over a hurdle with your project.
Members must be in good standing to apply for a session. Applications are being accepted between September 1 and December 31. The September application deadline is the 30th and sessions will be awarded October 11. Learn more or apply
Your own writing room(s)
My writing buddy’s face turned dark pink as she shouted over her latté. “No one can write anything decent without a private place!” She jabbed with her finger. “It’s gotta be your own!”
I was as adamant. “Oh, come on! All you need is the desire, will, and your stone tablet and sharp tool. It doesn’t matter where you write!”
Our little debate embodies two often-discussed viewpoints about writing. My vehement response to my friend brought up again my long puzzlement about the most effective place to write. Other writers have explored this topic, with many suggestions. They are all fine, but I believe something is missing. Especially if you’re in a quandary about where to write, I’d like to help enlarge your perceptions of your own physical and mental writing places, spaces, and times.
New TAA eBook Download: Writing Accountability – Productivity Through Partnership
Download this 17-page eBook, packed with helpful information for textbook and academic authors on how to be more productive through writing accountability, including:
- How a Personal Writing Team Can Increase Your Productivity Through Accountability
- How to Be an Effective Writing Accountability Partner
- Writing Groups: When, Why, How, and Best Practices
- Developing Healthy Collaborative Relationships: Why and How
Don’t want to write? Rev up your intentions
These languid summer days, after some necessary business with my dissertation coaching and editing clients, I resist doing my personal writing. Generally, I manage to balance (or struggle with or squeeze) the ever-ongoing writing projects—novel, stories, essays, poems—with the client work. If I don’t do something on my own writing, the day will feel wasted and I didn’t fulfill at least a little of my writing promise to myself.
To tease myself into writing on a particularly steamy day (despite the air conditioning), I remembered a technique that academic and creative coach Dr. Dominique Chlup (2016) teaches her clients. This is to first set your writing intentions: ask yourself how you want to feel writing during this session or having written.
‘What tense should I write a scholarly abstract in?’ and other frequently asked questions about writing abstracts
Erin McTigue, a writing coach with The Positive Academic, and Wendi Kamman Zimmer, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, answer four frequently asked questions about writing scholarly abstracts.
Q: How long is an abstract?
Zimmer: “While this depends on the journal you’re publishing in and the requirements of your field, it is generally 150-300 words.”
Q: What tense should I write an abstract in?
McTigue: “Usually the present tense is used for the opening statement, the past tense is used for the methods and results, and the present tense again for the conclusion. It is definitely okay to switch the tenses.”