With membership in TAA, you are not alone. As a TAA member, you become part of a diverse community of textbook and academic authors with similar interests and goals. Each new member enriches the community experience by expanding its breadth of knowledge and creating more opportunities for networking and collaboration.
Special Features of TAA Award-Winning Textbooks: From the 2019 Awardees
At the 32nd Annual Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference in Philadelphia, PA, TAA members Al Trujillo and Dave Dillon hosted a panel of textbook award-winning authors to share features that they considered instrumental in the success of their books.
The panel consisted of Jocelyn Nelson, author of Gateway to Music: An Introduction to American Vernacular, Western Art, and World Musical Traditions, 1st Edition, Frank Carrano and Timothy Henry, co-authors of Data Structures and Abstractions with Java, 5th Edition, and Monica Sherwin and Dave Hall, co-authors of two winning titles, Oklahoma Studies Weekly – Our State, 6th Edition and New Mexico Studies Weekly – Our State, 1st Edition. Below is a summary of the textbook features they felt were most significant in the achievement of their 2019 Textbook Excellence awards.
Author Interview with Dr. Callie Rennison
Has this ever happened to you? You are reading online about someone’s work, then discover they are close-by in your own community? When I was looking at the impressive winners of this year’s TAA awards, I was struck by the fact that one SAGE author won prizes for two books. This is a very rigorous peer-reviewed award, so winning twice in the same year is remarkable. As luck would have it, Dr. Callie Rennison is a local.
Back in the halcyon days of last week, when we could actually meet someone in person for coffee, I had a chance to speak with her. I was so impressed by her whole approach to research, writing, and teaching, I wanted to give MethodSpace readers a chance to hear from her. So rather than give you a written exchange, we met in GoToWebinar for this interview.
Copibec Settlement Announcement: Are You Owed Settlement Funds?
As part of the settlement of a Canadian class action suit brought by Copibec, Quebec’s reprographic rights organization, against the…
TAA announces 2020 Textbook Award winners
Twenty-nine textbooks have been awarded 2020 Textbook Awards by the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA). Seven textbooks received William…
Textbook pedagogy: Improving chapter summaries encourages collaborative learning
In my field, human anatomy and physiology (A&P), like many others, it is customary to end each textbook chapter with a concept review and self-testing exercises. For the first five editions of my Anatomy & Physiology—The Unity of Form and Function, I titled my end-of-chapter feature “Chapter Review” and its first section, “Review of Key Concepts.” I followed the traditional practice of summarizing the chapter in short declarative sentences like these:
- Microvilli are short surface extensions of the plasma membrane that increase a cell’s surface area. They are especially well developed on absorptive cells, as in the kidney and small intestine. On some cells, they play a sensory role.
- Parathyroid hormone is secreted by the parathyroid glands in response to hypocalcemia. It raises blood Ca2+ levels by indirectly stimulating osteoclasts, inhibiting osteoblasts, promoting calcitriol synthesis, and promoting Ca2+ conservation by the kidneys.