By John Bond
If you’re an academic venturing into the world of publishing, your author bio is a small but important tool. It travels with your work, shapes how readers see you, and often determines whether media, conference organizers, or potential collaborators take a second look. But too many scholars undersell themselves here. Let me be blunt: humility has no place in your author bio. This is not your departmental webpage. It’s your moment to shine.
By Dr. Noelle Sterne
Q: What do you do if you missed a deadline you created for yourself? How do you get through the feelings of guilt and set another deadline in a way that you can hold yourself to it?
— M. Culpa
A: I empathize with you! It’s hard to miss your self-imposed deadline. As a fellow deadline-misser, I’ve arrived at several methods that make myself easier to live with.
What did you decide to do instead? Maybe play time was irresistible when your kid begged you to build a Lego city together. Maybe you didn’t need to see the last 90-minute episode of “Greatest Scholarly Acknowledgments.” Whatever choice you made, face it. You made it.
By Mary Beth Averill
For the past few months, I have been attending a writing group that grew out of a TAA writing retreat. I would categorize our group, which started out meeting weekly and now has meetings three times a week, as a “shut up and write” group. We start with a brief check in on Zoom, saying what we each want to accomplish in the coming hour. At the end of the hour, we meet again briefly to say what progress we made. Group members who want to keep going that day state their goals for the next hour.
By John Bond
If you’ve ever stared at a blank screen and wondered how wide or narrow you should write, you’re in good company. The tension between writing narrow versus broad lives at the heart of scholarly publishing. It’s a classic dilemma: go deep and speak to a specialized very knowledgeable audience that truly gets it or go broad and frame your knowledge for readers across multiple disciplines. Let’s look at both approaches, because each has its own virtues, risks, and rewards.
By Dr. Nolle Sterne
Q: Maybe it’s the new year, but I can’t seem to get going on my dissertation.
—Word Dawdler
A: Sounds like you’re dragging your dissertation manuscript in sorry tow behind you like an annoying younger brother. You’re probably doing the impossible already—on campus or online, like many other graduate students—juggling family, work, and school. Your academic struggles are intensified by the stresses of such multiple responsibilities and too often you’re slowed down to stop.
By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD
Do you see yourself as a procrastinator? If so, you’re not alone; many people feel the same, myself included.
Recently, I found myself putting off writing an article I needed to complete. Although I enjoy writing, I tend to procrastinate when the topic is unfamiliar and requires effort and energy. I decided it was time to learn more about how to overcome this habit, and I want to share some insights I gained from Tal Ben-Shahar (2023) in one of his lectures on the subject.
