Effective Writing Practices to Help You Make Progress

By Angelica Ribeiro, PhD

As a new semester begins, it’s essential to implement effective writing practices that can help you advance your projects. In this article, I share some key practices you should consider:

1. Incorporate Daily Writing, Short Writing Sessions, and Writing Logs

Achieving progress is one of the most satisfying feelings. To experience this, establish habits that lead you toward your goals and track your progress to provide visual evidence of your hard work. As a writer, consider building the following habits: writing daily, keeping your writing sessions short, and maintaining writing logs. These practices will help you stay productive, motivate you to continue working on your projects, and enhance your overall sense of achievement.

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Dear Dr. Noelle: Stuck Without Words

By Dr. Noelle Sterne

Q: I know what I want to write about, but I can’t seem to get anything down on the page.            

      — Wordless

A: Writing—whatever the type—is hard. Whether we must write a proposal, dissertation, article, book, or thank you letter, most of us have trouble starting, continuing, and finishing. Like you, I’ve had many tortured writing—or not writing—experiences, as do the clients I coach and whose work I edit. Observing all of our ridiculous roadblocks, I’ve developed eleven tricks to help us ease into or continue our writing. If you need convincing, credible rationales are here too for how each method can help you.

1. Feel Good.

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Writing with Virtually No Internet: Diminished Digital Dependence

By Michele D. Kegley, PhD

I had the opportunity to attend the Writing In Depth Retreat July 24-27, co-sponsored by TAA and hosted at Hope Springs Institute in Peebles, Ohio. As I was preparing to leave, I was talking to myself, “You packed your clothes, shoes, computer, writing journal, pens, phone, water bottle, what am I forgetting? Oh, my files are all in the cloud! I need to download my files onto my hard drive on my PC. I am going to a writing retreat, and they have warned us that there is limited internet access.”

I do not know about you, but I didn’t know how digitally dependent I was until my watch, mobile tablet, laptop, and phone couldn’t access the internet, and that limited access for four days was glorious.

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A Publishing Strategy to Last a Career

By John Bond

Early in one’s career, academics and researchers focus on individual wins (read: getting published). Long term, however, they are better served by developing a personalized Publishing Strategy. This may sound highfalutin, but it is simpler than it sounds and easier to develop and curate over time than most people think.

First, what is a Publishing Strategy? A Publishing Strategy is a long-term, intentional plan for when, where, and how you publish your research, aligned with your academic goals, research agenda, and career stage. Most people only start to think about this after achieving their first position in academia. They’re anxious to get their first publication under their belt. It is gratifying, invalidating. This first publication might enable them to fulfill a requirement for employment or for a research grant. These first few wins are important, but I suggest you quickly move past them to develop a wider plan.

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2025 TAA Conference Bookstore Featured Book: ‘Writing With Purpose, Peace & Passion: A Guide for Sustaining Your Academic Writing’

If you are an academic finding the writing difficult to do over time, you are not alone. It is one thing to master the skill of academic writing and publishing. It is quite another to keep writing over many years. Writing With Purpose, Peace & Passion: A Guide for Sustaining Your Academic Writing, by Margarita Huerta, is for anyone wanting help with sustaining an academic writing practice.

Purchase in the 2025 TAA Conference Bookstore

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Mastering Consistency: The Power of a Style Guide

By Robert Christopherson

A key to facilitate the flow of manuscript through the production process is an author-prepared Style Guide, or Editorial Style Guide, specific to the author’s book. The Style Guide is sent along with the manuscript to editors, project managers, CEs, and DEs. The Guide adds efficiency to the writing process and eliminates countless back-and-forth to check what the author wants and prefers.

There are several comprehensive published style guides available. For the past 35 years, I found the The Chicago Manual of Style most helpful, now in its 18/e. I think I first used the 1969, 12/e.  The first edition of the CMOS was 1906. What I am suggesting here is a short, personalized Style Guide, specific to your writing. My texts are in Earth systems science and physical geography. Your guide will vary depending on your subject discipline.

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