Six reminders to help you and your students get to the writing

It’s no secret that writing is hard, whatever our experience, stage, or state. Academics aren’t the only ones who abhor writing. It’s likely that anyone who ever had to write anything abhors writing. With academic writing, as any other kind, it’s usually hard to get started. Even if we’ve had an initial flush of enthusiasm and are amazed at having produced the first few pages, it’s too easy to sink into a frozen torpor.

Yet writing represents some of the most important aspects of our professional work. And too often we avoid, procrastinate, and rationalize why, instead of writing, we must polish the car or clean out the refrigerator.

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12/9 TAA Webinar – How to Hook Your Audience

In the era of “fake news,” it is critical that research be translated and published as widely and accurately as possible. Among many journalists, however, academics are notorious for their caveats, sub-clauses, and unwillingness to tell a good story. Research experts often find it challenging to engage non-specialist audiences in ways that preserve the rigor and credibility of their work.

Join us Thursday, December 9 from 1-2 p.m. ET for the TAA webinar, “How to Hook Your Audience”, presented by Erica Machulak, PhD., founder of Hikma Strategies. Erica will offer a framework and actionable strategies to write research narratives that inform and engage non-specialist audiences.

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Benefits and drawbacks of remote faculty writing groups

Four faculty members at Sam Houston State University – Elizabeth Lee, Kristina Vargo, Rebecca Wentworth, and William Blackwell – shared the results of their study on the utility of writing groups. The study included a qualitative analysis of faculty members’ participation and perceptions of faculty writing groups and assessed the potential impact of working virtually.

Participants in the study expected a combination of professional and non-professional outcomes from faculty writing groups.

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3 Support strategies for your writing journey

When you think about your emotions as they relate to your writing, what is your first thought? Does your response gravitate to positive emotions of joy or happiness? Or does it immediately lean toward negative ones like stress and frustration?

Erin McTigue shares from her coaching perspective that “emotions are very important in the work we do because it can help gain awareness about why certain projects are being avoided – why certain things are so hard.”

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Finding your sweet spot

Where is the best place to write? In some people’s mind, they will find an idyllic location. Quiet. All your resources and materials at your fingertips. Maybe a good view. Or a great one; a mountain view or the ocean. No phones. No email. No meetings or interruptions. No needy kids or pets. This place likely exists, but only in the movies.

Back in the real world, mere mortals must wrestle with the reality of the day-to-day challenges.

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