Welcome to the Publish & Flourish Listserv! Current Listserv Archive

TAA's Publish & Flourish Listerv will now be open to all of the association's workshop attendee-members, those of Tara Gray's "Publish & Flourish" workshop, Kenneth Henson's "Grant Writing" workshop, Elizabeth Boepple's "Creating Camera-ready Copy" workshop, and Robert Ginsberg's "Academic Publishing" workshop. The focus of the workshop will remain the same -- to to provide TAA's workshop attendees with ongoing support with their academic authoring pursuits.

The Publish & Flourish Listserv will allow you to maintain contact with Tara, Ken, Elizabeth and Robert, and others who took their workshops across the country. You can ask questions, seek further follow-up on their suggestions, and get input from others who took the workshops.

The listserv will also provide you with information tailored to academic authors: information on citations, answers to knotty grammar questions, and links to essays and other resources on problems and issues like writer's block, copyright, fair use, citation format, and other formatting and editing issues, from our workshop experts and other experts within the TAA community.

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Run contrasts point by point
by Tara Gray, presenter of the "Publish & Flourish: Become A Prolific Scholar" Workshop

The following excerpt comes from the book by Sheridan Baker, The Complete Stylist and Handbook (1984:41).

Run contrasts point by point.

As you contrast your pros and cons, your natural dialectic habit of mind has probably instinctively pitted point against point, raising the opposition and answering it. You may do this almost sentence for sentence... or you may do it more extensively in longer essays. But here lies the danger. You can easily dwell on one point too long, getting carried away with explanation in detail, and any and all kinds of comparison.

Whether in a dialectical argument or a benign contrast, the point-for-point principle will keep you from losing your reader. Don't write all about sheep for three pages, for instance, then all about goats. Every time you say something about a sheep, say something comparable about a goat, pelt for pelt, horn for horn, beard for beard. Otherwise your essay will fall in two, your reader will be surprised when the goats come along, and you will need to repeat all your sheep points when you at last begin the comparison. The tendency to organize comparisons by halves is so strong that you will probably find you fallen into it unawares, and in rewriting you will have to reorganize everything point for point—still arranging your pairs of points from the least important to most. Finally, the most interesting comparison aims to demonstrate a superiority— 'Resolved: Sheep are more useful than goats.'

Of course, comparing and contrasting two poems, two stories, two ballplayers, is an essential process of thought too, an essential way to understanding. You may wish simply to set two similars, or dissimilars, side-by-side to illustrate some larger point—that excellence may come in very different packages, for instance. . . . But, whether or not you are presenting one side as superior to the other, the structural tactics are the same: illuminate by comparing point for point, as long as the comparison illuminates.

Good luck with it: if you have any questions or comments about writing, please contact me at tgray@nmsu.edu. I'd love to hear from you and will answer your questions.

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Attend grant writing workshop, TAA Conference for only $200

Attend the 2007 TAA Pre-Conference Workshop on Grant Writing by Kenneth Henson, distinguished professor of education at The Citadel, and author of Grant Writing in Higher Education: A Step-by-Step Guide on Thursday, June 21, and the 2007 TAA Conference on Friday and Saturday, June 22 and 23, for only $200 ($225 after May 1). Learn more about the Workshop: Click here

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Register early to get goodies!

There's still time to be among the first 50 registrants (only those who pay full conference registration are qualified to receive the Goody Bags), so register today and Get Goodies like these: a TAA logo coffee mug; a CD containing a one-hour audio podcast of "From Hippies to Hackers," a fascinating conversation on the development of personal computers and the influence of counterculture on it, donated by the Copyright Clearance Center; A coupon for 25 percent off of each of IIL Publishing, New York's book titles, donated by IIL Publishing, New York; Conference Handouts on CD; and pens donated by Google. Early Registration ends May 1: Click here

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Use this listserv to communication with other academic authors

Do you want to network with fellow academic author members? Send a message out to the Publish & Flourish Listserv at publishandflourish@mail-list.com Are you looking for a publisher? Need help with your proposal? Advice on working with a journal editor? Just ask. This list is moderated by TAA and TAA workshop presenters.

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Do you have an authoring question? Get an answer from the authoring experts at TAA:

Email TEXT@tampabay.rr.com

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Recommended reading for academic authors:

Click here to visit the recommended reading list.

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Discounted editing services for members

As a courtesy to its members, TAA has asked several companies to provide their editing services at a discount to TAA members. See the list of companies offering discounted services such as developmental editing, copyediting, text formatting, reference checking and formatting, publications consulting, assistance with scholarly articles, book chapters, textbooks, scholarly books, conference papers, and grant applications: Click here

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We would love to get your input!

Please let us know what you think of this new TAA member benefit. Send an email to TAA's Associate Executive Director Kim Pawlak at kmpawlak@centurytel.net. We are open to any comments, suggestions for improvement, additions, and questions!

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