Welcome to the Publish & Flourish Listserv! Current Listserv Archive

TAA Publish & Flourish Listserv has changed February 6, 2007

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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Use the author-date-page citation, not just author-date
by Tara Gray, presenter of "Publish and Flourish: Become A Prolific Scholar"

"Citing whole books and articles is a disease" (McCloskey 2000: 48) in modern scholarship, which is spread by the author-date citation. "It is easier for the author to write 'See The General Theory' than to bother to find the page and sentence where Keynes, fatally, adopts the mistaken assumption of a closed economy" (McCloskey 2000: 49).

Don't use the author-date citation except when making a point that is the point of the entire article you are citing. The rest of the time, add the page that you are citing. I have cited the exact page for years and editors rarely remove the pages from my work. Giving the pages will help your reader find what they need from your citations.

Check out the outstanding book Economical Writing (2000) by Deirdre McCloskey.

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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Camera-ready copy: A brief introduction
by Elizabeth Boepple, presenter of the TAA-sponsored workshop, "Creating Camera-Ready Copy: The Process Demystified"

Fairchild Semiconductor developed one of the earliest electronic photocomposition systems. The typesetter typed a line of text on a Fairchild keyboard that had no display. To verify correct content of the line it was typed a second time. If the two lines were identical, a bell rang and the machine produced a punched paper tape corresponding to the text. Two obvious problems with this system are immediately apparent. If the compositor typed the same error both times, the bell would ring, and the error would go to print. If the two lines were not identical, no bell would ring, and the compositor was required to start the process again without feedback about what the error was.

Now the industry has developed ubiquitous, low-cost desktop publishing applications to create industry standard, camera-ready copy used to produce printed matter. Whether you are producing a philosophy treatise or a nursing textbook on pathophysiology, excellent camera-ready copy is a prerequisite for publications that do not distract from the message. For a book to look as if produced with professional care, the typography must meet accepted trade book standards. Poor typography, subtle though it might be, may be the difference between a sale and a book passed over for one with better design, organization, and effective presentation of the meaning. Academic publishing, especially, should present the best scholarship to serve as a model for students to emulate.

The greatest benefit of producing camera-ready copy on a personal computer is that what you see on your screen is what you will see in print. Ironically, this is also its greatest curse: What you fail to see will also appear in print. Consequently, the preparer of camera-ready copy must know what to put on the screen and how to see what needs changing on the screen. To prepare camera-ready copy, you must execute, or supervise, the roles of project manager, copy editor, typesetter, page maker, illustrator, indexer, proofreader, and quality control expert. To accomplish the task, you must be skilled in computer applications to apply styles and formatting to documents. Fluency in English grammar, punctuation, and composition, and knowledge of formatting conventions applicable to your publication are imperative.

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Read new Authors Asking Q&A's

Two authoring attorneys answer a recent member question: How do you go about getting a contract to publish an academic book? How is the process different from getting a contract for a college-level or K-12 textbook? Click here for answer

Authoring attorney Steve Gillen tells about some of the liabilities authors should be concerned about: Click here for more

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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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TAA to award publishing aid grants

Beginning in July 2007, TAA will accept applications for publishing aid grants of up to $1,000 for articles and up to $5,000 for books to members who are in their second or later continuous year of membership.

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TAA now offering grant writing workshop

TAA has added a fourth workshop to its Academic Authoring Workshop Series. The new workshop, "Writing Grant Proposals" is led by Kenneth Henson, author of Grant Writing in Higher Education: A Step-by-Step Guide, published by Allyn & Bacon in 2005, and Distinguished Professor of Education at The Citadel's School of Education. The one-day, six-hour workshop provides practical suggestions and tips to help grant writers increase their acceptance rate. The hands-on workshop also teaches grant writers how to design a budget that evaluators will perceive as honest and fair; avoid rejections; identify their own unique circumstances and use them to strengthen their proposals; and turn limitations into strengths. Learn more about Henson's workshop: Click here. Contact TAA at (727) 563-0020 or TEXT@tampabay.rr.com to learn how you can earn $500 by bringing a TAA Workshop to your campus.

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2007 TAA Conference offering Academic Track

The 2007 TAA Conference on Text and Academic Authoring, to be held at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo, in Buffalo, NY, June 22-23, will feature an Academic Track with sessions such as "Editing a Collective Volume of Papers from a Conference" by Richard Hull, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo, and editor of several book series, including Presidential Addresses of the American Philosophical Association; "Secrets of a Scholarly Journal Editor," by Kenneth T. Henson, Distinguished Professor of Education at The Citadel's School of Education and author of more than 300 national and international publications, including 38 books; and "Elements of a Successful Peer Review Process," by Gayle A. Brazeau, Ph.D., University at Buffalo, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences: Amherst NY. Learn more about these sessions at: Click here. The conference will also feature Moderated Roundtable Discussions on Writing Indexes, moderated by Seth Maislin, Freelance Indexer and Consultant, Focus Information Services, President of the American Society of Indexers; and "Options for Publishing Your Academic Book," moderated by Richard Hull, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo, and editor of several book series, including Presidential Addresses of the American Philosophical Association. Learn more about these Roundtable Discussions: Click here

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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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