 |
July
19, 2006
TAA launches
new academic workshop series
Dr. Robert
Ginsberg will be presenting a series of academic workshops for
TAA on college and university campuses nationwide. |
TAA has launched a
series of academic workshops entitled "Publishing Workshops for Faculty
Authors" led by distinguished scholar and editor Dr. Robert Ginsberg.
The aim of each workshop is to enlighten faculty members about their opportunities
and challenges, their rights and responsibilities as they engage in publishing.
The workshop format will include hands-on participation, show-and-tell
activity, behind-the-scenes reporting, question-and-answer sessions, and
round-table editing.
The four dimensions
of academic and textbook publishing will be explored: the author, the
teacher, the reader, and the publisher.
The workshop sessions,
depending on whether the program is scheduled for a full day or a day
and a half, will include:
• Why should
you publish? A frank assessment of the academic imperative, "Publish
or Perish"; publishing as an extended form of teaching; publishing as
the pursuit of research; publishing as a contribution to an academic
discipline; publishing as the continued development of a faculty member.
• How to
get your textbook or scholarly book published. Preparing the book;
anatomy of a book: Preface, Acknowledgements, Introduction, Illustrations,
Notes, Bibliography, Appendix, Index; identifying the book's audience
and contribution; searching for the needle of a publisher in the haystack
of publishing; reading the contract; editing; copy-editing; proofreading;
and marketing.
• How to
become published by scholarly journals: Confessions of an editor.
The special function of journals; finding journals appropriate for your
work; the formats of journal publishing: articles, reports, book reviews,
letters, special issues; the discipline of writing for periodicals.
• Writing
as communication: How to cut the crap of academic style. The principles
of good style: clarity, simplicity, directness; recognizing bad style
in the writing of others; recognizing bad style in your writing; editing
yourself to become an effective writer; unclogging your reference system;
using the most moving forms of sentence; learning to love the comma.
• How to
turn a scholarly conference into an edited book. Planning the conference;
landing the contract; editing the chapters; riding herd on your authors:
deadlines and lifelines; going to press.
• Copyright:
Getting it right! A non-technical introduction to what every teacher,
author, and editor should know about rights, fair use, quotation, paraphrase,
permission, translation, copying, public domain, and out of print.
• Everybody
needs an editor! Reflections on the art of editing. Editing as drawing
out the best in a text; the editor as the author's best friend; the
editor as the advocate for readers; the editor as expanding the outreach
of an academic discipline.
Ginsberg studied
at the University of Chicago (B.A., M.A.), University of Pennsylvania
(Ph.D.), University of Paris (Sorbonne), University of Vienna, and at
study programs in Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Italy, Yugoslavia, Peru,
Guatemala, Mexico, and China. He has received over 100 grants and awards
for research, teaching, and publishing.
He was the founder
of the Jones and Bartlett Philosophy series of textbooks, the
Social Philosophy Research Institute Book Series, the Value
Inquiry Book Series, and the New Studies in Aesthetics book
series. He also served as executive editor of The Journal of Value
Inquiry. Some 200 volumes have appeared under his general editorship.
One hundred seventy of his own writings have been published in four
languages in nineteen countries on four continents.
Ginsberg has spoken
at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Bologna, Pisa,
Uppsala, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna, Brussels, Puerto Rico, Guadalajara,
Montreal, Toronto, and throughout the United States. He is Professor Emeritus
of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University,
where he taught for 35 years, and Director of the International Center
for the Arts, Humanities, and Value Inquiry, located adjacent to Washington,
D.C.
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TAA
launches new listserv for workshop members
TAA and Tara Gray,
presenter of the "Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar" workshop,
have teamed up to provide current TAA members who attended one of Tara's
Publish & Flourish workshops with ongoing support through a monthly
listserv called "Publish and Flourish." The listserv will allow workshop
members to maintain contact with Gray and with others who took her workshop;
ask questions; seek further follow-up on her suggestions for writing;
get input from others who took the course on their own writing efforts,
share their rejection notices and acceptances; get suggestions when
they are having trouble clarifying a paragraph or fixing a structural
problem in a draft; etc.
click
here for listserv (members only)
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Writer's
Block: Working with my ghost(ly) writer, the "slave within"
by Richard T. Hull
I had a lesson handed
to me by my subconscious writer this week, and it was a hard one.
Returned to Tallahassee
from the TAA Convention in Orlando, I sat down to write a report on
the excellent sessions devoted to the digital revolution in academic
writing that were presented on Friday and Saturday. I had, as is my
practice, "given the assignment" to my slave within, the subconscious
level of composition and other cognitive activities that I have described
elsewhere. To my delight, the article was ready to transcribe!
click
for rest of essay in Writer's Block section (members only)
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Popescu joins
TAAF advisory board for minority author survey project
Sorin C. Popescu,
an assistant professor in the Department of Forest Science at Texas
A&M University, has joined the TAA Foundation Advisory Board for the
Foundation's minority author survey project. Popescu joins Dr. La Verne
Gyant, director of the Center for Black Studies at Northern Illinois
University; Don Pepion, director of American Indian Programs and assistant
professor of Native American Studies at New Mexico State University;
Mattie L. Rhodes, clinical associate professor in the School Of Nursing
at the State University of New York at Buffalo; Rosángel Cruz,
Biopsychology, State University of New York at Buffalo; and Irina Weisblatt,
a Community College Business adjunct instructor at Grossmont College,
Southwestern College and Mesa College on the Advisory Board. The Board
will be available to discuss with TAAF ways to encourage minorities
to write textbooks.
Sorin C. Popescu
|
Dr. La Verne
Gyant
|
Don Pepion
|
Mattie L. Rhodes
|
Rosángel
Cruz |
Irina Weisblatt
|
Richard Hull |
|
Resumes/CVs of
Board Members (click to download)
Sorin
C. Popescu
(pdf)
Dr.
La Verne Gyant
(Word doc)
Don
Pepion
(Word
doc)
Mattie
L. Rhodes
(pdf)
Rosángel
Cruz
(Word
doc)
Irina
Weisblatt
(Word
doc)
Richard
Hull
(Word
doc)
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TAA Council
doubles convention budget for 2007
The TAA Council
authorized doubling the 2007 TAA Convention budget to fund a restructuring
of the convention to include additional tracks for academic authors,
social networking events, and a keynoter. The budget was raised from
$10,000 to $20,000. The new structure is expected to increase convention
revenue from $3,000 to $7,200.
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2007 TAA President's
Award, Mike Keedy Award, Norma Hood Award Winners
Past-President Michael
Sullivan received the 2006 President's Award at the TAA Awards Banquet,
held the Friday night of the TAA Convention in Orlando, Florida. The
President's Award is presented by the current TAA president to someone
who in his or her view has great potential for service in TAA. Former
Executive Director Ron Pynn, now TAA Council secretary, received the
2006 Mike Keedy Award at the TAA Awards Banquet, held the Friday night
of the TAA Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Mike Keedy Award is named
after the founder of TAA and is the highest award the organization can
give a member for their work on behalf of authors. Pynn was a founding
member of TAA and served as its executive director for 10 years, from
1995 to 2005. TAA Webmaster Tammy Seidick received the 2006 Norma Hood
Award at the TAA Awards Banquet, held the first night of the TAA Convention
in Orlando, Florida. The Norma Hood Award is given in recognition of
the efforts of a member who, because he or she is away from the limelight,
doesn't often receive the recognition he or she deserves. Seidick went
above and beyond in assisting TAA Executive Director Richard Hull in
creating an online archive and index of all past issue's of the association's
member newsletter, The Academic Author.
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Create a collaboration
agreement with your co-author
Collaborating with
a co-author on producing a textbook can have many benefits, said Steve
Gillen, a publishing attorney with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald PLLC.
"It can diffuse the burden of a large project; allow you to draw on
each other's strengths; create a broader appeal for the work; and give
you access to a sounding board for ideas," he said. "On the other hand,
the most bitter troubles and disputes occur between co-authors. Of all
disputes, those between collaborators are the worst -- they almost never
have a happy ending." Read more here.
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TAAF receives
$15,000 gift
Betty Azar |
TAA member Betty
Azar has made a $15,000 unrestricted gift to the TAA Foundation. Azar,
the author of the bestselling Azar Grammar Series, published by
Pearson Longman, said she hoped her gift would encourage other textbook
authors of perennial bestsellers to support the Foundation with significant
contributions: "I thought that if one author led the way, others might
consider doing something similar."
Azar's gift will
be applied to the TAAF study of state adoption policies and practices
for textbooks, being headed by Christopher Stream, assistant professor
of public administration for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said
TAAF Executive Director Richard Hull. "The TAAF board is grateful for
Betty Azar's generous gift in support of the work of the TAA Foundation,"
he said. "Her gift puts the TAAF over its goal of raising $15,000
to receive a matching gift from TAA." The Foundation has so far raised
$31,500. This year's goal is $40,000.
In a letter to the
TAAF informing them of her gift, Azar voiced her support for the TAAF's
current projects, including its textbook adoption process study and its
research into how to increase the diversity of textbook authorship. She
also encouraged the Foundation to produce a series of publications on
various aspects of textbook publishing (e.g., how to evaluate effective
textbooks, the future of textbook publishing, and a look inside the workings
of publishing companies). "I'd also love to see TAAF develop a library
of books/anthologies written for textbook writers and publishers," she
said.
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Renew your membership
online!
TAA has just launched
a new online member form that will allow members to renew online using
a secure server. The form can also be used by new members. Check it
out in the TAA Member Center here.
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