Executive Director's Messages
- May 2010 - Looking back, looking ahead
- February 2010 - Could student-authored texts be the future?
- November 2009 - Look to TAA for financial and writing assistance
- August 2009 - Authoring ideas flowed
- March 2009 - January TAA Council meeting report
- December 2008 - TAAF partners with Palm Beach Community College to develop mentoring program
- October 2008 - Time to take stock
- April 2008 - Free money! All you have to do is ask
- September 2004 - Message from Executive Director: Workshops a Priority with TAA
May 2010
Looking back, looking ahead
 TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
This June's conference will be my sixth since joining TAA as its executive director.
I have been gratified at the growth of the organization. We have recently modified a useful gift membership program that allows members to name colleagues they think would benefit from membership, and give an introductory membership at a modest cost, without fear that their gifts won't be used.
TAA has added several workshop presenters, the popular teleconference program, returned to monthly newsletter publications during the academic year, diversified its Council and Foundation board membership, negotiated partnerships with several university faculty groups and one national organization, instituted regular electronic news alerts, and created parallel listservs where academics and text authors can share problems and solutions. We have been able to attract and retain excellent staff and utilize their skills to members' benefit. We have archived teleconference and conference material online.
As a result mostly of the workshops and the gift memberships during the past 5 years, membership has doubled, and retention is improving.
We now look forward to the next five years, and I invite members to send their suggestions for TAA's future. Are there other services we should be providing? How can we attract more text authors? What can we do to make remaining in the organization attractive to first year members? What do we need to do to make our Council more representative of members' interests?
These are the issues with which we must deal as we forge our next strategic plan.
This is a member organization. You are invited to participate in that discussion, to make TAA what you would value most!
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
Richard.Hull@taaonline.net
February 2010
Could student-authored texts be the future?
TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
OnlineSchool, a consortium of online schools, recently published "10 Predictions for the Future of the Textbook." (Click here for the article)
The predictions include: (1) Rental texts; (2) Smaller texts functioning as guidebooks to internet-based resources rather than as authoritative resources; (3) Electronic textbooks read on computers and e-book reading devices, which will improve to the point of rivaling printed page comprehension; (4) Virtual textbooks that embody Flash animation demonstration of concepts and self-testing feedback; (5) Texts that are constantly evolving and being updated to stay current; (6) Interactive texts with hyperlinks to sources, integrated quizzes with students' results emailed to the instructor, and interactive games and other materials; (7) Wiki-like interface, permitting mistakes to be flagged, experts expansion on content, and moderators to maintain content integrity; (8) Open textbooks, available online and free of charge; (9) Integration of texts with other high tech devices, such as iPhones and iTouches, to provide students integrated homework alerts, announcements, and other faculty-created material.
But the 10th prediction really caught me eye: Student authored texts, building on the concept of a class of students as a learning community in which instruction is the task of the students with a common goal of mutually assisting the mastery of course content. Recent reserach on educational practices in hunter-gatherer societies and one a modern version by Peter Gray on the Sudbury Valley Schools ("Lessons from Hunter-Gatherers & Sudbury Valley Schools," The Florida Humanist Journal, vol 3 (Spring 2009): 21-24), suggests to me that the absence of deliberate pedagogies and the presence of expectations that education is the student's responsbility all lie behind the growing interest in wiki textbooks.
The TAA Foundation this past summer, under a grant from the Florida Department of Education's Governor's Summer program, ran an initial experiment in teaching high school students the skills of academic writing that has produced a student-written monograph, illustrating the possibility of student academic and text writing even at the level of secondary education. It may be the working on a wiki textbook of wiki journal entry makes constructing meaning from information and experience more explicit and thus intentional, may help students link new information with their existing knowledge, and increases students' repertoires of learning strategies and strengthen critical reasoning skills. Those who attend TAA's conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota June 22-23 will have the opportunity to see the monograph assembled by six students who participated in the TAA Foundation's Mentor Academic Authors Project that ocurred in July 2009 at Palm Beach Community College, and meet those students. Their work may be precursor to TAAF-sponsored student text-writing in future grants.
The conference will also include presentations on the open source movement's impact on textbooks and academic journals. The conference's general theme is "Recent Trends in Textbook and Academic Publishing." Plan to attend!
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
Richard.Hull@taaonline.net
November 2009
Look to TAA for financial and writing assistance
TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
TAA helps academic authors in a variety of ways. One is establishing menotring relationships between seasoned academic authors and those struggling to master the craft. This past month brought great satisfaction to me as a mentor: two individuals whom I have been mentoring got their projects accepted. One is by a recent PhD who extracted and published an article from her MA thesis in her target journal, and is now working on another article taken from her doctoral research. The other is a high school junior participating in the TAA Foundation's July Mentor Academic Authorship Program conducted at Palm Beach State (formerly Community) College, whose article contains a research proposal. She is applying for funding to the Tallahassee Science Society to conduct her proposed research.
TAA also assists academic authors through publication grants of up to $750 to cover expenses incurred in publishing already accepted print academic journal articles and books including academic journal page costs or university press subventions; the cost of preparing artwork or other charts, diagrams, or images to be included in accepted jorunal articles or academic books; and journal reprint costs. Grants are also available for expenses incurred as a direct result of research leading to publication of a book or article. Grants are not available to cover costs if producing works intended to generate significant income, such as textbooks.
Further information, including the application process and required documents: Click here
You can also contact me at Richard.Hull@taaonline.net or (850) 893-6539. December 1, 2009 is the deadline for the first round of applications.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
August 2009
Authoring ideas flowed
TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
TAA's conference in San Antonio June 25-27 attracted 80 registrants, a record for the organization. This annual conference has evolved into an interesting meld of advanced academic and textbook instruction, current news, one-on-one mentoring, ideas for using social networks for marketing, and honing the craft of academic authoring, all in the mix of individuals whose authoring experience ranges from none to hundreds of articles and dozens of books. And the meeting's size gives each attendee the opportunity to interact and network with any other attendee.
Growth in the organization has topped 1,900, and the Council has wisely decided to slow growth and consolidate services to those already members. Thus, fewer workshops will be supported by TAA in the current fiscal year, but the chapter program will increase to four; the number of teleconferences on a wide variety of topics will be continued; content from the conference will be made available on the TAA website; and a new database will enable better communications to members.
TAA Foundation, the independent partner of TAA, has landed its first grant this past spring from the Florida Department of Education, and is now conducting a pilot program that partners with Palm Beach Community College to encourage academic writing skills in gifted, underserved populations of high school students intent on careers in biomedical and environmental technology. TAA members are serving as mentors in this effort. The results will form the basis both for academic research articles and further grant applications.
Thus, linked processes of renewal and consolidation are the mechanics of the TAA/TAAF partnership as we move into TAA's 22nd and TAAF's 6th year.
TAA and TAAF, the organization and the foundation, depend of TAA's members in countless ways. Your input and financial support are crucial to the ongoing success of both.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
March 2009
January TAA Council meeting report
TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
The mid-winter TAA Council meeting at the Sirata Hotel in St. Pete Beach, Florida, was in many ways a celebration of new steps undertaken by this organization. It is my pleasure to report on several changes that will be of interest to members.
First and foremost, the installation of Dr. Angela Jackson and Dr. Claudia Sanchez as at-large members marks a successful step in the diversification of TAA. Dr. Jackson, an American of African heritage, has had several academic appointments and is currently founder, president, and CEO of a firm that consults with schools and school districts on issues of diversity. Dr. Sanchez, an American of Mexican heritage, is an education faculty member at Texas Woman's University and principal investigator of several important grants. TAA welcomes their addition to the Council and the perspectives they bring to the organization's direction and leadership.
Second, several staff changes are of note. Margaret Matson, long-time assistant to Managing Director Janet Tucker, has announced her intent to retire from active duty. She will assist TAA in training her replacement, Sharon Pevsner, who joined us at the Council meeting. Sharon brings substantial experience in office procedures to this critical support position, and Margaret will assist her to make a smooth transition into the complexities of managing the Texty and McGuffey Awards competition, preparation of materials for our conferences and meetings, and managing our database.
I have stepped down from my appointment as executive director of the TAA Foundation to devote more time to TAA's growth and member services. I am being replaced by Dr. Jay Matteson, also of Tallahassee. Dr. Matteson has a lengthy history of work in entrepreneurial business and in higher education and has already outlined a grant strategy, which I reported on in my From the Executive Director column in December, that holds great promise. He also has recently offered a workshop on grant writing at one of our TAA Chapters, and is presenting a teleconference on the same topic this spring for TAA.
Third, the increasingly popular TAA Publication Grant program that offers grants of up to $750 to members who have renewed at least once has been expanded. Grants are now available for a wider range of activities than previously supported, including computer time for data analysis, interlibrary loan costs, photocopying of source materials for research related to the publication of an article or book, secretarial services, and permissions costs incurred for reprinting images and quoted material. Other publishing-related activities that are common to academics and textbook authors may be proposed. You are invited to review the new application guidelines and form on the TAA website. First-year members and members who joined through a workshop and who renew early for a second year are now eligible for grants.
The array of teleconferences assembled by Associate Executive Director Kim Pawlak for the spring of 2009 is truly exceptional. Members will be able to sharpen their grasp of tax law as it applies to academics and text authors, brush up their grant writing skills, better determine whether royalties are being fairly and fully paid, employ the techniques of "fast writing" and "slow editing" to increase their productivity, explore whether to become a textbook author, understand the negotiation of author/publisher contracts, and apply book publicity strategies developed for trade publications to academic ones.
Finally, the TAA staff has been directed to work with our extraordinary workshop presenters to develop a continuing education credit and credentialing process for workshop participants that will draw the attention of their chairs and deans and other supervisors to their efforts at professional development. This development will formally institute TAA's workshop program as constituting an Academy of Academic Authoring.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
December 2008
TAAF partners with Palm Beach Community College to develop mentoring program
TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
This month, The Text and Academic Authors Foundation (TAAF) partnered with Palm Beach Community College (FL) to create the “Mentor Education Diversity Initiative” (MEDI), a project that will have great potential for realizing measurable and meaningful change in minority representation in textbook and academic authorship. Grounded in national initiatives designed to breakdown barriers to diversity in education (e.g. STEM disciplines), MEDI will provide innovative technology and instructional experiences for students and teachers (grades 8 to 20) and faculty of higher education.
TAAF’s partnership with Palm Beach Community College includes writing a cooperative grant application for the Florida Department of Education’s Governor’s Summer Program in support of MEDI.
The project, through its MEDI Professional Learning Community (MEDI-PLC), seeks to create a number of mentoring relationships between gifted minority secondary school students and minority faculty in state colleges and universities. These mentoring relationships will involve weekly extra-curricular reading and writing assignments by the faculty to the students, with the results uploaded in a commonly-accessible online database. After six to eight weeks of activity, mentors and mentees will come together for a TAA-sponsored summer workshop on textbook writing. The aim of the workshop will be to produce a model textbook that will demonstrate how such collaborative efforts can result in a publishable textbook. This “blended learning” model has been adopted to enable the participants to create academic works of excellence by scholars of all ages. We also hope that by introducing minority faculty to the process of textbook authoring it will stimulate them to undertake their own textbook writing projects.
The aim of MEDI is to produce a model that can be replicated, through foundation and state education grant support, in states across the country. It represents the first significant effort of TAAF to fulfill a long-stated objective to improve the involvement of minorities in the production of text materials for the elementary and high school grades and at the college and university level by seeking to develop textbook authoring best practices in the current generation of minority faculty, while building the basis for generations of minority faculty to come. Recognizing that we live in a global community, and that the United States is increasingly becoming more diverse, TAAF has taken a leadership role to meet the challenge.
According to the Southeast Regional Education Board (SREB),“A diverse faculty with a variety of scholarly perspectives will produce a stronger educational experience for all students; colleges and universities must take into account that they have to serve an increasingly diverse student body and have to prepare students to deal with this diversity. The faculty should reflect this diversity; soon after the beginning of the next century, one in three Americans will be of ethnic minority background, and by 2050, according to projections, one in two Americans will be an ethnic minority. The nation’s economic health will depend upon whether these people are a successful and integral part of society.”
Because MEDI's focus is to learn and practice scholastic authorship skills over a measurable and meaningful period of time by means of repeated-engaged learning experiences with a college-level mentor educator, diversity in education is fostered by receiving instruction and practice in the elements of knowledge generation: collaborative networking; community outreach; scientific authorship; and mentoring. Overall, these comprise the backbone of a new economy for equity in learning.
I will keep our members informed about the success in pursuing this initial grant, and hope to report in a few months the progress toward achieving this major initiative. I thank Dr. Jay Matteson, TAAF’s current grant writer, for his extraordinary service in bringing this grant effort to its present state.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
October
2008
Time to take stock
I’m now in my fifth year as TAA Executive Director. When I was hired, I was asked to create a five-year plan for the association. It’s time for me to begin a process of assessment of what has been achieved during the past four years.
In 2003, TAA had 1,020 members. That number rose to 1,119 in 2004, but dropped to 742 in 2005 because of a tightening in its accounting practices. 2006 saw an increase to 1,081, and 2007 saw the number steadily increasing to 1,395. As of September 1, 2008, TAA membership stands at 1,615.
So what accounts for an increase in three years of over 217 percent?
I believe the major reason for this increase has been our focus on making TAA a service organization for all of its members. For many years we labored under the perception of our members that, although we included academic authors, we “really” were an organization for textbook authors. To overcome this perception we have steadily added services aimed at and designed for academic authors to make the organization more valuable to this important component of our membership. At the same time, we have enhanced our services to textbook authors.
In addition, we have recognized that the needs and interests of textbook authors and academic authors are different. That recognition has led us to create services that focus either exclusively on textbook author issues or exclusively on academic author issues. Of course, some members are both, so we have also created new services aimed at both groups.
For example, we recently separated the TAA Listserv into two distinct listservs, one for textbook authors and one for academic authors. TAA's listservs enable members to tap into the collective wisdom of the membership, asking questions about those issues of mutual concern to members of the respective groups. Separate listservs are but one way TAA partitions information and helps individual authors select what categories of issues will and won’t be useful. Another is through separate textbook and academic author links in the TAA website's Member Center, allowing members to view only the content that is useful to them. A third way is the creation of parallel tracks at TAA's annual conferences, addressing at the same time issues of interest to one or the other group.
One of the new services we have instituted for both textbook and academic authors is free teleconferences. Each Fall and Spring, members can sign up to participate in up to six teleconferences presented by various experts. Topics are far-ranging, and aim at encapsulating some of the material typically found in longer presentations, such as TAA workshops. Each teleconference is recorded and posted on the TAA website for members to download and listen to at their leisure.
We are always looking for different ways to serve our members, and often we are guided in that search by member requests. A recent query as to whether TAA’s Publication Grants can be used for research leading to publication has prompted us to rethink that policy, and the Council will shortly consider widening these grants to include travel and other costs of research.
I think the remarkable growth in TAA’s membership is due to the organization’s living up to the promise of its name: to be the professional organization for both textbook and academic authors. We hope you agree that membership in TAA is worth the modest dues we ask, and that you will continue to find TAA to be a source of information, mentoring, and service.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
April
2008
Free money! All you have to do is ask
TAA Executive Director Richard T. Hull |
Journals and academic book publishers have begun shifting the costs of publishing in the direction of authors. Last spring, a relatively brief article in the Journal of Neuroscience by one of our members and her postdoc was accepted contingent on payment of a fee of $750 to the journal in advance of the publication. (This charge was in addition to any additional charges for reprints.) I also recently had an article co-authored with a former student accepted by the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. We were offered the opportunity to make this article available through the open access option of the journal; the charge for that, however, would be $3,700.
Have you experienced this shifting of costs to you? TAA can help.
If you have been a TAA member for more than a year, you are qualified to apply for a TAA Publication Grant of up to $750. TAA began offering these grants in September 2007 as way to help academic authors cover the costs of publishing already accepted journal articles, or for preparation of artwork or other charts, diagrams or images to be included in accepted articles or academic books. The requirements to qualify for these grants are: evidence of acceptance; a copy of the accepted work; a copy of the charge or estimate of costs; a letter from someone overseeing the applicant indicating that the institution has no funds to support the publication or creation of the artwork; and an affidavit from the applicant stating that there are no grant funds available to support the publication project.
TAA offers these grants as part of its mission to assist academic authors. The cost of providing these grants comes from funds that TAA receives through Authors Coalition distributions. TAA receives these funds based on the Authors Coalition Surveys its members fill out when they join or renew.
To apply for a TAA Publication Grant, contact me at (850) 893-6539 or richard.hull@taaonline.net, or provide evidence of acceptance; a copy of the accepted work; a copy of the charge or estimate of costs; a letter from someone overseeing you that indicates that the institution has no funds to support the publication or creation of the artwork; and an affidavit from you stating that there are no grant funds available to support the publication project. and mail it to TAA at PO Box 56359, St. Petersburg, FL 33732-6359.
Not interested in a TAA Publication Grant? Here are some other ways that TAA assists its academic author members:
Teleconferences. Participate in one or more 60-minute open discussion or presenter-led teleconferences on various topics (click here).
Mentor-A-Member Program. TAA's members-only online mentoring directory allows members to match themselves with veteran academic and textbook authors (click here).
Discounted Editing Services. TAA members receive discounts of up to 20 percent off editing services from select editors (click here).
TAA Listserv. Questions about authoring or publishing posted on TAA's members-only listserv typically generate several helpful responses within a few days. Post your messages to taa@mail-list.com.
Richard Hull,
TAA Executive Director
September
2004
Workshops
a priority with TAA
 Former TAA Executive Director Ron Pynn |
The most popular service offered by TAA is its workshops. Seven to 10 workshops are given each year that reach approximately 300 faculty throughout the country. As we begin the 2004-05 academic year, this is a good time to schedule a workshop on your campus. What a wonderful faculty development experience for faculty to have one or more TAA workshops on your campus.
TAA has eight workshops led by individuals with national reputations and great experience in presenting workshops to faculty. All of the workshops are suitable for junior faculty as well as experienced writers. Here is a brief overview of the eight TAA workshops.
1) Scholarship, Tenure, and Promotion. This workshop looks at common problems with the faculty rewards system and how faculty can better document their work, including teaching effectiveness. The workshop is led by Robert Diamond, former Research Professor and Director of the Institute for Change in Higher Education at Syracuse University.
2) Software Tools for Authors. This workshop helps authors save time with software tools that define the rhetorical context of a document. This workshop is lead by Joe Moxley, Professor of English at the University of South Florida and author of 11 books and more than 50 articles.
3) Publish and Flourish: Write Well and Revise Rapidly. This workshop shows participants simple, specific steps to take to write well and revise rapidly, writing as little as 15 to 30 minutes daily. This is TAA's most sought after workshop. It is provided by Tara Gray who heads the Teaching Academy at New Mexico State University. She has given this workshop to more than 1,000 faculty.
4) Successful Academic Journal Writing. An editor of an academic journal shares insights on academic publishing, what kind of articles get published and how the peer review process works. Either Gerald Stone or Jay Black lead this workshop. Both were faculty members, journal editors, and prolific academic authors.
5) Authoring a Text or Professional Book. Taking an idea through the entire publishing process, this workshop provides information on all aspects of authoring so people can make informed choices about undertaking a writing project. As the author of four texts, I lead this workshop.
6) Self Publishing. Advances in technology and software make self publishing easier than ever before. Learn what it takes to publish your own book and to make it respectable. This workshop is provided by John Wakefield, Assistant Vice President at University of North Alabama and a self publisher of source books on the American Civil War.
7) Writing a Book Proposal. This workshop helps authors match their book idea with the right publisher. The workshop includes a survey of what acquisition editors look for in book proposals. I also present this workshop.
8) Negotiating a Contract. A workshop outlining book contract clauses and what can and cannot be negotiated in the contract. Also provided is strategy and favorable language for authors in helping them negotiate a more favorable contract. This workshop is led by authoring attorneys Michael Lennie or Stephen Gillen, both of whom have considerable experienced in publishing law and in representing authors.
Click here for more detailed information on these workshops, including workshop outlines and presenter biographies. Why not ask your provost or faculty development officer to look over this website? Then you or a college representative can contact TAA to schedule a workshop.
The cost of these workshops to any school is kept low to make them attractive as faculty development experiences. All speaker fees and travel costs are paid for by TAA, so the only cost for a school is the registration fee for the workshop.
What a great way to support TAA as well as to assist faculty on your campus with their publishing endeavors. If you make the initial contact, TAA will do all the work thereafter. To host one or more TAA workshops, contact TAA by calling (727) 563-0020 or e-mail TAA at text@tampaby.rr.com.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Ron Pynn
TAA Executive Director
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