Tag: writing

#AcWri

#AcWriMo & Accountability to Write

Laura Pasquini

Continuing with my blog “catch up” from the Fall 2012 semester theme…

I thought I’d share my #AcWriMo statistics for the month of November. In conjunction with #NaNoWriMo and #DigiWriMo, there are an avid group of academic scholars and early career researchers who “checked in” virtually to post their #AcWri goals and daily progress in a shared Google document.

So I decided to join in for #acwrimo in November to tackle a few writing projects and goals I had to hit by the end of 2012. This digital check in helped me track what I was doing. My goal was at least 750 words per day, as I found the 750words tool useful and a reasonable daily goal. In the end, my total number of words for the month of November 2012 = 60, 088 words!

I’m not sure if anyone really paid attention to what I was updating in the shared Google Excel doc, but  using 750words.com and tracking my own word count in a public space did remind me that I was not alone in my #acwri and publishing goals. This #AcWriMo word count sharing helped me keep tabs on my progress, and I was able to focus my attention to small milestones I have had for the bigger writing tasks, i.e. grant research, conference paper proposals, manuscript submissions edits, etc.

If you’re impressed with my stats and you want to increase your word count these days, then perhaps  a digital #acwrimo accountability is for you! A growing number of scholars continue to share #acwri goals and word count writing objectives each month here: Academic Writing Accountability 2013 spreadsheet.  Forget New Years resolutions for #acwri intentions, and focus on some S.M.A.R.T. goals for your scholarly writing this year.

#AcWri, OpenAccess

SPARC Addendum & Author Rights for Publishing #OpenAccess

Laura Pasquini

As part of the international open access week last fall, I attended the #SPARC Addendums and Author Rights Workshop facilitated by Kris Helge from the UNT Libraries. As an author and editor for a journal, this session reminded me about the critical stakeholders and expectations for the scholarly publishing process and the need to consider my own author agreements before signing away my work. I am fortunate enough to work and study at an institution who supports Open Access,and #OpenAccess publications.

I am also excited that other academic journals (e.g. JALN) are joining the #OA movement; however there are a number of peer-reviewed, academic publications who hold traditional publisher agreements and copyright limitations close to their heart. If you are an academic, scholarly author, or early career researcher and you have NOT heard about SPARC … then this blog post is for you!

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After a brief review of copyrights and “traditional publishing agreements,” the workshop reminded me about of the importance of reading author agreements CAREFULLY and THOROUGHLY. A number of authors and early career researchers are just excited to get the chance to publish, that they rarely considering they are agreeing to transfer ALL OF THEIR COPYRIGHTS TO THE PUBLISHER. As researchers, we need to value our intellectual property and have a conversation with the publisher and inquire if any of the publishing agreement is negotiable.

Cue the SPARC Addendum…

SPARC. or the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, advocates for collaboration among authors, publishers, and libraries to correct imbalances found in the academic publishing system.

For a more balanced approach for author and publisher agreements you might want to consider the SPARC Addendum. This is a FREE, legal document that modifies the publisher’s agreement and allows authors to keep specific copyrights related to intellectual property (e.g. articles).  The author is able to retain their desired publishing rights with limited restrictions, and the publisher retains non-exclusive rights to publish and distribute your work. Overall, it allows authors to consider the access of their research, placement of writing into an electronic repository, and get the proper attribution when your work is utilized.

Want to know more about SPARC and #OpenAccess publishing resources? Check them out :

 

Reference:

Helge, K. (2012, October 24). SPARC Addendums and Author Rights Workshop. 2012 International Open Access Week @ UNT.

#AcWri, #phdchat

Reasons to #AcWri and Writing Considerations

Laura Pasquini
For tonight’s class (yay for Fridays!) I will be sharing the basic concepts from Rocco and Hatcher’s (2011) publication – The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publication – as I outline chapter 1. This book was part of my #summerreading list. I picked it up to read advance for ATTD 6480: Research Methods class, and consider how to hone my own writing and publishing practice. Much of this book offers basic ideas and structure for suggested scholarly writing practices. Stay tuned, as I am sure that I will share a few other nuggets of #AcWri tips from time to
time.

Here are some basic writing tips from Chapter 1:

  • Make projects from opportunities
  • Meet deadlines – yours and others
  • Keep your commitments
  • Organize & prioritize your projects => To Do lists & Tracking of Your Work
  • Write down ideas – ALWAYS
  • Outline your writing projects in progress
  • Take notes when you read/research
  • Identify at least ONE journal to submit to
  • Review journal articles where you want to submit
  • Learn the style & preferred manuscript structure
  • Rejection = helpful review comments & suggestions

Reference:

Rocco, T.S. & Hatcher, T. (2011). The handbook of scholarly writing and publishing. San Francisco: Wiley/Jossey-Bass.

#AcWri, #phdchat, Professional Development

A @PhD2Published Post: A Book Review is #AcWri Too

Laura Pasquini

This blog post is cross-posted at http://www.phd2published.com/. Thanks for the invite to write, @dratarrant.

For graduate students and junior faculty, book reviews can be a way to dip your toes in the publishing realm of academic journals. Although peer-reviewed articles are the pinnacle for publishing and tenure, I do not think academic book reviews should be scoffed at. A book review is a great way to engage, comment, and contribute on a colleague’s work in the field. More importantly, a refereed journal publication review can be a fun piece to hone your writing, develop your analytic reading skills, and provide interesting insights for your fellow researchers to read.

Image c/o EricLanke

The process of writing a book review encourages academic researchers to engage in the literature. Often, the practices of summarizing chapters and restating ideas provides the book reviewer how to read a book to understand the author’s key points. A great book review will weave the text into the current academic subject.

Here are some general guidelines for book reviews I have seen in academic journals and suggested practices from those who are writing #acwri book reviews:

  • Read – Check out book reviews in journals that you might be interested in publishing in 1st. See what books are being selected for review & check out the format/style.
  • Good Publications to Review – Find a book that highlights issues or resources relevant to the field and/or subject of the academic journal you are submitting to
  • Describe & evaluate– focus on the book’s purpose, contents, format,  and authority
  • Not Just a Summary – Positions and opinions should be supported with a logical argument and review the pertinent literature. Highlight strengths and weaknesses of the publication, and why this book is interesting and/or useful.
  • Be constructive with your criticism. Remember to be kind and respectful to the author(s). A great deal of effort on the author, editorial board, blind review, etc. has been put into this text. Choose to be constructive with your criticism.
  • Provide your thoughts on the book – use quotes sparingly. Readers will be interested in what YOU have to say.
  • Share key ideas. What is the main idea of the work? What does this publication contribute to the field?
  • Review Your Review – try to read from the vantage point of your audience. Is there too much/enough summary? Does your argument or key thoughts about the text make sense?

Typically academic journals will accept book reviews for publications that have been released within the year that highlights issues or resources relevant to that journal topic, genre, or field. If you are lucky, some journals might even purchase the book for you to review. It would be important to select a text that would offer solutions or directions to the field, and it would be helpful to verify with the editor if the publication would be appropriate to review.  Sometimes, journals will give preference in the review process to book review essays that comment on two or more related books

In thinking about the book review requirements for the Learning and Performance Quarterly journal, I took a gander at a number of scholarly sources that published book reviews. Here are some of the common technical requirements* for academic book reviews:

  • Reviews of publications within the recent year, i.e. 2011 or later would be acceptable now
  • Include the title, author(s), year, publisher, publisher location, ISBN, cost, book format, and page numbers of the book(s) under review.
  • Keep it simple. Typically book reviews are between 600 to 2000 words (unless you are reviewing a period or series of books).
  • An abstract of 150 words or less might be required to accompany the book review.
  • Draft a short biography and/or contact information to be included at the end of your book review.
  • *Follow ANY and ALL other book review requirements for your specific journal of choice.

Happy #acwri reading & reviewing!

blogs, PhD, Professional Development, Reflections

What Prompts You To Blog?

Laura Pasquini

Blog prompts are all around me. I started blogging in 2006 to share travel tales and I continued to blog to tell a different story and share my academic journey and musings. I typically blog to share ideas, research, and reflect on what I’m doing, learning, or experiencing – at least on this blog space.

Image c/o <http://www.weblogcartoons.com/cartoons/sifting-through-ideas.gif>

Sometimes my blog ideas get filtered. I don’t always have time to write these thoughts out, so I often have to save this blog-worthy idea for later in my Delicious account, a WP draft post, or, most commonly, in WP, in a Gmail draft or Google Doc. During the crunch time of year, when all academic and professional deadlines seem to merge, my attention tends to drift. I find myself looking for interesting things to read and I seem to be more inspired to write blogs. I consider this digression to be a form of “productive procrastination.”

Inspired by the blog post from @InnovativeEdu, I thought I would share where I get my blog ideas from and what prompts me to blog:

  1. My regular online reading locations – I typically check my Google Reader, Twitter streams/hashtags, Google Alerts, social feeds, Percolate, and regular listservs/news feeds first thing in the morning. Sometimes there is a gem that I want to talk about in greater detail than just sharing it in a 140 tweet.
  2. Things I have to read “for school” – I am sure that no one is shocked to learn that you consume a hefty amount of reading while you’re a doctoral student. Beyond the “required reading” for class, I also stumble upon other finds when researching, compiling articles for my literature review and writing articles. Blogging helps me annotate and remember these theories, articles, and references in a synthesized portion to recall and use later.
  3. From conversations with peers & my PLN – I am fortunate to interact with a number of thoughtful and challenging peers on Facebook, Twitter, G-Chat, my campus, LinkedIn, Skype, and by phone. At least once a week (usually more often) I am fortunate to dialogue about something that makes me think and I want to write about in a blog to share
  4. Great finds for technology, learning ,and engagement I just want to share – Sharing – it was a good lesson I learned in kindergarten and have taken with me along the way.
  5. A photo or video that inspires me – I am a fairly active Flickr user, and  think that there are a great groups and community members that share visual inspirations that create a blogging spark. Lately Instagram, YouTube, Vimeo, and the odd infographic (there are too many of them now) have triggered ideas for blogging projects and shares.
  6. Professional & personal development opportunities – Whether it is a workshop on campus, a webinar online or an open learning session in the community, there are loads of ideas to reflect and bring back to my personal learning network (PLN).
  7. A question or request for advice – Sometimes I get an email, IM or call from individuals who want to talk about an issue or idea. When questions about technology in advising, education challenges, research process, or academic experience advice come up, I think how sharing this information in a blog post could be helpful to others who just have not asked.
  8. A Tweet – 140 characters shared on Twitter from either from me or someone else can inspire a blog draft. A tweet might include a quote, question, argument, Twitter chat, link, or random thought.
  9. Reading other posts & threaded comments – In reading a threaded discussion on someone’s blog, Facebook wall or open discussion in LinkedIn challenges me to consider my own perspective to later process it through a blog post.
  10. My own curiosity – If I want to learn more about a product, tool. vendor, process, or topic, I typically share what I have found on my blog.
  11. Contributions or things I produce – I document things I create for publications, podcasts, and presentations. Part of this is for my doctoral portfolio (ATPI is similar to the ECMP portfolio requirements, so I try to archive my work/experiences) and the other part is to share training and learning sessions. Why not put these ideas out there to extend to the audience that could not attend?
  12. Writing, writing and MORE writing – I write regularly. I started using 750words to keep me writing regularly to keep me writing. This activity helps weave my thoughts and develop new ones. Continuous writing allows me to practice my craft and improve how and what I write about.
  13. Cultivation of resources – My research interests vary and are interdisciplinary, so I collect a load of  resources – this could also be a direct result of #1, 2, 4, 6, & 8. Blogging helps me to  connect and process my thoughts to share with peers in these academic and professional fields.

I am sure there are other reasons, but those were the first few that came to my head. So the question for you is… what prompts YOU to blog? Please share.