Writing Classes

Quick Links

Eye on the Prize: Create Goals That Move Your Forward | Be a Team Player: Write For Your Audience | Proper Technique: Organize, Document, and Present Your Research | Lose the Academese: Be Smart Without Trying to Sound Smart | Hone Your Skills: Proof and Revise Your Work | Get Started, Continue Your Draft, and Finish!

Week 1

Eye on the Prize: Create Goals That Move You Forward

Presenter: Susan Robison, Psychologist, Faculty Development Consultant, Professor Destressor

Learn how to create a Workout Plan with effective writing goals that will keep you moving forward. This class will also introduce a 5-minute writing warm-up that you can use each time you sit down to write, as well as share how to create "cool-downs" that will set the bar for your next writing session. It will emphasize what Workout exercises differentiates those who accomplish their goals and those who get stuck.

Susan Robison is a former professor of psychology and department chair at the Notre Dame of Maryland University. She provides faculty development and productivity coaching at higher education conferences and on college campuses. Her mission is to help faculty increase their productivity and work-life balance. Her book, The Peak Performing Professor: A Practical Guide to Productivity and Happiness was published by Wiley in October of 2013. While she didn’t enjoy writing it, she is enjoying having written it. Her most current writing project was serving as a co-editor on a special topics issue on Coaching Skills for Academic Leaders published by the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching in which she only had to write a little and mostly enjoyed helping other people write.

Week 2

Be a Team Player: Write For Your Audience

Presenter: Michael Greer, Educator, Editor, Author

Learn how to revise your work to meet the needs of different audiences. This class will focus on ways to identify who your audience is and what they expect from your results. Learn which muscles to strengthen for a winning performance.

Michael Greer is an educator, editor, and author who has been working in higher education for over 20 years. He worked as a development editor at Pearson for 15 years before starting his own company, Development by Design, and has recently published his first textbook specifically for smartphones in collaboration with Gadget Software (using their virtual publication vPub™ technology).

Week 3

Proper Technique: Organize, Document and Present Your Research

Presenter: Eric Schmieder, Computer Technology Author

Learn techniques for organizing, documenting, and presenting your research that will make the process of writing easier. This class will focus on easy-to-use strategies and techniques that result in greater performance. Develop core strength in areas that will support the rest of the writing process.

Eric Schmieder has taught computer technology concepts to curriculum, continuing education, and corporate training students since 2001. A lifelong learner, teacher, and textbook author, Eric seeks to use technology in ways that improve results in his daily processes and in the lives of those he serves. His latest textbook, Web, Database, and Programming: A foundational approach to data-driven application development using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, MySQL, and PHP (1e), is available now through Sentia Publishing. He is also TAA's Membership Marketing Manager.

Week 4

Lose the Academese: Be Smart Without Trying to Sound Smart

Presenter: John Bond, Publishing Consultant, Riverwinds Consulting

Learn why you shouldn't incorporate academic jargon, or "academese" into your journal article or textbook, how to identify when you are, and how to write instead. This class will focus on proofreading techniques that help you identify the problem areas in your writing where cuts can be made. Trim down your writing to a lean manuscript that’s less talk and more action.

John Bond is a publishing consultant at Riverwinds Consulting and the host of the YouTube channel “Publishing Defined.” He has been in scholarly publishing for 30 years. In his career, he has directed the publishing of over 500 book titles and 20,000 journal articles.

Week 5

Hone Your Skills: Proof and Revise Your Work

Presenter: Barbara Price, Senior Development Editor, Higher Ed Science Textbooks and Courseware

Learn strategies for proofing and revising your work throughout the writing process. This class will focus on proofing and revision processes that can be applied as early as your first draft. Tone and shape those early efforts into a strong finished product.

Barbara Price is presently a senior development editor for the largest publisher of higher ed science textbooks and courseware in North America. She helps both experienced and novice authors achieve their writing goals, whether these goals are preparing the first draft manuscript for a new textbook, revising an existing textbook, creating effective scripts and storyboards for video, or taking the initial step of preparing a book proposal. In addition to editing, Barbara has also scripted science films for Encyclopaedia Britannica Films, been a writer for Saunders College Publishing/Harcourt, and is the author, editor, and content developer of science curricular materials for school markets.

Week 6

Get Started, Continue Your Draft, and Finish!

Presenter: Noelle Sterne, Dissertation Coach, Editor, Writing Consultant, Author, and Writing and Meditation Workshop Presenter

Longtime dissertation coach, editor, writing consultant, author, and writing and meditation workshop presenter, Noelle Sterne has published three books and over 600 pieces in print and online venues. She helps students deal with often overlooked and crucial nonacademic difficulties in her Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping with the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles.