Resources on Academic Writing
UMass Amherst Writing Center
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10 Essential Guidebooks on Academic Writing
From the Chronicle of Higher Education article 'Aiding the Writing Stalled Professor'
A faculty-writing program needs a good collection of books to lend out to stalled writers -- general books on writing and productivity as well as handbooks focused on the rules, customs, and processes of academic publication. Here are 10 books --- some old, some new, and most of them aimed at scholarly writing -- that I've found especially essential to have on our shelves at the faculty-writing program at the University of Tulsa:
Early Career Writing
On productivity and academic writing:
- Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing, by Robert Boice (New Forums, 1990).
- How To Write A Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing, by Paul J. Silvia (American Psychological Association, 2007).
- Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write, by Helen Sword (Harvard, 2017)
- The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations and Books, by Eviatar Zerubavel (Harvard UP, 1999).
- The Scholarly Writing Continuum: A New Program Model for Teaching and Faculty Development Centers, by Baldi, B., Sorcinelli, M.D., and Yun, J.H (Utah State University Press, 2013)
- Henry Miller's 11 Commandments of Writing and His Daily Creative Routine - Brain Pickings
Online Support
- LunaWriting
- Resources for Writers - Helen Sword
For dealing with writer's block:
- Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer's Resistance, by Roseanne Bane (TarcherPerigee, 2012).
- Unstuck: A Supportive and Practical Guide to Working Through Writer's Block, by Jane Anne Staw (St. Martins Griffin, 2005).
For working within the norms of scholarly writing:
- Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success, by Wendy Laura Belcher (Sage, 2009).
- From Dissertation to Book, by William Germano (Chicago, 2005).
- They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein (Norton, 2010).
- Handbook for Academic Authors, by Beth Luey (Cambridge, 2009).
