Tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education.

Tag Archives: writing

Scrivener, Scrivening, Scriverastic

March 8, 2010 in Productivity, Products by Prof. Hacker

Guest author Ryan Cordell returns to explain the Mac-based word processor, Scrivener.

Writer’s Bootcamp: Commitment (to write)

February 23, 2010 in Productivity by Billie Hara

Over the past few weeks at ProfHacker, we've discussed writing, and these discussions have turned into a new series: Writer's Bootcamp. If you are a part of higher education, you know about the ongoing need we have to produce written words.

Strategies for Writers: “Just Do It.”

February 8, 2010 in Productivity by Billie Hara
The Nike slogan, “Just Do It,” has been a staple of commercials and bumper stickers for years.  It’s a motivational and inspirational saying.  Yes, I might think, if I “just do it” (run a marathon, ride in a 50K bike race, swim the English Channel), I’ll be successful (healthy, acclaimed, accomplished).  Just doing it sounds [...]

The Down-and-Dirty Article

February 1, 2010 in Productivity by Nels P. Highberg

Maybe there's something you've written in the past that's closer to being publishable than you think.

The Writer as Athlete

January 12, 2010 in Life by Billie Hara

Writing is very hard work. So hard, in fact, that most people who try are not wholly successful. The best way define success, for our purposes, is to compare being a successful writer to being a successful athlete. Writers and athletes have a lot in common. Each needs to set goals for their work, each needs to identify their talent, they need the right equipment, and they need focus to achieve their goals.

On Writing for the Web

January 4, 2010 in How-To by Julie Meloni

"Writing for the Web" can mean writing for an audience of humans reading your work online, or it can mean writing for the search engines that index your content so it can be found by others. However, many tips for writing on the web cover both situations—handy, that! Find some in this post.

New Faculty Writing Groups

September 29, 2009 in How-To, Productivity by Billie Hara

In composition, writing groups are standard operating procedure. It's in these groups that we learn to write, learn to read, and learn to be constructive critics of others' work. (Or, that's the goal.) First-year students need guidance when they learn these skills. They need to know they are not alone as they become competent in academic writing, and they need to learn that others have strategies and skills that might be helpful to them. First-year students are not the only ones who need this type of support. So do first-year tenure-track faculty.

Using WordPress and DevonThink together

September 16, 2009 in Productivity by Amy Cavender

As academics, we're writers, and we know that writing keeps the ideas flowing. What tools are available if we want to keep our earliest efforts at articulating our ideas private, but also want them to be searchable so we can mine them later? Mac users might find that WordPress and DevonThink work well when used together.