Tweed Editing's Blog

Tips, Strategies, and Updates for Academic Writers

The Labor of Scholarly Writing

by | Sep 3, 2012 | ,

It’s Labor Day weekend in the United States, and I’m finding that I actually do have time to enjoy the holiday. This is no small achievement.

Since you readers are academics, I’m guessing you’re pretty familiar with quasi–free time. Our work is sprawling and unstructured because, for us, work overlaps with what we love to do, what we’d want to be doing anyway. We don’t clock in and clock out, so our work (the love of our life though it may be) haunts our waking life and even interferes in our dreams.

Despite loving the idea of a flexible schedule and despite being a night owl, I’ve recently been working more traditional hours, and every aspect of my life has improved as a result. Challenging my own long-held presumptions and experimenting with a new (albeit culturally traditional) schedule has paid off, and I’ve been spending my Labor Day weekend rejuvenating and thinking fresh thoughts.

Happiest of Labor Days to you, writers!

Remind yourself that you’ve earned some time off—because writing is work.

Writing Is WorkDownload the computer desktop graphic and a printable poster here. More graphics here, at the Writing Progress Administration.

Maybe a friend needs to remember that weekends are for writers. Send the message as an e-card here.

Weekends Are for WritersWhen you do want to get back to work, this door tag will spread the message.

Writer at Work Door TagAnd if you’re curious about the origins and cultural forces behind Labor Day, here’s a short article from PBS to ground your celebrations.

Now Booking for August

by | May 29, 2012 |

Now Booking for AugustNeed some scholarly editing this summer?

Summer 2012 is flashing before my eyes. It’s hardly the end of May, and I’m already thinking about August. University presses, professors, post-docs, and a dissertator or two have already marked up the June and July pages of my schedule.

The summer “break” is traditionally a time to get ahead on writing and publishing projects. Do you already know you’ll want some editing—developmental, line, copy, citation formatting, CV diagnostic, what have you—in late July or August?

Let me know soon so that I set aside time for you and your project.

Even if you don’t need my services, I’d love to hear what you’re working on this summer.

Sometimes making these ambitions public really solidifies our resolve, so consider yourself encouraged to comment below or send me an email summarizing your plans.

Long story short: now booking for August!

I’m booked through the third week of July for major, book-length projects (that includes dissertations), but I can add a few smaller (e.g., article-length) projects here and there in July, too.

Thanks for keeping me busy and intellectually engaged, everyone.

P.S. Check out the book I opportunistically quoted in the graphic—it’s a publication of the University of Missouri Press, which just announced its upcoming closure. Support a great institution, and expand your mind while you’re at it.

Did You See the Last Tweed Newsletter?

by | Apr 3, 2012 |

In case you missed it, I draw your attention to the last issue of the Tweed newsletter, Annotations. In it, I unveiled a new structure that highlights the best of the academic-writing Web and Tweed’s website, too.

Look how long—but, I hasten to add, easily navigable—that sucker is! I had to do two screencaps to show it all.

The theme is the hard choices that scholar-authors make, which I know you all confront regularly.

A new issue is coming out shortly, so be sure to stay in the loop by signing up. Even though the links are best experienced fresh—so you can keep your finger on the pulse of the scholarly-writing community—you can always catch up retrospectively at the archive.

Claremont Talks Tweed

by | Nov 30, 2011 |

Institute for Signifying Scriptures - InscriptionsMy scrapbook is filling up with clippings this fall. First Copyediting.com interviewed me, and now this: the Institute for Signifying Scriptures, my primary research affiliation from Claremont, profiles me and Tweed in the new fall issue of its newsletter, Inscriptions (PDF link).

ISS does what I consider truly groundbreaking work by shifting the study of scriptures away from texts and onto people, those individuals and communities who use scriptures (texts, performances, objects) for social, political, and psychological purposes. That’s the future of scriptural studies, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

My little blurb is on page 2. I encourage you to read further, because ISS is up to some really interesting stuff in the academy and culture.

I know I can’t wait for Vincent Wimbush’s upcoming book, White Man’s Magic: Scripture as Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2012). He has a way with wording, doesn’t he? A little teaser for the book (in the form of a lecture summary) can be found also on page 2 of Inscriptions.

Tweed Blurb ISSAs always, headshot image taken by Posy Quarterman, the best moment-capturing photographer around.

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