Write More, Publish More, Stress Less!

Authorshipby Dannelle D. Stevens (Author), Stephen D. Brookfield (Foreword)

In this book Dr. Dannelle D. Stevens offers five key principles that will bolster your knowledge of academic writing, enable you to develop a manageable, sustainable, and even enjoyable writing practice, and, in the process, effectively increase your publication output and promote your academic career.

A successful and productive book and journal article author, writing coach, creator of a nationally-recognized, cross-disciplinary faculty writing program, and with a long career as a faculty member and experience as a department chair, Dr. Stevens offers a unique combination of motivation, reflective practices, analytical tools, templates, and advice to set you on the path to being a productive and creative writer.

Drawing on her experience as a writer and on her extensive research into the psychology of writing and the craft of scholarly writing, Dr. Stevens starts from the premise that most faculty have never been taught to write and that writers, both experienced and novice, frequently experience anxiety and self-doubt that erode confidence. She begins by guiding readers to understand themselves as writers and discover what has impeded or stimulated them in the past to establish positive new attitudes and sustainable habits.

Dr. Stevens provides strategies for setting doable goals, organizing a more productive writing life, and demonstrates the benefits of writing groups, including offering a variety of ways in which you can experiment with collaborative practice. In addition, she offers a series of reflections, exercises, and activities to spark your writing fluency and creativity.

Whether developing journal articles, book chapters, book proposals, book reviews, or conference proposals, this book will help you demystify the hidden structures and common patterns in academic writing and help you match your manuscript to the language, structures, and conventions of your discipline–be it in the sciences, social sciences, or humanities.

Most importantly, believing that connecting your passions with your work is essential to stimulating your ideas and enthusiasm, this essential guide offers you the knowledge and skills to write more

Review
"Most researchers will tell you that they chose their career to do research, not to write about it and writing makes them feel uncomfortable. Danelle Stevens expertly emphasizes the development of positive attitudes that defuse that discomfort. So, this book can benefit all young researchers as part of their apprenticeship and those many, established researchers who still feel uncomfortable when they face the inevitable task of having to tell the world what they have discovered." (David Lindsay, author of Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words 2018-10-12)

“Dannelle Stevens has spent her career studying academic writing. In this helpful book, she shares five key principles and scores of practical strategies to guide your writing. Everyone from new graduate students to experienced professors will find valuable insights and inspiration in this book. I plan to keep a copy near my desk as I strive to write more and stress less.” (Peter Felten, Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning, and Professor of History Elon University 2018-10-12)

"Stevens delivers again! Following the pattern established in her previous books on rubrics and journal keeping, this text is extremely useful, immensely practical, and carefully grounded in sound scholarship. From the topics covered ― such as how to foster creativity in academic writing or how to structure writing groups ― to the numerous templates provided ― for introducing an argument or for analyzing the structure of a text ― Stevens’ book is a treasure trove, which stands to become a classic in the academic writing genre. A “must try” toolkit!" (Patricia Goodson, Department of Health & Kinesiology; Director POWER Services Texas A&M University 2018-10-05)

"In this practical, sympathetic guide for beleaguered academics who aspire to “write more, publish more, [and] stress less,” Dannelle Stevens offers five overarching principles, twelve information-packed chapters, eight useful appendices, and more than fifty illustrative charts, figures, and templates. Whether your goal is to build a sustainable writing routine, to develop a nuanced critical voice, or to explore creative elements in your scholarship, this book will help you publish and flourish." (Helen Sword, Professor and Director, Centre for Learning and Research in Higher Education The University of Auckland, and author of Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write 2018-09-24)

"Veteran academic author and writing coach, Dannelle Stevens has created a comprehensive and practical guide that I can’t wait to share with authors. What makes this book different from the rest is the way Stevens helps readers understand academic writing as its own genre. Particularly helpful are exercises she outlines to help researchers understand the often unstated expectations about the structure and style of successful articles in their own fields." (Amy Benson Brown, Writing Coach with Academic Coaching & Writing 2018-09-17)

“Dannelle Stevens breaks down the highly personal act of writing into manageable aspects that are both personal and practical. The book is a good tool for early career writers and scholars to understand the practice of writing as well the professional norms around the publishing cycle.” (Vasti Torres, Professor, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, Associated Faculty in Latino Studies University of Michigan 2018-09-17)

"HOORAY! Dannelle Stevens' new book is now available and it isn't just a book about writing and getting published but how to do so with less stress. The stress level in academic writing has increased to a point where too many people give up or must pay a price in their health, relationships, and other work. Dannelle offers practical strategies and advice that demystifies processes. She conveys trustworthiness; people will read and then integrate her ideas into practice." (Meggin McIntosh, The PhD of Productivity®, https://meggin.com 2018-09-12)

About the Author
Dannelle D. Stevens is a tenured professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Portland State University in Oregon where she has been since 1994. Her roots, however, are in the public school classroom where she taught middle school and high school social studies, language arts, and special education for 14 years across four school districts and three states. She received her master's from the University of Utah in 1983, and a doctorate in educational psychology from Michigan State in 1991. Before coming to PSU she taught at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Whether the topic is rubrics, journal writing, action research or academic writing, her work centers on how adults reflect on what they do and, then, act on those reflections. One of Dr. Stevens' underlying assumptions is that cognitive, social and emotional development does not end with the teenage years but continues through the lifetime. Besides over 75 conference presentations, she has written three books, all designed to impact development of her fellow faculty and their students. Her first book, co-edited with Joanne Cooper, Tenure in the Sacred Grove: Issues and Strategies for Women and Minorities, (SUNY Press, 2002), was written to help faculty women and minorities negotiate the path to tenure. Introduction to Rubrics, now in its second edition, and co-authored with Antonia J. Levi, and Journal Keeping, co-authored with Joanne Cooper, are both published by Stylus Publishing. In addition to teaching classes, she has taken on leadership positions in the department and campus-wide. In the Curriculum and Instruction Department, Dr. Stevens leads teacher licensure cohorts and coordinates the MA/MS program for experienced teachers. For the university at large, she works within the Center for Academic Excellence as faculty-in-residence for assessment. She is chair of the Institutional Assessment Council