Scholarly Writing Guide: Style & Editing

This guide contains resources and information for faculty and students engaged in scholarly writing.

Thoughts on Writing

“Publishing a book is like stuffing a note into a bottle and hurling it into the sea. Some bottles drown, some come safe to land, where the notes are read and then possibly cherished, or else misinterpreted, or else understood all too well by those who hate the message. You never know who your readers might be.”

--Margaret Atwood

Writing Resources

Writing & Style Guides:

Useful Tools for Scholarly Writers:

  • RefWorks: a citation management program that allows you to generate citations & bibliographies in a variety of formats; see our online tutorials for additional help 
  • WebCite is a membership-supported organization that allows an author or editor to take a snapshot of a Web resource cited within an article and cite that snapshot.
  • perma.cc is similar to WebCite but dedicated just to legal literature
  • Internet Archive's Wayback Machine take a snapshot on demand (see instructions)
  • CrossRef  lets you check whether a DOI exists for a given article, book, etc., so that you can insert them into citations

Online Writing Communities

  • National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity
    Note: UNT has an institutional membership, so faculty can join for free. You can also sign up for individual memberships. Includes free webinars, writing boot camps, and "Monday Motivator" emails with guidance or self-reflective exercises. 

  • Author's Alliance--membership organization for authors interested in protecting authors' rights and in the potential digital networks have for the creation and distribution of knowledge and culture. 

  • Academic Ladder
    Join a writing group or dissertation group. Membership includes daily check-ins, free webinars, interactive online writing, etc.

  • PhD2Published.com--"an academic writing and publishing support community" for writers at various phases of their career, from graduate school through professional life; includes blogs with tips and strategies, article and book recommendations, conference and grant opportunities, and other publishing resources.

  • Textbook and Academic Authors Association (TAA): Resources for Writing & Publishing Success--membership organization that provides resources to academic writers, including trainings & tutorials, a blog and online community, and access to grants and other opportunities.

Finding editors, indexers, or designers

Advice, Ideas, and Events

  • Academic Writing Librarians
    A blog for academic librarians who wish to write for publication

  • Academic Writing Month (November)
    Inspired by the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), it caters to the specific needs of academic writers at all stages of their career (from undergrads to distinguished of professors). It’s hosted by  PhD2Published.com.

  • The Chronicle of Higher Education Advice
    Offers columns on a variety of topics in academia including writing, research, teaching, and professional advice.

  • Explorations of Style: A Blog About Academic Writing
    Offers readers an ongoing discussion of the challenges of academic writing. The ability to formulate and clarify our thoughts is central to the academic enterprise; this blog discusses strategies to improve the process of expressing our research in writing. 

Additional Links

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