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A Practical Writing Guide for Academic Librarians: Keeping it short and sweet

Anne Langley, Princeton University and Jonathan Wallace, Nation and World Editor at the News and Observer, USA

 - discusses the importance of style and audience
 - analyzes and guides the reader through the types of writing that academic librarians use in their everyday work
 - includes information on presenting data: specifically, tables, graphs and charts
 - focuses on real-life examples and situations
 - illustrates how academic librarians can use writing to advance their careers

Mastering the skills necessary for clear, effective writing can make writing tasks flow more easily. This book helps academic librarians who are new to the profession or new to a supervisory or management position, as well as those who want to be more productive and make the their writing for work go more smoothly. From progress reports to project plans, cover letters to case studies, book reviews to blogging, readers will find examples and how-tos for most of the types of writing they need to do in their academic library careers.

ISBN 1 84334 532 3
ISBN-13: 978 1 84334 532 9
May 2010
172 pages  234 x 156mm  paperback  
£45.00 / US$75.00 / €55.00

Usually dispatched within 24 hours

About the authors

Anne Langley has been an academic librarian for 15 years and has worked in academic libraries for 22 years, in technical, collection, management, Web and public services areas. Presently she works Princeton University, USA. Jonathan Wallace has been a newspaper copy editor, writing tutor and freelance academic editor for 17 years. He is Nation and World Editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., USA.

Contents

Introduction
 - What to expect from this book
 - Our goals as writers

Style: short and sweet
 - Why short and sweet?
 - What is style?
 - Revising: the key to improving your style
 - Wordy phrases
 - Verbs and action
 - Jargon
 - Clichés and platitudes
 - Active voice versus passive voice
 - Redundancy
 - Qualifiers
 - How thinking about style helps us revise

Audience
 - Identifying your audience
 - Revising for an audience
 - How thinking about audience helped us revise this book
 - Help with audience

Getting and keeping a job: letters of recommendation, cover letters, résumés, self-assessments, thank-you notes
 - Letters of recommendation
 - Cover letters
 - Résumés
 - Self-assessments
 - Thank-you notes
 - Final thoughts

Meetings and reports: minutes, formal reports, progress reports, annual reports, project proposals
 - Minutes
 - Formal reports
 - Annual reports
 - Project proposals
 - Project plans
 - Final thoughts

Managing: performance reviews, employee documentation, job descriptions, search committee reports, budget requests
 - Performance reviews
 - Employee documentation
 - Job descriptions
 - Search committee reports
 - Budget requests
 - Final thoughts

Public services and collections: subject guides (pathfinders), collection assessments and other documents related to collection development, memos or letters to faculty about the library collection, external reviews, marketing tools (bookmarks, brochures and posters)
 - Subject guides (pathfinders)
 - Collection assessments
 - Memos or letters to faculty about library collections
 - External reviews
 - Marketing tools (bookmarks, brochures, posters)
 - Final thoughts

Online and presenting data: writing for the website, blogging, e-mail, tables, graphs, charts
 - Writing for the website
 - Blogging
 - E-mail
 - Tables, charts,graphs

Scholarly work and teaching: articles, abstracts, case studies, syllabi, handouts
 - Articles
 - Abstracts
 - Case studies
 - Syllabi
 - Handouts
 - Final thoughts

More resources for writing
 - People resources
 - Print resources
 - Style guides