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Bob Magnan is the
author, editor, co-author, and/or translator of several of Atwood
Publishing's titles. He holds a BA in English and an MA in French
from Michigan State University and a PhD in French from Indiana
University. He taught for 13 years while involved in editing
journals, translating, research, and language textbook
development. He was the long-time Managing Editor of The
Teaching Professor newsletter and is currently involved in
publishing and editing. Bob also wrote the first of our line of
147 Practical Tips
books.
If you are unfamiliar with Bob's
work or would like to try one of his books, for the month of
June we will offer a 20% discount on either of his titles. Please
enter the code BobM08 in the "Comments" section of the order form
to ensure hand-processing.
QUESTIONS:
~ Bob, when we go out
to conferences, one question we always get is about how we arrived
at the magic number of 147 Practical Tips. Would you tell
us the story?
Yes, of course. I
had just started working for the company that publishes a
newsletter for college and university instructors, The Teaching
Professor. While the newsletter was in hiatus for two months,
my boss (the publisher) asked me to compile the best suggestions
from all past issues to create a premium for our subscribers, a
little book to use as an incentive or a reward. She wanted 101
tips because she felt that the number would make a catchy title.
I had been with
the company for less than two months ― and now I was responsible
for writing a book. I plunged into the assignment with a mixture
of trepidation and ambition. I pulled suggestions from dozens of
issues. Then I went above and beyond the assignment ― or at least
beyond: since I'd taught at the postsecondary level for 13 years,
I added some tips from my personal experience.
But then, after
weeks of work, when I counted the tips, there were almost 140 of
them. Oops! I knew that I could simply drop three dozen of the
tips. But I felt that doing so would be wrong. Although that
little book was only a premium, a freebie, I wanted to give the
subscribers more value. So I told my boss that I thought the
number 101 was too common, since it was used in other titles, and
I wanted to use a number that would be distinctive ― 147. To my
surprise, she agreed. So I added a few more tips ... and we had
147 Practical Tips for Teaching Professors.
~ Did you have a sense
that this series would grow as it has?
No, not at all.
But I was sure that the premium would be a success. When my boss
told me that she was touting the premium as a $12.50 value, I
suggested setting it lower, around $5, because I believed that we
would be selling copies as well as giving them away. She refused
to yield on that point.
Fortunately, we
had a marketer who knew how to make deals. He offered quantity
discounts that brought the price down considerably for orders of
multiple copies ― and soon that premium became the company's
best-selling book.
The rest of the
story was all you, Linda. You recognized the potential of wider
markets for
147 Practical Tips for Teaching Professors
and published translations in
French
and
Spanish. After that, you branched
out into tips for teaching diversity, for teaching online groups,
for teaching and learning with synchronous and blended technology,
and for teaching sustainability. The number 147 assumed a magical
stature.
And then ―
finally! ― you came back to me to write
147 Practical
Tips for Using Icebreakers with College Students.
(There again I went beyond: in addition to the 147 numbered tips,
I put a few into the Introduction and among the Resources. Why be
limited by a number, whether it's 101 or 147?)
I really enjoyed
that project. It was like being back among my students again.
~ You worked with the late Clay Schoenfeld
on Mentor
in a Manual. What need did you see for that book? 
Clay and I both
saw a need, but differently.
There's an
interesting story behind that book. Clay wanted to write a series
of articles on tenure for our newsletter for chairs and deans. The
editor, my boss, was trying to find the nerve to turn him down
tactfully. (Clay could be charming and very persistent.) I
happened to be passing by her office while they were talking ― in
the wrong place at the wrong time. My boss called me in to get my
opinion.
I sensed her
concern: a series of lengthy articles on tenure would take up a
lot of space in that newsletter every month and not be relevant to
many of the subscribers. But I felt that Clay had a good idea. So
I said that the idea deserved more than a series of articles, that
Clay should write a book. He agreed ― with one stipulation: he
insisted that I write a chapter on teaching. I agreed. I suggested
Mentor in a Manual as
a working title, a touchstone. Somehow that title stuck.
~ Do you think that
need for a guide to getting tenure has changed since the first
edition?
I think that now
there is less need for a guide to getting tenure because tenure is
being offered less and less ― and there is more need for such a
guide because the tenure path is more difficult.
So, Linda,
there's a dilemma for you as the publisher of this book: the
target market is shrinking, but the need of each person in that
market is growing. So, do you just let
Mentor in a
Manual
age gracefully or do you take the financial risk of
investing in revising it or even replacing it?
~ Bob, that is a
dilemma, as you know. With Clay no longer able to participate, it
seems it would fall on your shoulders. Maybe some of our readers
have some thoughts. We'd love to hear ideas.
~ You've been a
long-time advocate of teaching enhancement programs/resources on
campuses. What changes have you seen over time? What sorts of
challenges do you see for the programs in the future?
First, I must
admit that I have not been involved much in higher education for
the past dozen years or so. (And I miss it very much! It was fun
attending the POD Network conference in Milwaukee in 2005 with
you. It was my third POD conference and it was exciting to have
another opportunity to be around people who are passionate about
teaching.)
But it doesn't
take an expert in higher education to realize that technology and
the law have changed teaching considerably.
There's a much
greater and wider use of technology in teaching and in
communications between instructors and students. You know that: in
the 11 years since you founded Atwood Publishing, how many books
have you published on the use of technology in teaching? In
addition, even when instructors are not using technology in their
classrooms, their students are using laptops to take notes or do
other things and using cell phones to text and the instructors are
using e-mail with their students.
Legal changes in
higher education may be less obvious, but they also have been
changing how instructors teach and students learn. Consider only
that the fourth edition of The Law of Higher Education
(2007) weighs in at 1800 pages!
There's a third
factor, not so much as change as a perennial problem that keeps
growing ― finances. In recent years, teaching and learning centers
on some campuses have been closed. In 2002 the University of
Nebraska at Lincoln shut down its the Teaching and Learning Center
― the second-oldest center in the United States ― after 38 years
of service. In 2008 the University of Nevada, Reno ended its
Teaching Excellence Program. There may be others. I don't know.
Positions have been eliminated at other centers and I'm sure that
many more have been losing some of their funding.
That sad fact of
life shows a more fundamental problem: teaching is not appreciated
enough ― even with the growing emphasis on outcomes assessment. We
want to improve outcomes ― and yet we don't support teaching and
learning centers? We want to encourage our students to commit to
lifelong learning ― and yet we don't encourage or perhaps even
enable their instructors to commit to improving their teaching?
I'll stop there,
Linda, so I don't go into a rant. Or is it too late?
~ Hmm. It is maybe a
little too late. Now, switching topics, I wanted to ask
―
having been both an
editor and a writer, would you talk about what each of those roles
has taught you about the other?
When I write, I
think about editing what I'm writing. When I edit, I think about
how I would have written something differently and perhaps better
than the author.
This process of
the internal monitor is something with which instructors are
familiar. How often are instructors, as they're learning
something, also thinking about sharing that knowledge with others?
Good teachers are always thinking in terms of sharing, of
communicating. If you want to drive a teacher crazy, put him or
her alone in a library or a laboratory ― any opportunity for
learning ― and then lock the door so that teacher can't share with
anyone.
Your question
about the interplay of the roles of writer and editor suggests the
same question about the interplay between teaching and writing.
For me, both are ideally about communicating, doing what it takes
to connect with students or readers.
Whenever I'm
writing a book or an article, I imagine sitting across the desk
from my target reader, someone who's very much like my best
students through the years ― attentive and always intent on
understanding why this stuff matters. Back when I was teaching,
whenever I was preparing for a class, I imagined my students
surrounding my desk, both enthusiastic and skeptical, and I tried
to make myself ready to face them.
~ But not every
teacher can be a good writer and not every writer can be a good
teacher.
No, definitely
not. It's not a simple transition from teaching to writing, of
course, because teaching styles vary. A teacher may be effective
for doing things that don't translate easily into writing. Maybe
it's interacting well with students. Maybe it's using lots of
words, repeating key words and phrases, finding different ways to
say something in order to reach all the students. Maybe it's
developing visual elaborations and summations, using a blackboard
or whiteboard or techno equivalent to supplement his or her
words.
These styles that
are so effective in teaching may be less effective in writing.
That's why it's important to have a good editor, someone who can
help people who teach effectively write effectively.
But I'll stop
there ― because the editor in me is feeling that the writer in me
is talking more like the teacher in me.
~Thank you,
Bob, for sharing with
us. If anyone has particular questions for Bob, please send them
to
customerservice@atwoodpublishing.com
and we will forward them to him.
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