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Why it is so hard for academics to write textbooks Robert J. Sternberg Although academics are accustomed to writing articles and books, they much less frequently write textbooks. When they do, they likely find it much harder to do well than they ever would have imagined. This difficulty is likely to surprise them, because they have considerable experience in writing research articles and in teaching. I argue in this article that the reason that textbook writing is so hard for academics is that there is substantial negative transfer from professional academic writing to textbook writing. That is, experience in academic writing often interferes with textbook writing. Moreover, there are a number of factors that make textbook writing simply hard to do. I enumerate the reasons why this is the case. ACADEMIC PROFESSIONALS may writing. In both, the author tries to write have many and diverse motivations for well, writes for an audience, wants to be writing textbooks. They may believe scientifically accurate and up-to-date, wants that they have a different and better way of to interest and engage readers, wants readers presenting material to students, or they may to remember most or at least some of what find none of the textbooks available to them has been read, and wants to make a differ- to be satisfactory, or they may need some (or ence through his or her writing. With all perhaps a lot of) extra money. these similarities, one might expect textbook There are many books on how to write writing to be a breeze. But it is not and there scientific papers and even books in psychology are far fewer successful textbook writers than (see American Psychological Association, there are academics or even star academics. 2009; Beins & Beins, 2012; Landrum, 2012; Indeed, many successful textbook writers are Miller, 2013; Mitchell, Jolly, & O’Shea, 2012; at good but not top-rated institutions. There Rosnow & Rosnow, 2011; Sternberg & Stern- are reasons for this: Teaching is more valued berg, 2010, 2016). But these books are of at their institutions than at institutions little or even no help in writing textbooks, as known primarily for their research output; explained below. Indeed, academic writing textbook writing also is more valued; and skills can be an impediment to the writing they better get to know the modal reader of good textbooks. I was unable to find any who actually will use their text. book on Amazon.com that specifically gives What are the differences that so chal- guidance in writing textbooks, although lenge academic writers? there have been some articles (e.g. Bauman, 2003). How professional academic writing and When academics try to write textbooks, textbook writing are different they often find it very difficult to do, or at Professional academic writing and textbook least to do well. The difficulty, I argue in writing are almost entirely different species. this article, results from negative transfer Table 1, the heart of this article, summarises between the kind of professional academic the many differences between the two kinds writing to which they are accustomed, on of writing. These differences can produce the one hand, and textbook writing, on the enormous negative transfer from academic other. to textbook writing. There are obvious similarities between professional academic writing and textbook Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 23 No. 1, 2017 79 Robert J. Sternberg Table 1. Outcomes Academic writing Textbook writing Main goal in writing Your main goal is to advance Your main goal is to advance student science. learning. Prior knowledge Assume your reader has basic Assume your reader has no knowledge of the subject. knowledge of the subject. Focus of writing Focus on the professionals who will Focus on the students who will read your work. read your work but also on the professionals who decide on textbook adoptions. Academic orientation of Assume your reader is academically Assume your reader is not reader oriented. academically oriented. Professional status Assume your reader is a Assume your reader is not a professional or pre-professional. professional and likely never will become one, at least in your field. Differentiating yourself Try to show how you are creatively Try to show how you are from competitors different from your competitors. pedagogically different from your competitors. Coverage of material Don’t cover the same stuff that Cover much the same stuff that everyone else covers. everyone else covers. Tables and figures Don’t include too many tables and Include a lot of tables and figures figures, which are space-consuming that illustrate the points you make. and can be costly to reproduce. Personal material and Don’t get too personal and thereby Get personal and show that you anecdotes sound anecdotal rather than are a person who understands your scientific. readers and their needs. Who looks smart? Make yourself look competent. Make your reader feel competent. Definitions of terms Assume readers know definitions of Define every term, super-clearly, and basic psychological terms. in the same sentence that the term is first introduced (and bolded). Use of italics and bolding Avoid heavy use of italics and Use italics and bolding liberally to bolding. emphasize important terms. Titles Come up with catchy titles for Use largely standard titles for books articles, books, and book chapters. and book chapters so students and professors know what they are getting. Whose contribution to Emphasise the scientific Emphasize the scientific (and emphasise contribution of your work. practical) contributions of the work of the psychologists you are writing about. Classical and modern Balance classical and recent Balance classical and recent contributions references to show your references but show your book scholarship. is totally up to date while still recognising early contributions. 80 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 23 No. 1, 2017 Why it is so hard for academics to write textbooks Outcomes Academic writing Textbook writing Concrete real-world Do not include too many concrete, Include many concrete, real-world examples examples real-world examples, which can to facilitate student understanding. distract from your main points and even appear to be pandering. Pedagogy Do not include pedagogy, which Include lots of student-centered pedagogy, would be inappropriate. which is totally appropriate. Story telling Avoid telling lots of, or even any Tell lots of stories. stories. Details in reporting Include all detail that is necessary Be selective in detail, as it can detract from data to show your scholarship and to the big story. It is as important to know allow reproducibility of results. what not to include as what to include. Personal Keep yourself way in the Let readers get to know who you are and involvement in background. why you are so excited about the material. narrative What you are trying You will get ahead if your work You will get ahead if your work advances to advance advances research. teaching. Redundancy Avoid redundancy. Include as much redundancy as you need to ensure students learn vital concepts. Foregrounding Foreground the people who have Foreground the discoveries themselves, versus made the discoveries (who are likely often relegating the discoverers (except for backgrounding to be reviewers and readers of the truly major work) to parenthetical citations. work). Boxes and similar Avoid boxes and other such Use boxes and similar techniques to break features distractions. up the text and write about things that would not quite fit in the main text. Lengths of words Long words and long sentences Avoid long words and long sentences, which and sentences are ok if they clearly convey your decrease the readability of the text. Use the meaning. simplest words and sentences possible. Product longevity Success is an article or book that Success is a book that lasts for three or so lasts forever. years and sells well enough to generate a next edition. Evaluation of Make sure readers understand Be truthful but selective about explaining strengths and in some detail the strengths and strengths and weaknesses, as many of weaknesses weaknesses of the work you cite. them will be technical and beyond the comprehension of your readers. Signs of success Success is a BPS award or a 1% Success is sending your children to college additional salary increase as a result off the royalties, or buying that second of your writing. house you have always dreamed of in France. The meaning of Success is knowing that a few Success is knowing that tens of thousands success hundred or, if you are lucky, a of students will understand the field as a few thousand colleagues will have result of your efforts, and some of them learned something. may even change career plans as a result of your efforts. Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 23 No. 1, 2017 81 Robert J. Sternberg I will not attempt to discuss every item in are a must because adopters are typically Table 1; rather, I will summarise some of the looking for textbooks that are up-to-date. highlights of the table. In writing a textbook, one needs to be crea- The large majority of academic writing, at tive, but the creativity cannot extend too far. least for most of us, is for professionals (like Instructors have pretty set ideas about what ourselves). One gets into certain habits of should go into their course, and moreover, writing that are intended to appeal to readers they likely will have taught the course before like oneself. In contrast, textbooks need to and thus not be eager to change all of their appeal to students, whose backgrounds and notes and other pedagogical material if they interests are totally different from faculty adopt a new book. Often, then, much of the members’. But in textbook writing, one also creativity in writing a textbook is with regard to has to appeal to the faculty members who are how the author presents material and the peda- potential adopters of the text. That appeal gogy one uses to enhance it, rather than with is different from the appeal of academic regard to the material one presents. Of course, writing. It is an appeal to the professor in the the author always can include some new and hope that the professor will believe: (a) her fresh material, but if one departs too far from students will understand and learn from the what instructors are used to, one may find the text; (b) her students will not be overly over- same instructors reluctant to adopt the book. whelmed by the material in the text; often (c) Ultimately, success means a very different adopting the textbook would not require too thing for a textbook versus an academic paper much work on the part of the faculty member or book. A textbook succeeds if students in adapting her course from her former text- who start off knowing next to nothing learn book to the new one. a great deal from it and, after reading it, In textbook writing, the focus always has become excited about the field, whether to be on student learning. The textbook they originally were or not. Textbooks typi- author therefore has to emphasise reada- cally are not the royal road to promotions, bility, pedagogy, occasional redundancy to scientific awards, and salary increments in underscore one’s points, and even making research-oriented institutions, although they student readers feel a sense of competence may be in more teaching-oriented institu- for however much they are understanding, tions. However, the greatest satisfaction is in rather than ignorant for what they are not knowing that thousands and sometimes tens understanding. The textbook author needs or even hundreds of thousands of students to assume minimal background informa- may have learned about a subject because of tion. Every point has to be clearly made your efforts. And of course, that academic and all terms clearly defined the first time book is unlikely to put your kids through they are used. One cannot assume one’s college – the textbook just might. Of course, readers are motivated to read one’s text, not everything is different between textbooks so one constantly has to be asking how to and scholarly books: In both cases, one at be motivating the reader to read onward. least hopes to sell large numbers of copies! Textbook writing requires a personal touch There are other oddities associated and, at least in psychology, lots of clear, with textbooks that are not associated with real-world examples of how the material in academic texts. For one thing, publishers the text can be applied to everyday life. One typically expect authors to play a much more cannot provide too many details, nor can active role in promoting the book. Especially one deeply evaluate theories and research for lower level books, authors even may be with arcane points that are likely to lose asked to travel to campuses that represent students’ interest. As in academic writing, large potential adoptions in order to repre- one needs to balance older and newer refer- sent the book. The authors typically do not ences; but with a textbook, newer references have to ‘sell’ the books – just make their 82 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 23 No. 1, 2017 Why it is so hard for academics to write textbooks presence known. A second difference is that which case the potential textbook never goes publishers’ representatives are much more further than the proposal stage. straightforward about the financial aspects Third, the number of publishers of of the book – that is, their main goal is their college texts has shrunk over the years. Many bottom line on the book, or what they earn of the college textbook publishers of yester- from the book after expenses (including year – in the United States, Harcourt Brace royalties). A third difference is that, whereas Jovanovich, Holt, and Houghton Mifflin, to the longer an academic book lasts, the more name a few – are gone, consolidated into successful it is, with textbooks, it is often just larger conglomerates. There just are not as the opposite. You want to have a book that is many places to send a proposal with the so successful that it will be ready for revision hope of getting an acceptance. in 3–5 years. The stated reason for the revi- Fourth, the the textbook market is in sion is to update the text, but the not-so-well- flux. Textbook sales have been on the down- hidden reason is that by the third year, the swing. Partly this is due to the used-book used-book market has all but destroyed sales market, whereby purveyors of used books of the original book, at least for print books. capture many of the sales after the first or Publishers more and more are moving to second year of a new edition. And partly it e-books and book rental licenses, partly to is because students are reading less. As text- bring down prices for students, but also book sales decline, publishers raise prices to partly to enhance their own revenue. compensate for lost revenue, which in turn Although differences in writing style makes students more reluctant to purchase between scholarly works and textbook writing the books. It becomes a vicious circle. constitute a major reason why academics Moreover, one can find pirate sites on the may hesitate to write textbooks, there are Internet that make the books available for other reasons as well. free, in violation of copyright laws. First, it is particularly difficult to get a Finally, writing a textbook just takes a lot contract to write a textbook. A reason is that of time. You might finish a scholarly book publishers need to invest much more money in in a year or two. A textbook easily can take advance in a textbook than in a scholarly book. three to five years to write, with a need for The textbook typically requires a somewhat a disciplined writing schedule that assures substantial advance against royalties and maybe progress on at least a weekly basis. Textbook a grant to the author to help with his or her writing is a huge time commitment. writing. If these investments are not recouped, Writing a textbook is engaging and even the publisher can lose substantial sums. With can be fun. I have written or coauthored a scholarly, advances tend to be minimal or a few myself and enjoyed the process (e.g. nonexistent, and grants are very rare. Sternberg & Sternberg, 2017). But writing Second, writing a textbook proposal is a textbook is hard. It takes far more time generally more of a challenge than writing a than writing a scholarly article or even than proposal for a scholarly book. The potential writing most scholarly books, and because of author needs to show why, at least in theory, the revision cycle, the commitment can be her or his book will outsell the competition, a very long-term one. So textbook writing which is likely to be somewhat similar to one’s definitely is not for everyone. It is for those own book. A sample chapter is also usually who are challenged by uniquely meeting a good idea. Scholarly book proposals, in students’ needs, and who are ready to put contrast, generally do not require one to forth continuing effort to make the book show how one’s book will outsell the compe- successful in edition after edition. tition, nor is a sample chapter as typical. An idea for a textbook may be technically Robert J. Sternberg, Cornell University. strong, but not viable in the marketplace, in Email: [email protected] Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 23 No. 1, 2017 83 Robert J. Sternberg References American Psychological Association (2009). 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Cognitive Washington, DC: American Psychological Asso- psychology (7th edn). Lanham, MD: Cengage. ciation. Miller, S.A. (2013). Writing in psychology. New York: Routledge. 84 Psychology Teaching Review Vol. 23 No. 1, 2017