I love working with academics and former academics because it can be liberating to write about a topic you love free from the narrow restraints of academic writing. Academic writing is read by few and is inaccessible to the pubic. Popular writing has endless possibilities for an audience and can be sold to agents and publishers who have the potential for better financial rewards than academic publishers (although not guaranteed, of course.)
A note about dissertations: A natural step for a scholar is to convert your dissertation into a single authored book. This is not as simple as reformatting your chapters– Writing a book from a dissertation is an iterative process that is based on the knowledge gained from researching the dissertation, not simply from writing a dissertation. I love helping clients turn their dissertations–something they put a lot of labor and time into – and wrting a book that has a broad audience who appreciate their work more than just other scholars.
| Academic Writing… | Popular Writing… |
| Relies on citations and previous research as justification | Relies on personal knowledge informed by research and experience |
| Uses strict writing conventions | Allows creativity |
| Uses jargon and niche terminology | Uses a conversational language |
| Purpose is proving knowledge | Goal is to achieve tenure of publication status |
| Goal is to achieve tenure and increase publication status | Goal is to write about something you are excited about to establish yourself as a public figure |
Robin Hershkowitz, Ph.D. 