| So you're teaching a course, and there's no text | | | | map) which has been designed to help create and |
| book available. Or maybe you've been using a | | | | document learning content for any media - |
| text and it just doesn't quite cut it. In any case | | | | including text books. Fill in your chapters and then |
| you're now wondering how to write a text book. | | | | fill in your topics. Now do a structural edit. Does |
| And you're probably wondering if you even can! | | | | the order of topics make sense? Does the book |
| Believe it... you can! You can write a text book. | | | | flow? |
| But to write a text the first thing you need is a | | | | 3. You're now ready to write. Each topic in the |
| good system. One that will help you to fulfill a | | | | Content Map needs to become a paragraph of |
| need, organize your thoughts, write quickly and | | | | about 100 words. Or better still turn it into several |
| minimize rewriting. Think of it as trying to create | | | | smaller paragraphs. Think of this as a PowerPoint |
| a course outline. In fact, they are similar. If you | | | | slide. You need to talk on the topic for 1 minute |
| don't have a system to determine what you will | | | | or so, filling in the background on that topic. When |
| teach, how you will grade and so on, you'll be | | | | you are writing don't go back. Just write as |
| unlikely to finish your course outline. And you | | | | quickly as you can. Time enough to correct your |
| certainly won't provide a good course. Writing a | | | | mistakes the next day. In fact, that helps you get |
| text book is very similar. | | | | moving on writing and gets you back into the |
| There are five major stages to such systems. | | | | speech patterns you are using in your writing. |
| 1. You need to begin by analysing your audience. | | | | 4. You've now got a finished how-to book. But it's |
| Without readers there isn't much point to writing. | | | | not really a text book yet. It's time to add the |
| So you need to start with your readers. What | | | | practice sessions. Create your questions. Create |
| are their problems? What are their pain points? | | | | your discussion topics. Create your suggestions |
| How can you solve those pain points? | | | | for further study. |
| 2. You then need to organize your topic. Writing a | | | | 5. At this point you've actually finished your text |
| book is a complex task. Starting at the beginning | | | | book. But you still need to do a final polish so send |
| and writing until you finish just isn't going to work. | | | | it off to the editor for a professional editing. While |
| The best tool for this task is to use a structured | | | | you're waiting for the editor to get back to you, |
| cognitive tool called a content map. This is a | | | | it's time to look for an agent. So start writing |
| semantic network diagram variant (think mind | | | | query letters. |