Writing a book chapter for the first time

By Sarah Pattison

In the past couple of years I have built up my confidence in writing and in sharing my thoughts and perspectives as an Instructional Designer. One project that really helped with that was writing a chapter of How to Use Digital Learning with Confidence and Creativity. I have decided to write about the experience of writing a book chapter so that it might inspire others to write and have confidence in their knowledge and expertise. 

In 2022 I was asked to contribute a chapter on instructional design models for a book on digital learning. While I was excited about the challenge it was daunting at first. I was a technical writer in a previous life so I am used to writing, but this type of writing is a very different beast to quickstart guides and instructional manuals. Thankfully, I’d attended multiple research and writing workshops since working at MTU, and I had a lot of support from my colleagues in TEL.

How to Use Digital Learning with Confidence and Creativity is a jargon-free, hands-on introduction to key topics and practices in the area of digital learning for academic staff, and my chapter, “What should I know about instructional design models?” introduces the reader to instructional design models and how they can be used in practice.

I originally researched seven different instructional design models for the chapter. I was familiar with all of them from my work as an instructional designer and my E-Learning Design and Development MA. I also made use of the MTU library, which has many books on instructional design (both physical and digital). I could also access multiple journal databases through the library to help in my research. 

I organised books and papers using the Zotero application. I found Zotero really useful to keep all my research in one place. I could also use it to annotate relevant sections and generate citations.

My first draft was far over the allotted word count of 2500 words, and I wasn’t sure I was going in the right direction with the content. The feedback from my editors helped guide me in improving the chapter for the second draft. I decided to cut a couple of models, but I still struggled with getting the word count lower than 2500. At this point, I decided to share my chapter with my colleagues in TEL for feedback. 

At the time, TEL, along with our colleagues Donna Lanclos and Lawrie Phipps, regularly met on Zoom for Shut Up and Read sessions. For these sessions, we read material related to edtech and then discussed it as a group. You can learn more about it here. 

I decided to open up my chapter to the group for discussion by sharing the chapter on Google Docs. Since I am new to this type of writing I was completely open to any and all opinions on it. My colleagues are really helpful and non-judgemental and I didn’t expect any different when it came to sharing my chapter.

My colleagues shared their thoughts in comments on the book chapter, and we also had a long discussion about it over Zoom. This was incredibly helpful. From their feedback, I was able to reduce the chapter length considerably, and also pinpoint sections of the chapter that I should concentrate more on. 

The feedback was very positive, and one of the main points that came across was that I should write more from my own perspective. I had been hesitant to do that when I first started writing the chapter in late 2022. At the time, I had only been working as an instructional designer in the MTU for a year and a half, and before that, I hadn’t worked in instructional design for four years. I did not feel like a seasoned professional that was worthy of sharing their experiences. 

In future drafts of the chapter, I felt more comfortable adding my own perspective due to my colleagues’ encouragement and my own growing confidence in my expertise as an instructional designer. It was important for the reader to get advice from someone working in the field who knows the real-life challenges that come with using instructional design models. 

I whittled the list of instructional design models down to three: ADDIE, The Systems Approach Model, and SAM. While there are many more models I could have covered, these three give the reader an idea of how instructional design models work within the word count. 

At first, I found the word count limiting as I’d originally planned to explain seven different instructional design models and was unable to do so. The word count combined with the feedback I got from colleagues helped me rethink what the chapter’s focus really was about. It didn’t need to be a whistle-stop tour of lots of different ID models, it just needed to show what ID models are and why they're useful, with a few examples. The models I included are three of the most well-known. Readers can research other models if they want to after reading the chapter. 

I was also able to focus on the limitations of ID models, barriers to entry, and where to start if you do want to use ID models. These were the parts of the chapter where I could really lean on my own experience as an instructional designer who works with academics and other stakeholders. You can Google any ID model and see the steps involved. I realised that my advice on how to go about learning and using ID models was probably the most valuable part of the chapter. 

The book was released in 2024 and has been very well received. The experience of writing this book chapter helped me grow my confidence in writing and sharing my perspective. Between that and my work in MTU over the years I have been able to be braver and to write more. Earlier this year I presented online at a conference for the first time as a solo speaker. I also wrote about my conference topic in another blog post, which you can read here: Supporting your neurodivergent colleagues from the perspective of an autistic person.

I feel much more self-assured in my abilities to write about things that I know a lot about and care about. I want to continue to write about those things. If there’s something I have opinions on I feel like I can share them without worrying too much about the reaction.

If you’re interested in reading the book you can find it at this link: How to Use Digital Learning with Confidence and Creativity.

About the author

Sarah Pattison is an Instructional Designer in the Technology Enhanced Learning department of Munster Technological University since 2021. Sarah has a BA in Multimedia and an MA in E-Learning Design and Development, both from MTU.Sarah previously worked as a Technical Writer so is passionate about using her technical writing skills, instructional design knowledge, and multimedia experience to create engaging educational material.