I'd like to share another article on writing that I found through Julie from A Very Focused Blog About School and Work. Julie is the person who originally introduced me to The Chronicle of Higher Education and subsequently the article on How to Write Less Badly.
This article is called "What Editors Want," a self-explanatory title in my opinion. I'm actively working on two grant proposals and one paper right now and I want my work to be as polished as possible. This article offers several key pieces of advice as to how to make editors happy; after all, they're the ones who have the final decision as to if your work is going to be accepted or not.
If you're writing something to be published:
- Know the journal you are attempting to publish in
- Proof-read, proof-read, proof-read!
- Don't deviate from the style guide
The article has more pieces of advice but those are the main ones. I really like reading articles like these because although the information they convey is very basic it is still very applicable. Proof-read your e-mails, proof-read your tweets, proof-read your status updates. If you're limited to 140 characters don't exceed that amount. If you have a graduate school blog don't post about your grievances with city parking tickets (oops).
The article does end with a positive suggestion:
Develop a healthy attitude toward rejection.It's necessary to stay sane.
Oh, can I add one little thing? This is from the technical editor in me...don't give up if your article is rejected by one journal.
ReplyDeleteThere are likely at least a handful of journals in your field to which you might submit. Yes, you will probably need to specialize your article to fit each journal, but there's no need to let good research go unpublished. Shop it around. You never know where it might fit and who might be interested in it.
As well, look into presenting it at conferences in your field. Presenting at conferences still requires submitting a (well-edited) proposal and a paper, but it has the added bonus of getting you out there networking. You can meet people in your field, and maybe even hook up with people you might partner with on research in the future.