The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing

Tonette S. Rocco, Timothy Gary Hatcher

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780470949214
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

Focusing on writing for publication, The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing discusses the components of a manuscript, types of manuscripts, and the submission process. It shows how to craft scholarly papers and other writing suitable for submission to academic journals. The handbook covers how to develop writing skills by offering guidance on becoming an excellent manuscript reviewer and outlining what makes a good review, and includes advice on follow-through with editors, rejection, and rewrites and re-submittals.

PART ONE
BECOMING A PUBLISHED SCHOLAR

CHAPTER 1
REASONS TO WRITE, WRITING OPPORTUNITIES, AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Tonette S. Rocco

Neither my life experiences nor my academic experiences prepared me for scholarly writing and publication. When as a doctoral student I asked faculty how to write for publication, the response was vague. This set me on a path to learn how to write and publish. I continue to improve my writing by learning about writing and publishing. I do this by observing good writers, listening to authors talk about how they write, and finding colleagues to write with who are good at the craft. In this chapter, I discuss reasons to write, creating writing opportunities, learning to write, writing tips, and helping others write.

Reasons to Write

Writing can be a miserable chore, a difficult undertaking, and a challenge that produces growth and satisfaction—all at the same time. Hours, days, and sometimes months are spent just getting started. Scholars write for different professional and personal reasons, such as financial rewards, advancement, and joy. New assistant professors work at writing to keep their positions, to earn promotions, and sometimes to receive merit increases based on productivity. This might translate into the type of profit suggested in this quotation that a doctoral student shared with me (Nielson & Rocco, 2002): “An article published in a major journal early in a career could be worth about $25,000 in pay and benefits. A quality article in an important journal can mean a better job, higher pay over a long career with increased retirement and other benefits. . . . In hard cash, the average scholarly publication could be worth about $200 a year for every year you work” (Phillips, 1982, p. 95). Although I question whether an article is worth this now or whether one publication—even in a significant journal—is sufficient for an increase in salary, a consistent publication record does have rewards. A well-placed and well-received article can generate other opportunities with a financial benefit, such as being invited to speak at a conference or other professional event, expenses paid.

An example of a publication providing monetary awards occurred with two students who were taking an adult learning course with me as an elective in their health education master’s program. This course has an assignment to write a paper following the guidelines for a local conference in hopes that students may want to submit the paper after they complete the course. My feedback on these papers is extensive and designed to increase the publishability of the paper. This pair of students revised the paper using my feedback, submitted it to the conference, and, using feedback from the discussion at the conference, revised the manuscript and submitted it to a professional journal. The paper was published and won the journal’s award for best paper. At a professional conference they attended, they were greeted as celebrities and offered positions as instructors for continuing education courses on weekends around the country. They made good extra money doing this and got a weekend getaway too. They have continued writing for publication. One of them successfully competed for a slot as a plenary speaker and an all-expenses-paid trip to a health conference in South Africa. They do not have doctorates. They teach at a community college, work in a health profession, and have become scholar practitioners. Students at all academic levels should be exposed to the techniques useful for publishing work so that they can contribute in their own way to their professions and society.

For me, the purpose of writing was first to secure a faculty position, then tenure, and then promotion. After that was accomplished, I engaged in writing projects to clarify ideas, explore areas, and contribute to the profession. While financial reward and professional advancement are reasons to write, most write to join the professional conversation (Rankin, 2001); others write because they “enjoy the power they derive from writing and the power derived from subsequent publication” (Henson, 1995, p. 3) to clarify ideas, explore new areas, contribute to the knowledge base, and foster professional relationships. While I can imagine some writers feel a sense of power or increased self-importance after publishing, there is also a sense of sheer joy and awe at seeing their name in print. Money, power, and joy are simply the emotional end products after the task of writing is completed. Many people have something to contribute to the knowledge base, professional practice, or some insight others would benefit from knowing. Knowledge is lost because potential authors do not know how to join the conversation, do not know the rules for writing, and may be intimidated by the process.

Creating Writing Opportunities

Often writers write or otherwise create alone. I prefer to write with others; an opportunity to work with other scholars or practitioner scholars and learn from them or stretch myself because of the partnership is an important reason to write. Opportunities to write with others have to be created, developed, and sustained.

As a graduate student, I knew publishing was important, but I had no idea how one went about doing this. So I made it known to the faculty members in my program area that I wanted to learn how to write for publication. During my second year as a doctoral student, a professor invited me and another student to join him in an investigation of older adults and volunteering (Boggs, Rocco, & Spangler, 1995). This paper was presented at a conference where participants encouraged us to write about the unusual data collection method we used (Rocco, Spangler, & Boggs, 1998). These two articles set the stage for future opportunities to write with other faculty about older workers while still a student (Stein, Rocco, & Goldenetz, 2000) and collaborations with others later.

Faculty members are busy with many competing demands, such as writing and research projects, teaching responsibilities, service commitments, and work and advisement of other students. Creating writing opportunities as a graduate student is not as simple as just making it known to faculty and colleagues that writing for publication is important to you. Students should meet with potential collaborators to discuss ideas, share rough drafts, and invite participation, or ask to assist a faculty member with a project. Once a faculty member extends an invitation, the student needs to persist and in many cases proactively set up meetings to discuss the progress of the paper, come to the meetings with an agenda, and take notes. If the notes and agenda are filled with details in addition to keeping the project participants on track, they can become useful in preparing the outline, keeping track of research design, and becoming an initial draft of the manuscript.

Writing opportunities can be created by listening to speakers and making connections. Phyllis Cunningham, a matriarch of adult education, sat on a stage and told the audience loudly that white men needed to deconstruct their privilege. This statement resonated with me and with another student, and we began to contemplate privilege beyond race and gender. This resulted in a writing project that won the best graduate student paper award at a conference and was published as an article (Rocco & West, 1998).

Networking at conferences is another way to identify and create writing opportunities. Networking can occur in regular sessions, in the hallways, or in special sessions such as a preconference, a small, often intimate gathering of scholars meeting to discuss a single topic for an extended period of time. The nature of a preconference creates an atmosphere where collegial relationships and, in time, real friendships and writing partnerships can develop. Sometimes engaging a colleague on an issue in a paper he or she wrote is a way of forming a writing partnership to work on another paper where that issue becomes the focal point. Jasper van Loo, an economist, and I met at a preconference on continuing professional education (CPE). He was using human capital theory to understand CPE; during the discussion, I maintained that CPE and training are different and that I thought that human capital theory was being used inappropriately (van Loo & Rocco, 2006). This discussion resulted in our first coauthored article, a friendship, and other collaborations.

Other opportunities come in the form of a call for papers for special issues of journals or books. A call contains information about the project’s purpose and what manuscripts should address in order to fit the purpose and be considered. Calls have due dates, and although the manuscript may go through a peer review process, acceptance rates for authors who produce a well-written manuscript that fits the purpose and is accepted for review are higher than for manuscripts submitted for consideration in a regular issue of a journal. The length of time to publication is generally shorter too.

Opportunities can come from having a manuscript rejected. If an author lets his or her ego get in the way, becomes angry, and sets the manuscript aside, the rejected manuscript may never be published. However, after the author overcomes his or her emotional reaction to the decision, careful consideration of the feedback can improve the manuscript. And the manuscript can be revised for submission to another journal or to fit a call for papers for a special issue of a journal or book. Sometimes, though, the original authors may need fresh eyes to revise the manuscript and invite a colleague to join the project. If a colleague is invited to assist with revising a manuscript, the same considerations that need to be made before starting a new project need to be discussed in this situation as well, such as author order, a work plan, and where the manuscript will be submitted.

Learning to Write

For most authors, writing is a process that is never perfected and never ends. Authors should strive to produce their best work, even though revisiting a manuscript after a period of time will always produce areas of improvement. If you accept this, then you can work to improve your writing and produce manuscripts that require fewer and fewer revisions. Learning to write involves reading about writing, critically reflecting on what you read, discussing writing with others, and listening to authors talk about the writing process. Reading about writing can include books on writing for publication (Casanave & Vandrick, 2003; Huff, 1998; Kupfersmid & Wonderly, 1994) or about a specific part of a paper such as a literature review (Hart, 1998; Pan, 2004). Style guides such as the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association, 2010) are rich with information on the technical aspects of writing. Articles and books read for content can also be read for style. The way authors organize text, sentence structure, and paragraph flow and develop an argument should be examined. If you find an author’s work compelling or distracting to read, critically reflect on the style and techniques used to produce both good and bad work. Think about using the techniques of the good paper and eliminate the techniques of the bad paper from your own writing.

Writing discussions can occur when working on a project with a colleagu...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Series
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Preface
• ABOUT THE EDITORS
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS
• PART ONE: BECOMING A PUBLISHED SCHOLAR
• PART TWO: IMPROVING WRITING TECHNIQUES
• PART THREE: PREPARING SCHOLARLY MANUSCRIPTS
• PART FOUR: REFLECTING ON THE WRITING AND PUBLISHING PROCESS
• RESOURCES: FURTHER READING FOR SCHOLARLY WRITING
• INDEX
• End User License Agreement