Were the Top 10 word blunders in my previous blog helpful? NO!! Oh. Okay, maybe the next 10 may hit the spot. I hope they hit something. Here they are.
NEXT 10 WORD USAGE MISTAKES
10. lose---loose
9. lie---lay
8. I---me---Moi
7. no one---noone
6. peek---peak---pique
5. principal---principle
4. raise---rise
3. than---then
2. there---their---they’re
AND THE NUMBER 1 BLUNDER:
1. whose---who’s
BONUS BLUNDER
your---you’re
That’s my final list. If you pay attention to the preceding word combos when you proof, you should be good shape, blunder-wise, unless you make other mistakes I haven’t seen. You’ve always been kinda sneaky.
HAPPY WRITING!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
AND THE REST OF THE STORY…
Pick Your Partner Carefully. The partner can be a colleague, significant other, mentor, student, friend, mime, a literate pet, or all of the preceding. It’s even better if both of you are struggling writers. Hunt down a partner like Dog the Bounty Hunter. However, before you proceed with adoption, you also might want to run a thorough background check on your candidates to make sure they don’t have rap sheets as long as your dream book or are currently listed on the international terrorist watch-list. Be careful.
You need someone who is dependable and committed to helping you dig out of your writing hole and sustain a regiment of regular writing. It approximates a “writing boot camp” to train you to write on your own. Once you’re ready to graduate camp with the usual mortar board and robe, you will be more prepared to fight your writing battles.
Commitment. The writer-partner showdown is what Simon & Garfunkel sang about: “Hello, darkness, my old friend.” As noted in Tip 10, you must commit to write in writing (What else?) with specific, realistic goals in daily and weekly “to-do” lists to make this work. Record how much time and what you write.
Your partner can reward your successes with celebratory activities or evil gifts, such as a hot fudge sundae (unless you’re still on Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig). He or she may also extinguish failure with severe beatings or grace. Be very selective in who you pick as your partner.
Writing Clubs. You can also seek out writing clubs or groups at your institution or through your professional association. There are also many online writing groups through LinkedIn and other networks. These groups may serve in lieu of or in addition to your accountability partner.
Whatever form of accountability you choose will be only as effective as your commitment to write. How serious are you about writing more and better? Only you can answer that. We both know you can do it.
HAVE A SPECTACULAR WRITING CAREER! Let me know if you have discovered another technique to improve your writing.
BTW I am in the process of revising this entire blog series to transform it into a journal article. It will be formatted a little differently, but will be easier to read, plus it won't appear in all of these dopey colors. Those professionals who do not read my blogs might glance at the article. Ya never know. I look forward to hearing how you did the same with your blogs or writing morsels. My blogs turned out to be drafts for the article, which, of course, is also a draft right now. Have a wonderful weekend!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
AND THE #1 SECRET TIP FROM THE HOME OFFICE IN KODIAK, AK, IS
1. FIND AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER OR WRITING GROUP. If there was a single best strategy to increase writing productivity, this is the one I would recommend. If accountability works for weight loss and drug rehab, it must be effective in other applications. RIGHT?
Where’s the Research? Research by Boice (1989) found that writers who wrote daily (Tip 10), kept records of their writing time (Tip 10), and had an accountability partner produced 9 times more than those who were left to their own devices. There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence. Of course, some of us gain the weight back or backslide into our old habits or other meds, but that’s another story. The consequences of not writing can just get you fired.
Side Effects. Accountability can really boost your productivity, unless you’re a chronic liar, but then you will have more serious issues than writing. It’s an extrinsic motivator and, as such, can also elevate your guilt levels through the roof if you don’t meet your goals. Remember the weigh-in at Weight Watchers? “No.” That’s good.
Meeting Times. If you have difficulty hunkering down to write daily or anytime, one of the best “carrots” or “Snickers” candy bars to drive you to write is an accountability partner. You should report to your partner at the end of each week or another mutually-agreed upon regular time. REGULAR meetings is an essential ingredient of this arrangement. If meetings start dwindling, so will your writing. Don’t dwindle.
Tomorrow is finale day for this series with the rest of the “accountability” story, plus a surprise ending!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
3. PROOFREAD THOROUGHLY. Whatever you write, make sure to proof it thoroughly before hitting “send,” “post,” “save,” or “delete” by mistake. Do it a lot; the proofing, that is, not the hitting. Your professional reputation for quality work is on the line with every piece you produce. Nothing screams sloppy work, careless, and knucklehead more than writing errors in your communications and manuscripts.
Marinate the Manuscript. The best advice I’ve received from editors is to put each draft aside for a while—a few minutes, hours, or days. Try to systematically allow your manuscript time to breathe in whatever manuscripts breathe in your PC/Mac. You are so familiar with every word that you will not see every error, and neither will your PC or spelchek. Even with several reviews and a Sherlock Holmes-type magnifying glass, which I am using right now, I will still miss mistakes in grammar, spellinmg, or word choice.
Wait for the Mold. This blog has been marinating for several days already. You can probably tell from the green mold along the edges. Returning totally cold to the scene of your writing crime (with a magnifying glass) will usually allow those errors to jump off the screen; well, maybe not jump, but certainly hop a little. You will also reword and add material that did not occur to you previously. Both the manuscript and you can benefit from marinating for a few days. You may get moldy too, usually brown mold that can be treated with penicillin. However, your next moldy draft is always better.
Hire a Professional. Remember the ole’ TV series: “Have Proofreader, Will Travel”? Me neither. Read your masterpiece out loud AND ask a colleague, friend, or someone else with a pulse to read it. Your best proofer is one is who unfamiliar with the content and writing. You’re REEEAALLY familiar with both. That’s why you’re so bad. Bad, bad proofer!
For book manuscripts, you can even hire a professional proofer. My publishers have done that on several of my books. If you have money to burn, shop for a proofer. The more eyeballs that see your writing, the greater the chance that errors will be found before they’re published. That gives new meaning to the “interocular perusal technique.”
My next blog will address Tip 2 with brand new eyeballs: minimize distractions, if you can. Otherwise, suck it in, deal, and just write. Few writers have “ideal” writing conditions.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TAKING WRITING BLOG MEDICINE. YUCK!: This blog comes to you from Kodiak, AK, home of MONSTER brown bears, buckets of salmon, the Boston Red Sox, and the world-famous University of Arkansas Fighting Irish. It’s about 9,367 miles, give or take a foot, directly northeast of St. John’s Wort.
I am taking some of my own writing blog medicine. I feel like one of the kids in Mary Poppins. SUPERCALAFRAG… “Don’t even think about typing that full word!” With a total flight time of 15 hours, of which 9 hours was in flight on 3 different planes with a layover of 4.5 hours in Anchorage, I had a choice to make:
A. get a fishing rod and go catch salmon
B. write my guts out on the flight and in the airport
C. waste the writing opportunity to watch a made-for-flight movie, which was never released or bombed at the box office
D. engage in other boring, unproductive activities, like dreaming of catching a salmon in my mouth. Wait! That’s what the bears do.
E. A & B
F. C & D
G. all of the above
Guess which one I picked. WROOONG! I choose the lox. Of course "B": I had to write or I would have been “Hypocrite Blogger of the Week!” What a knucklehead! Why did I have to include airports and airplanes on my list of venues to write. (NOTE: The aircraft of choice for the flight from Anchorage to Kodiak was only slightly bigger than a #2 pencil.)
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
Unlike my previous blog which gave you a belly full of pointers related to your heart and spleen, this one does not deal with any internal organs. It is a noninvasive blog that focuses on external organs. Hold onto to your spleen, heeeere we go.
5. ADOPT A MENTOR OR COACH TO REVIEW DRAFTS
Who do you know that’s “been there, done that”? Solicit feedback on your writing from anyone who can and is willing to provide constructive criticism. You don’t need put-downs and sarcasm. Your writing mentor can be anywhere in the world. He or she can be an incredible support and sounding board to improve your writing conceptually and mechanically. A copy editor would be even better if you can find one who can review your work regularly. These reviewers can provide valuable input on any writing piece before you submit it for publication or post anything on the Internet.
(Up Close & Personal: After 35 years of writing, I still send my article and book manuscripts out for review to colleagues before submitting them for publication. I also request reviews on several blogs before they’re posted. My writing is not good enough for me to go it alone. I still make mistakes and, probably, always will. Constant feedback from colleagues and editors is the best input to continue to grow as a writer. That growing is a lifelong process.)
My next blog will examine Tip 4: think draft. Not beer, silly. I’m referring to your manuscript and even e-mail.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
6. WRITE ON TOPICS ABOUT WHICH YOU ARE PASSIONATE (continued)
Back in Your Heartland: Where’s your heart? This is not about your content knowledge. We’re back to the heart again. Your whole heart should be engaged in your writing. Half-, third-, or quarter-hearted writing is not enough. It’s either all or nothing. Pour yourself into your writing. It should be a fully immersive experience. Allow your readers to feel your spirit of passion about your contribution, whether it’s a tweet, comment on a discussion, response on Facebook, or a scientific breakthrough for a cure for stupid reality TV programs about spoiled, immature celebrities. You may start with the content, but as you revise and edit each draft, make it sneakily engrossing and captivating for your readers.
(Up Close & Personal: Every e-mail, LinkedIn message, PowerPoint presentation, blog, article, and book I write begins with the substance—the serious content. That’s the most important element to be communicated---the “WHAT.” Then I shift gears into the “HOW.”
Once I’m tentatively satisfied with the content draft, I scan line by line and read the words as a reader would, to search for places to add humor or spin some of the material with rewording to make it fun or more interesting. I assume every paragraph to be boring for my readers. I use this same strategy with every PowerPoint slide in my presentations.
The challenge is to create appropriate humor, visual metaphors, and popular cultural references to grab and maintain the readers’ attention. It’s an unending process of revision, especially in my articles, books, and PowerPoints. The more deadly serious and boring the content, the more turbo-charged I am to humorize that material. That’s how I brand my writing. It’s the art of writing for me and what I love the most. I’m never satisfied that I’ve done enough to make it interesting and funny.)
My next blog will present Tip 5: examine how a mentor or coach in your writing life can provide mighty wise counsel and poke you in the eyeballs (like the 3 Stooges) or kick you in the shins along your writing journey.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
AFTERTHOUGHT: After I reread my previous blog about all of the blogs I wrote this past year, one thought raced through my mind: “What an idiot!” I could have written a 200–250-page book for the price of all of those blogs. Knucklehead me. Bad me. Of course I'm kidding because I’m still in a celebratory mood.
While I’m in the mood on this blessed occasion, chuckle-wise, I offer the following Top 10 from actual police car video files from around the country (source unknown). ENJOY!
TOP 10 COMMENTS BY POLICE OFFICERS TO PERPS
10. "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."
9. "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you."
8. "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."
7. "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them for a while."
6. "You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?"
5. "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"
4. "I'm glad to hear that the Chief (of Police) is a personal friend of yours. So you know someone who can post your bail."
3. "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."
2. "In God we trust; all others we run through NCIC (National Crime Information Center).”
AND THE NO. 1 COMMENT TO PERPS:
1. "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't. Sign here."
Thanks for reading. I’ll resume the WRITING series tomorrow with Tip 6: Write on topics about which you feel passionate. Write with fire, not a blanket to conk out your readers and then tuck them in.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
7. WRITE WITH A PURPOSE AND OUTCOME IN MIND. Like DUHHH! Everyone is bombarded with material to read in every form coming from every direction. Why are you writing? Why should anybody read what you write, even the niche you identified in Tip 8?
Answer these questions:
What can you contribute that’s new? (Or, tell me something I don’t know.)
What can you contribute with a different spin from anyone else?
What problem can you solve?
How can you help someone?
Who will benefit or gain?
Who cares?
How can you make a colleague a better researcher, teacher, or clinician?
How can you make someone’s life
• easier?
• healthier?
• safer?
• more meaningful?
• more productive?
• more efficient?
• more influential?
• more satisfying?
In other words, “Your writing is all about your readers; it’s not about you. It’s what you can do for them that counts” (Berk’s Law, 2010). Match your expertise to your readers’ needs.
These questions have to be answered whether you’re writing a blog, report, research article, or book. If the outcome isn’t a significant contribution to your discipline or to your readership, they won’t read your blog or article or buy your book. Your writing must be salable to your readers.
(Up Close & Personal: You’re probably thinking: “Where are the jokes you promised?” They’re sprinkled here and there, hither and yon, ying and yang. What you really wanted to ask was: “Why am I writing another piece on ‘writing’ in an already overcrowded field?” Great question. I thought I answered it previously, but maybe you were busy checking out my French derivation of niche. Wasn’t that a pip?
Although writing [but not necessarily publishing] is expected of all academicians, I don’t think most search for sources on how to write [or publish], no matter how much they may struggle. I thought my blog series could not only suggest a few new pointers, but also provide an easily accessible, anonymous, high security, secretive, covert, and free platform for a concise Berk’sNotes® resource. No one will ever know you peeked. Go ahead. Peek. I know you want to.)
My next blog will take you to Tip 6: how to pick topics about which you are passionate. We’re back to the heart of writing agaaain!
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
8. WRITE FOR A NICHE. You can’t write for everybody. Well, maybe some people can, but most can’t. It’s best to carve out a piece of your own territory, turf, piece of the rock, and put yourself in good hands with Allstate. I bet you have an itch to know your niche. Pick a niche (derived from the French words, “enrique iglesias,” meaning literally, “your retina’s detached”).
Key Questions. Answer these questions:
- Who is interested in your writing?
- Who cares about what you have to contribute?
- What definable group do you know well enough that could benefit from your work?
- What is your demographic?
- What do they read and need?
- Could you put yourself in there jobs and see their professional worlds through their detached retinas?
Define Your Niche. Clearly define your readership or audience. Draft a profile of what they look like, for example, 30–80 year-old, male and female, all ethnic, semi- to fully-pretentious university professors. YIIIKES! That a tough group!
Target Your Writing. Write specifically for your audience and think about your niche in what you write and how you write it. Your writing must connect with that group. It drives your writing by providing the focus, direction, purpose, and style. Custom tailor your writing (and humor) to fit your target readership. Within the above example group, your writing will be very different for researchers, teachers, general practitioners, and clinicians.Take careful aim to tantalize, captivate, and dazzle those readers with your writing gifts and messages that they will improve their professional lives.
My next blog will consider Tip 7: how you determine WHAT to write. What's your purpose and intended outcome?
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
9. WRITE EVERYWHERE YOU CAN (continued)
Leverage Putrid Service: The quality of service provided by many businesses and institutions is putrid. We can experience extremely long wait times and delays at all of the preceding venues. My charge to you is: Leverage that putrid service to the benefit of your writing. Don't waste your energy with negative self-talk, complaining about delays you can't control; seize them as opportunities to write.
No Access Needed: Although most of the venues now have Internet access (some for free), except some prisons, that doesn’t matter for most major writing activities. You don’t need to be online to write blogs, reports, articles, books, etc. Any piece of writing can be copied and pasted onto any platform or site later. You will be amazed at how much you can complete in 15–30 minutes if you're able to rivet your attention on your writing. Be prepared to write at any of those venues. You can accomplish a lot.
(Up Close & Personal: I have gotten used to writing, editing, proofing, and weeping over reviewers’ comments at many of the previous sites. I’ve cried at the Toyota dealer, sweated buckets while writing on torn, uncomfortable chairs at a non-air-conditioned Midas Muffler, and written piles of blogs and articles in hospital emergency and waiting rooms, doctors’ offices, airports, and the MVA. I’ve been stuck in airports or on the tarmac for 3–9 hours on several occasions. That’s solid writing time. You can either get angry or write; it's your attitude and choice. The more you write in these public settings, except prison, the more you can build up your concentration skills. Since you’re writing every day, writing on the fly becomes a habit; writing in your office becomes a luxury. There is no excuse for not writing. “You can do it!”)
Tomorrow, I will discuss Tip 8: how to pick and write for a niche audience. I know you’re itching to read about niches.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS:
9. WRITE EVERYWHERE YOU CAN. The comfort of your sanctum sanctorum, whether it is your home or business office, library, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, or a closet in your bomb shelter, is probably the best venue for you to do your best writing. Unfortunately, life happens and you need to find ways to adapt to other venues, though less comfortable than your sanctum.
If you only rely on your “ideal” time and place conditions to write, you won’t be nearly as productive as you could be. It’s a time-management issue. Use 10-minute to infinity time blocks at other venues to write your guts out. Don’t waste your time in a waiting room reading an out-of-date magazine on Lindsay Lohan’s prison experiences. Use that time to produce.
Preparation: Instead, consider the following:
1. dump your laptop (with power cord, mouse, and flashdrive) into a padded bag, attaché case, or your backpack,
2. find a secluded location in a lobby or waiting room,
3. create a make-shift office with a semi-comfortable chair and mini-table next to a hyphenated outlet, and
4. plug in your puppy.
Writing on the Fly: Now you’re ready to start writing with your heart at any of these venues:
• Doctors', vets', and dentists' offices
• Hospital waiting room or cafeteria during family member’s surgery, unless you’re the surgeon or nurse
• Sitting and rotting at the MVA for license renewal, title, registration, or anything else involving your vehicle
• Airports and airplanes, except those tiny props with propellers
• Banks and large post offices
• Police station waiting to be booked
• Courthouse awaiting your trial or jury verdict
• Sitting and rotting in your prison cell
• Cruises and large boats that don’t tip over
• Restaurants and coffee shops
• Car dealer, gas station, and Midas Muffler waiting rooms for repairs
• Vacation resorts, if the resort or roommate turns out to be a bummer
This tip will continue tomorrow with some reflections on the above venues and Internet access, plus a few personal suggestions. Let me know your reactions to these venues and your writing successes there.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS
10. WRITE EVERYDAY. In the movie Finding Forrester, fictitious Pulitzer Prize winning novelist William Forrester (played by everyone’s fave James Bond, Sean Connery) gave the following advice on writing to his talented 16-year old mentee Jamal Wallace, whose secret passion was writing:
“You write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is to write, not to think. If you try to write the perfect page one, you’ll never get to page two.”
What to Write: You need to force yourself to write responses to e-mails, texts, tweets, comments to blogs and online discussions, etc. Search for every opportunity to write. Even better, create them by formally mapping out a writing project, such as the following:
• blog
• section of an article
• piece of a chapter or report
• chapter in an accreditation self-study
• portion of a speech or lecture
• jokes for an article, presentation, or stand-up gig
• scene for a play or screenplay
• scene for a TV movie of the week with geezer-like Tom Selleck
• any chunk of a manuscript
Chunking: Think about your writing in short bits, pieces, and chunks, not total papers. They’re easier to complete. What ever you commit to write should be part of your “to-do” list every day. It should be important and urgent, category A, on your list. Your writing is high priority.
Chunk writing keeps the writing juices and other fluids flowing and your brain neurons-synapses firing, unless, of course, you’re on crystal meth. The more frequently you write, the more you improve your ability to express your thoughts grammatically and mechanically, plus there’s more flowing and firing to boot. You’re honing the art and craft of your writing.
(Up Close & Personal: I’ve been writing for hundreds of years. However, one of the best exercises I have found to stimulate my creative writing bodily fluids to keep pouring out all over my PC was to commit to writing a 200–300 word blog almost every day. This August 1 will be my 1st Blogiverary. I’m aiming for 180 blogs. I really look forward to writing a blog every day, except when I can’t think of anything. Mine is a professional blog, but you can write a social blog or whatever you’re willing to write. I strongly recommend creating a series of blogs on a single topic, as I am doing on “writing.” It’s much easier than writing on a completely new topic everyday. Whatever works for you, do it. Just write.)
(Application: Writing blogs is an extremely effective method to build students’ writing skills. The blog keeps your writing fresh and forces you to stretch mentally and produce something of value for your readers. That’s a significant challenge.)
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHY WRITING?
I receive occasional requests from junior faculty and students, usually on my LinkedIn professional network, for tips on writing and publishing. It seems everybody has to write, especially professsionals in all fields. No one can escape. Writing-wise, it’s kinda like “No Professional Left Behind!.” People are talking less and texting and typing on social media networks more than at any time previously. They’re writing more, but not necessarily at a high level of quality.
Just about everybody (meaning, colleagues) I talk to about writing has problems writing. Most are not satisfied with the quality and/or quantity of what they write. They feel they can produce more and always do it better. But it’s tough to do.
There are buckets of books, online writing groups (academic and nonacademic), workshops, and other resources that can help you in your writing quest. So why do I need to throw my blog into the writing ring? Because I know you love my metaphors and I might be able to contribute some new tidbit of advice that might shoot your writing to levels beyond your wildest imagination, or maybe not. I thought I’d give it a whirl, plus, my blogs are free and occasionally funny. The other options are neither.
WHAT THIS BLOG DOES NOT COVER
If you’re interested in publishing pointers, fawgettaboutit. Two previous blog series dealt with writing and publishing for professional journals (4/22—5/9/10) and books (9/18—10/5/09). This blog is also not about grammar and mechanics. Spelchek and copy editors do a great job with that.
WHAT THIS BLOG COVERS
It’s about strategies to improve the quality and quantity of what you write professionally, but also personally. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a research, theoretical model, lit review, historical, commentary, or even murder mystery piece, OR a blog, e-mail, social media comment, article, chapter, or book. These are generic suggestions that work, I think.
TOP 10 SECRET TIPS PREVIEW
Here’s the list that will be addressed in the next few blogs:
10. WRITE EVERYDAY
9. WRITE EVERYWHERE YOU CAN
8. WRITE FOR A NICHE
7. WRITE WITH A PURPOSE AND OUTCOME IN MIND
6. WRITE ON TOPICS ABOUT WHICH YOU ARE PASSIONATE
5. ADOPT A MENTOR OR COACH TO REVIEW DRAFTS
4. THINK DRAFT
3. PROOFREAD THOROUGHLY
2. MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS AND INTERRUPTIONS
1. FIND AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER OR WRITING GROUP
Read any, all, or none of the upcoming blogs on these tips. If you just get 1 or 2 ideas from this series, it will have been a total waste of my time. I’m shooting for 3. Let me know my hit rate and any comments or suggestions, as usual. My next blog will examine how to WRITE EVERYDAY.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHY REJECTION?
You’re probably wondering why I write and speak about disappointment, rejection, and failure so often. Or, maybe not. The fact is: Writing productivity is proportional to writing rejection. Since my last blog, I've received 3 manuscript rejections. The more I submit to peer-reviewed journals, the more I get rejected. At least, that’s been my formula for rejection throughout my academic career. Even in retirement from JHU, I’ve been figuratively smacked all over the place by editors several times a month. Those manuscripts that have been published are not produced without significant scarring. It is a continuously humbling experience.
EDITORIAL DECISION OPTIONS
Anyway, the issue is what to do when you get whacked by a journal editor. The rejection menu usually consists of the following:
• Unconditional Acceptance, which means: "We love you!"
• Conditional Acceptance with Minor Revisions, which means: "We like you, kinda!"
• Rejection with Major Revision to Resubmit, which means: "You’re a moron!"
• Rejection, Do Not Resubmit Anywhere in the Universe, including British journals, which means: "Consider another career or stay in your lab and don’t come out!"
YOUR RESPONSE: When you receive 2 or 3 reviewers’ comments, which may be as short as 1 page or as long as 3 pages single-spaced, what do you do?
A. Cry
B. Drink alcohol
C. Take a controlled substance
D. Put out a contract on the editor
E. Torture the editor using Jack Bauer’s techniques on 24 until he or she reveals the names of the reviewers
F. All of the above
Did you get it right? After you've recovered from one of these initial reactions and had time to calm down and put your chainsaw back in the garage, do you revise or not?
So, do you suck it in, buck up, hunker down, and make the revisions or try to dream up other colloquialisms for this sentence?
My next blog will answer this question and suggest strategies to attack reviewers’ comments before you undertake any revision. Let me know your pub experiences. I hope you've had a higher hit rate than me.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Once you’ve decided how you are going to transform your published article into a book chapter, DO IT. When you have a draft of the chapter, consider whether it looks like a clone of the article in structure and style OR an “extreme makeover,” almost unrecognizable from the real McCoy. Since you would typically update citations and references, reformat heads, and revise the text after your copyeditor butchers it, the final chapter will almost always appear different from the article. Every copyeditor’s changes are different. If you are blessed with a copyediting of your article, your book editor will find other changes to make. (Note: Your copyeditor can be your best friend and mentor in improving your writing ability. I’ve learned sooo much from every editor. That learning never ends. There is always room for improving one’s writing skills. End of Note.)
Copyright-wise, check with the specific journal for its policy on using material from your article in total or in part, including graphic, pictorial, and other nontext content. At minimum, cite the article in text or in a footnote, such as: “This chapter is based on the article by Berkorino and Magillacutty (2009) published in the Journal of Previously Rejected Manuscripts” or “This chapter is a revision of a previously published article by Snoothauser and Barfbag (2008).”
In your draft table of contents, fill in chapter gaps around your collection of articles to insure a comprehensive treatment of the topic. You may have to add 1–2 or several chapters to distinguish your work from the competition. “But, hey bro or sis, your book is like almost complete. That is sooo cool.” Where did that come from? Ending a sentence with a preposition? “Did you really work with copyeditors?” Kinda…
Write drafts of these additional chapters and you’re on your way to bookdom. Isn’t this “article” approach faster, easier, and more streamlined than writing the whole book from scratch? Plus, it punctuates the significance your research program by providing a capstone product that synthesizes a given body of work over several years. The book will also have more staying power than a single article.
It’s possible to adapt this approach to a collection of conference presentations, workshop materials, blogs, listserv commentaries, professional journal (diary) entries, and other writing products. They lack the quality-control ingredient of the journal review process, but the final manuscript can still be sent out to multiple reviewers for feedback. What matters most is that you continue writing, every day, if possible. It is one technique to continue learning and producing, even into your retirement. Wow, what a great idea!
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Once you’ve written a bunch of articles on one major topic, think about how you can convert them into book chapters. Where do you begin editing? What will change in your chapter versions? First, let’s examine the differences between articles and book chapters. Here is a trifecta of factors:
1. Target readership, audience, or niche: Their interests and sizes differ. In general, the journal’s readership is often narrower than the audience for your book, especially on research topics. It will also be considerably smaller. Your chapter should aim at a readership size larger than your family and at least equal to or greater than the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. You need a large pool of people who will buy your book. Otherwise, your annual royalty will not even fill your gas-guzzling SUV once.
2. Writing style: The scholarly, serious, stuffy, academic style of most journals requires that you stay on the straight and narrow writing path; your chapter style can be the same or considerably different, depending again on your readership. The book is yours; the article is the editor’s. BIG DIFFERENCE. You can increase interest in “serious” content by adding graphics, cartoons, famous quotes, pictures, and maybe even humor. This is YOUR baby. Make it yours by using your imagination, creativity, and God-given writing gifts.
(Personal Note #1: My first 8 books followed the traditional route; the last 5 smashed that mold with humor. Inserting humor into any book can be risky. Almost all books, even those on humor and stand-up comedy, are written seriously. I used humor in my book on faculty evaluation strategies (Thirteen Strategies to Measure College Teaching), which included chapters on the research literature on each strategy, scale construction, statistical item analysis, score interpretation, and other heavy-duty topics. This book also cited 550 references. Early reviews of the book manuscript were very negative, not because of the content, but because of the humor. It was considered inappropriate for a topic so important and serious to administrators and faculty. Since there were other serious books on scale construction and evaluation methods, why should anyone bother to read my book? I needed to address the three topic criteria described in the last 2 blogs. The content had to be structured differently from previous works and the writing style needed to be more user-friendly, especially on technical topics. I took my lumps and early rejections and decided to make the book mine. I wanted a funny section on “factor analysis” that everyone might understand and enjoy reading. End of Bloated Note.)
3. Length: Articles have maximum length requirements; chapters do not, within reason. Chapters provide a lot more flexibility to add material such as the above. (Secret Writing Strategy: I ALWAYS write the serious content for an article or chapter first. Once the meat is complete, which is usually adequate for journal submission, I go back and look for opportunities to add humor or visuals to the chapter version. The humor in my chapters is an add-on to the content. It may be used to exaggerate or amplify specific concepts, theories, or processes or to bring to life really deadly, boring material. That will increase the length of the chapter. End of Secret Kinda Note.)
Consider the preceding trifecta of factors as you review your articles. Who is going to buy your book? What will distinguish it from all other books on the topic? What writing style are you going to use? What additions to the article will make it more interesting or palatable to your readers?
To those of you who are writers, please let me know any suggestions I’ve missed or what you have found useful. As writers in academe or out, we could use all of the help available. Our careers are on the line. Other techniques will follow in future blogs.
The next blog will deal with assembling your "chapter-articles" into a book.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
As a follow-up to my previous blog, I would add one more criterion to the list for Picking the right topic: (c) Fill a need and want in your niche. That can greatly improve the salability of your book. What information does your target audience need and want? The trick is to match your expertise, passion, and your niche’s need on the topic. That magical match will produce a book that’s credible, salable to your audience, and fun to write.
Now let’s move on to the next strategy:
2. How to Create Chapters Quickly and Easily: Writing chapters from scratch or even a detailed topic outline can be excruciatingly painful. Where do you begin? As I’ve said elsewhere, “It’s like eating one of those dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. Once you forklift your filet of T-Rex off your grill, which is the size of Wyoming, where do you take your first bite? Tough decision.”
Fortunately, as academicians, we’re not only required to write books, but also journal articles, chapters for edited volumes, research reports, wedding invitations for our daughters, and parking violations. So we have plenty of writing practice. Here’s the SECRET STRATEGY I’ve used for years (Are you ready? Getting excited? Bet ya thought blogs couldn’t be this much fun!): convert your published articles into chapters. There it is. It takes the guess work out of what to write because you already wrote it. Ah Ha!! Some of you may already do that. As most pastors say, “Let’s unpack this a bit further.”
Here are a few issues to consider:
(a) Write articles on related topics: Most of us generate articles and research publications that follow one major theme or passion of ours. They should hinge together under a common head or rubric. (Personal Note: For example, over the past decade I was passionate about testing new teaching techniques to connect with this Net Generation of students. Almost all students hate statistics, but this generation had other characteristics that made stat more challenging to teach. My research and articles focused on these techniques: humor, music, videos, and improvisation. I also did keynotes and workshops for faculty and administrators on those topics, plus continued to test the effectiveness of the techniques with keynotes to student audiences in the U.S. and overseas. Do you see where I’m heading with this? Me neither. I’m just rambling in the longest “personal note” in history. End of Bloated Note 2.)
(b) Why use articles? Articles test the criteria stated in my previous blog. Does your article contribute something new or better than what exists? Does it fill a need? The review process will answer these questions. Your work also goes through the rigor of peer review, with detailed feedback from reviewers, maybe rejection, maybe resubmission after revision, maybe submission to another journal, and copy editing before publication. After this beating is over, you usually have an article that is appreciably better than it was originally. Given the length of the journal review process, this could take 2–5 years for a bevy of articles to be ready for book conversion. Keep in mind you’re still scoring field goals with these articles or chapters. The book will be the culmination of all of that work, that is, the touchdown. (Note: This is football season, right? You can expect football analogies and metaphors. Watch out!)
(c) Start hinging your articles: Find that rubric that draws your body of work (articles) together. Think about that hinge as you begin to write each new article. You may also write pieces that have nothing to do with that hinge for different reasons. (Personal Note: This will be shorter that the bloated one above. As you may have guessed from my article topics above, my hinge is: “How to NOT Get Whacked by Your Institution!” Haha. A little hinge humor. The topic is: “Teaching Strategies for the Net Generation.” Among the 30+ books on the Net Generation, is there a book on this topic with the content I have chosen? No. Is there a need? No. Does anybody care? No. I hope I’m kidding. End of Semi-Bloated Note.)
These paragraphs should get you started. The next blog will be “How to convert articles into chapters without violating copyright.” Stick around for my next installment.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
Writing is tough, even if you're a writer. Since it is part of our job description at most colleges and universities, it is a requirement that some of us find more challenging than others. As a writer, I thought it might be of value to pass on a few strategies that have worked for me. Let me know your thoughts on any of these:
1. Pick the Right Topic: There are 2 criteria I use to decide on topics:
(a) New or unique contribution--Your work provides new information, a new application, new evidence, or something unique that no one has published. For researchers, this is not a problem. For example, among the 30+ books published on the Net Generation, only a few proffer new survey evidence on characteristics, while others apply available evidence to education, the workplace, or other areas.
(b) New spin on existing material—What ever currently exists, you’re convinced you can do it better—meaning, making the material more interesting, more comprehensive and up to date, more appropriate in writing style, focusing on a different niche audience, etc.
In other words, if you don’t have a work that is new or better than others already available, it probably won’t get published by a commercial publisher. Of course, you can self-publish it.
(Personal Note: Over the years, I have observed and been told by faculty and parents that college students are disorganized, waste time, procrastinate, and possess minuscule knowledge of time management. This past spring I thought about a book on that topic. After Googling everything I could find, I concluded there is NO BOOK on the topic for college students. There are 50+ books aimed at managers and employees in business and industry. There are guidelines, chapters in books on study skills, and other scattered resources for students, but no book.
What could I contribute based on the criteria mentioned above? A NEW APPLICATION of evidenced-based practice in b & i, a WRITING STYLE using humor and college student cultural examples and lingo, and a QUICK READ structure for students who don’t want to read. That’s exactly what I did. It was published in Aug.—The Five-Minute Time Manager for College Students [www.coventrypress.com or http://www.amazon.com/]. End of Bloated Note.)
The next blog will cover 2. How to Create Chapters Quickly and Easily. Stay tuned.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
