Monday, December 29, 2014

End of the Year



It’s the end of the year, a time for reflection, evaluation, and goal setting. This year has been much better for me than 2013. I’m in a better shape now, have more energy and less pain than before. This year I defended my dissertation prospectus. I wish I have already received my IRB approval, got an article published, developed a daily writing routine, cleaned the house, etc. That’s what I hope to accomplish in 2015. Next year I also need to complete data collection for my dissertation.

What have I learned in 2014? To take better care of myself and to stay positive. After a long break from going to conferences, I attended CADAAD 2014 in Budapest, Hungary. I realized how much I was missing by not conferencing. I decided to go to at least one conference per year. To ensure that, I organized a panel for ICQI 2015. This panel has been accepted. Thus, all I need to do now is to revise my paper, book a hotel room, buy plane tickets, and attend the conference in May. In 2014, I revised a paper and submitted it to a journal. Belcher’s book Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success gave me some structure and taught me how to better approach editing on both macro and micro levels. I will use this model again, starting January 2, to revise my other paper and will reflect on that process in February and then in March.

During 2015, I will blog twice a month.  In January, I plan to write about Yuri Lotman, his approach to cultural studies, and how this approach may help me in grounding my dissertation project. In February, I will reflect on my trip to Russia and discuss how the revision of my paper is going. In March, I plan to write about my data collection and report on submitting my second paper to a journal. If some more interesting or more urgent topics surface, I may change this plan, but my goal is to write regularly. In 2015, I plan to use this blog to discuss various aspects of my life, including my non-academic goals. Hope you’ll come back in January and share this journey with me! Happy Holidays, everyone!

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Writing a journal article in 12 weeks: Weeks Eleven and Twelve


I’m using Wendy Laura Belcher’s book Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success to prepare my paper for publication. During this week I worked on two weeks: Week Eleven and Week Twelve. 

Week Eleven is about wrapping up your article. Belcher warns her readers of the perils of perfection and emphasizes the importance of finishing. She recommends to spend the first day of the week finalizing your argument, the second finalizing your lit review, the third finalizing your introduction, the fourth finalizing your evidence and structure, and the fifth finalizing your conclusion. It took me two days to finalize my article. Then, I moved to Week Twelve.

Week Twelve is devoted to sending your article to a journal. Belcher opens this chapter with a brief section on the perils of finishing, which echoes her discussion of the perils of perfection in Week Eleven. After that, she describes several last steps necessary for getting your submission ready, such as writing a cover letter to accompany the article, preparing illustrations, putting the article in the journal’s style, preparing its final electronic version, sending it to the journal, and celebrating. My article doesn’t have any illustrations, and it’s already in the journal’s format. So, on the third day of the week, I drafted a cover letter. The fourth day was devoted to preparing the final electronic version of my article and revising the cover letter. On the fifth day, I submitted my article to the journal. I was surprised to find out that I’m required to list the names of three potential reviewers along with their academic affiliations and contact information. It took me awhile to decide on that. After the article was eventually submitted, I started working on IRB documents, which I should've finished long time ago. By the end of the day, I felt rather tired and had no energy to celebrate. I gave myself a rain check, planning to have a celebration at the end of the week.  I will reflect on the past 12 weeks and evaluate my experience of revision and journal submission in my next blog post.