Writing for Scholarly Publication by Anne Sigismund Huff (2/15/2009 by TQM Doctor)
I read Writing for Scholarly Publication to learn and adopt methods to manage my writing. I often write to a deadline and feel that the quality of my work suffers. Therefore, I need to learn useful methods to mitigate this problem. I believe Huff’s ideas and lessons will help, especially since she often repeats the same admonitions of my professors.
A new idea Huff taught me was that—in addition to the outline—I should also draft a descriptive title and abstract before I begin working on the body of the article or essay. Huff asserted that this additional work in the beginning helps establish an overall direction I can use as a writing compass while composing the body of my work. She also reinforced the importance of setting aside a regular time to write and to use an outline. I know I have heard this advice before, but somehow it now has a more teeth. :)
Huff also introduced and reinforced many other relevant ideas for scholarly writing. Most important, Huff’s book is about writing well enough for journals to publish what we submit. I believe the salient concept she introduced was that we should remember to treat our writing as a conversation since the ultimate responsibility of scholars is to converse and share. From this perspective, writers should identify conversants and “speak to them.” Huff even shares example methods she uses to further the reality of scholarly conversational writing. The concept of scholarly writing as a conversation has been especially relevant to my dissertation.
The most important reinforcement I received from Huff was that I could use writing to think clearly or even to discover what I think. Writing is an effective method to explore new concepts or as a means of efficient learning. Therefore, I am now using a journal and have set aside daily writing time. So far so good! Thank you, Huff!