Writing for
publication is becoming increasingly important in language
education, as fields such as composition
and rhetoric, teaching English
to speakers of other languages (TESOL), and multicultural studies
become both more professional and more competitive. Researchers and
practitioners face pressures to publish as a way to secure or keep a job,
to move up in rank, and to contribute to the field by sharing knowledge
and communicating critically with interested readers. It is equally
important for graduate students wishing to enter a tight marketplace to
understand and experiment with writing for
publication. Writing
researchers and scholars, too, are curious about what happens behind
the scenes in the construction of the artificially seamless published
product. Yet few scholars talk candidly about their
experiences published. The book is both a personal and a practical resource book
for this group—a “textual mentor” in the sense that published academic
writers share their own experiences and insights with readers. Second,
it will appeal to scholars of academic and disciplinary discourse, both
graduate students and faculty, who are researching the social, political,
and personal aspects of aca-demic writing. Third, it will be of interest
to experienced academic writers who wish to reflect in a personal way
on their own publishing experiences. The collection helps readers
achieve these goals by demystifying the practice of writing for
publication from the inside. For instance, the essays provide insights
into how and why writers choose to write for publication, how writing
that is targeted for publication is negotiated with gatekeepers, what
some of the issues of voice and identity are in writing for publication,
and what kinds of challenges face writers on the periphery. The main
value of the essays will be in the reflections and discussions they spark
and the connections readers can make with their own issues, curiosities,
and practices in writing for publication.
Many of the essays in this book portray hardship and struggle that
are not obvious in a finished piece of writing. The invisible aspects of
the process of writing for publication are not always comfortable ones.
They are, however, aspects that need to be made more transparent than
they currently are. In working toward this transparency, the
contributions are carefully crafted, engagingly written, issue-oriented
essays and narratives that are focused and provocative. They document
authors’ experiences with a range of practical, political, and personal
issues in writing for publication. With the perspectives of the authors
taking center stage, readers are urged to connect the narratives to their
own lives and to participate in and resonate with events and issues in
the authors’ lives. Practical information such as contact information for
journal and book publishers, manuscript guidelines, and useful
reference books is included in appendixes. The unconventional author
biostatements include many authors’ favorite readings that have
inspired their writing.