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Writing for Scholarly Publication
ANNE HUFF. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998. 192 pp. 37 (hbk), 15.99 (pbk). ISBN 0-7619-1804-3 (hbk), 0-7619-1805-1 (pbk)
Writing for publication plays such an important part in the world of scholarship and in the lives of scholars that it is surprising how little systematic attention has generally been devoted to unravelling this arcane and highly skilled art. Perhaps because those who reach the heights (or depths) of research degree studies have already spent the best years of their lives grappling their way up the wall of knowledge immersed in the production and consumption of words, the realization that there may be new and vital skills to be learned in order to produce publishable writing may dawn only after a few heart-stopping slips or even the occasional bad fall. While texts on research methods often seek to equip their readers with everything they need to know about research, from how to construct an attitude scale to how to calculate a z-score, they seldom devote much, if any, space to the matter of how to convert the products of research efforts into forms publishable in the academic press. It is all too easy, then, to take writing for publication for granted.
What is special, and perhaps unique, about scholarly writing? Is there any point in writing before you know clearly what you have to say? What makes a paper publishable? And how do you achieve it? Anne Huff's book is based largely on her experiences as an academic author and as a teacher bent on helping...