Rewriting

You have rewritten your proposal umpteen times for your chair. It is sent to your committee member who wants more changes. What is all this rewriting about? Are you really that bad of a writer?

Rewriting is an integral part of professional writing (as is criticism). It is tough to go back through and rework it again and again. But it truly is part of the process and prepares you for peer review of future articles you will write. We are writing a very technical paper and it is easy to make errors, and not be precise. There are no quick fixes, but I can make a few suggestions.

Be gracious in accepting feedback, don’t argue with the reviewer. If you truly feel that he or she is wrong on a point – make an argument in a comment in your paper (support it with literature, APA manual). Always be polite, thank them for taking the time to read and critique your paper.

Carefully go through each comment and change it as needed. If it is a grammar or formatting issue, check the entire paper and make sure that it doesn’t show up again. Yes, I know how time consuming it is, but it will save you time in the end. While you may want to use the Replace function in Word, make yourself check each suggested change before replacing it. English is a fickle language; often what is correct in one circumstance is not in others, so double check.

Try reading your paper aloud to catch problems. If you find that this does not work for you, ask someone who is a good writer to proof it for you. Again, no arguing! Thank them for helping you.

It is a great idea to keep notes of common problems you have in writing. You can then double check these issues before submitting it to your reviewers. Read your writing critically, have you made clear arguments? Have you supported each statement with citations?

I find it helpful to think of rewriting as a challenge – I want to outwit the review by making it as clear and correct as possible. While rewriting is not particularly fun, it can be a learning experience and will make you a stronger professional. 

Next time I will talk about the word "done." Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu