WRITING AND THE SCHOLARLY CAREER
G. Thomas Goodnight Summer 2010
gtg@usc.edu
WRITING AND THE SCHOLARLY CAREER
SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF COURSE: This course offers a special opportunity to learn and plan for the future as a publishing scholar, while at the same time to work through one of your papers in the process of sending it to a journal. Thinking and doing at the same time.
The course works at several levels to examine this process in a scholarly career. First, students are asked to work through the process of creation, submission, and revision of essays to scholarly journals. Strategic choices concerning the selection of audience, development of topics, structuring of material, development of research protocol and learning from paradigmatic analysis are discussed. Second, students are invited to see writing within the context of graduate educational activities, constraints on tenure and promotion, and the evolution of a scholarly identity. The process of moving from class paper, to convention presentation, to dissertation project, and book is discussed. Finally, the courses focuses on specific technical issues related to academic publishing including coauthoring, ethics, electronic publishing, copyright, and acquiring permissions.
The goals of the course are (l) that each student produce and develop for consideration a journal article, (2) to provide a systematic review of the activities that make up the research and writing process, and (3) to accord space for reflective discussion on the relationship between a life of the mind, writing and the scholarly career.
Books include Marc Bousequet and Carry Nelson, How the University Works, New York University Press, 2008; William Germano, Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars Serious about Serious Books, University of Chicago Press, 2008; Franklin H. Silverman, Publishing for Tenure and Beyond, Praeger 1999; Beth Luey, ed. Revising Your Dissertation, University of California Press, 2004;. Anne Sigismund Huff. Writing for Scholarly Publication, Sage, 1999. The books are short, informal and practical, but contain information that is useful for the technical challenges of writing and publishing.
SCHEDULE
Wk 1: M Jly 5 17 INTRODUCTION
Discussion of projects; schedule, expectations, and grading. Overview of readings, discussion and course procedure. Schedule commitments.
Question: What are the distinctions between a seminar paper and a journal article? How to overcome fear of publishing and select a project. Preliminary remarks about how fields and disciplines come into being; and how one begins to develop a scholarly identity, research trajectory, and career choices.
Class Discussion: Summer research projects. Students will discuss the choice of a paper which they wish to convert from a in class or conference presentation to a journal article. Students should identify in discussion the purpose of the essay, its main argument, and target audience. (Identify target journal for the 22nd). Silverman 9-30.
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Wk 1 T July 6 ANALYSIS OF SELECTED JOURNALS.
Assignment: Students will bring to class a cluster of journals inside the Communciation field and from an associated field that represents their individual interests. Seminar members will discuss how there paper “fits” into the research trajectory in terms of the potential audience of the journal, kinds of issues it has been dealing with, and the theoretical issues or frameworks it draws upon. Journals should reflect a mix of electronic and traditional print journals relevant to special projects.
Discussion: We will discuss the merits of journal work inside and outside the formal field of Communication.
Franklin H. Silverman, Publishing for Tenure and Beyond, 30-61; Huff, part 1.
Wk 2 M July 12 ANALYSIS OF SELECTED JOURNALS—cont.
Assignment: Students will bring to class the editorial statement, roster of contributing editors, and an idea of the trajectory of a desired journal publication. Seminar members will discuss how there paper “fits” into the research trajectory in terms of the potential audience of the journal, kinds of issues it has been dealing with, and the theoretical issues or frameworks it draws upon. Analogical position on the WEB. Silverman 90-101—the strategic details of making a journal choice.
Discussion: The Odd Couple: Writing as Conversation and Management What are the tensions between conversation and management in the development of a writing program. How do you identify ‘topics’ selecting, choosing, developing, and discarding. What is involved in paradigmatic learning? Read Kathrym M. Olson, Reagan at Bittburgh as paradigm case. Find the article in Communication and Mass Media Complete.
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Week 2 T July 13 PARADIGMATIC LEARNING:
Assignment: Student teams will make available paradigmatic essays representing the strategic deployments of the introduction and conclusion, the structure of the body and its serial development, and the movement of the arguments in the paper through the overall position articulated in the abstract, the arguments relative to the method, artifacts, and conversation in the field.
Discussion: Read Anne Sigismund Huff. Writing for Scholarly Publication, 65-116.
Discussion will focus on the nature of making a scholarly argument, sustaining a position in the paper, questions of working with materials (do’s and don’ts).
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Week 3 M July 19 RESEARCH & THE CONVERSATION
Assignment: Students will develop two, maximum one-page protocol sheets that (a) explains how they find and sift the material they are reconstructing for review in the essay—as well as adjacent materials for longer term development and (b) identify the research that is relevant to the project and to the editorial board of the target journal.
Discussion: The Submission and Revision Process Bruce A. Thyer, Successful Publishing in Scholarly Journals, 39-76. Anne Sigismund Huff. Writing for Scholarly Publication, 117-128. This session will examine the process of getting a paper ready for submission, and dealing with revision issues once the manuscript is returned.
Week 3 W. July 20 THE OPENING SECTION AND ARGUMENT
The Draft: First Cut: Students will bring in two things: a paragraph statement of the essay’s argument and pivot, and a first draft of the paper and exchange it with one or two others for review and criticism, according to the ‘editorial standards’ of peer review discussed earlier.
The Graduate Career. What role does writing play in your graduate career? What are the expectations for joining a faculty? How well does graduate education prepare you? What should you be doing?
Ann E. Austin “Creating a Bridge to the Future: Preparing New Faculty to Face Changing Expectations in a Shifting Context,” Review of Higher Education. Winter 2002: 119-144.
Ann E. Austin “Preparing the Next Generation of Faculty: Graduate School as Socialization to the Academic Career,” Journal of Higher Education, 2002: 94-122.
Jerry G. Graff, “The Disconnect Between Graduate Education and Faculty Realities: A Review of Recent Research,” Liberal Education, Summer 2002: 6-13.
Marsi Nerad, Rebecca Aanerud, Joseph Cerny,” ‘So You Want to Become a Professor!’ Anne Sigismund Huff. Writing for Scholarly Publication, 65-116. (copy)
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Week 4 M July 26 THE DRAFT: SECOND CUT
Assignment: Each student will bring a revised draft with augmented sources, a refined argument, developed structure and so forth. The process of revision will be discussed as students identify the predominant challenge with getting the paper finished. Every student should bring in two drafts of the paper..
Discussion: The book writing process. William Germano, Getting It Published, 1-97.
Everything from understanding publishing as a practice to making the work. How to think about writing the longer work versus the commitments to a journals.
Week 4 T July 28 THE DRAFT: FINAL PREPARATION
Assignment: Students will continue to work toward a perfected draft. There will be a mutual checking session with work on notes, title, abstract, word count, submission requirements, etc.
One hour session.
Discussion. The book writing process. William Germano, Getting It Published, 97-144, 160-189. The Contract, Choices of Venue, and Beyond. What role does book publishing play in the hiring, tenure and promotion process? Silverman, 121-127. John Lynne “Argument in the Human Sciences,” In Robert Trapp and Janice Schuetz, Perspectives on Argumentation, pp. 178-189.
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Week 5 M August 2: THE DISSERTATION AND THE WRITING PROCESS
Assignment: Students will imagine a dissertation project and its development into a book.
Discussion: Beth Luey, ed. From Dissertation to Book. The seminar will involve a discussion on how to produce the dissertation and the dissertation process. Each student will report on one chapter with one page summary of relevant advice for the process.
Week 5 T August 3 HEADACHES AND HEARTACHES, A BUYER’S GUIDE
Assignment: Complete draft of your publication for review by Goodnight. Then, take final manuscript and submit it to a journal!
Discussion: Publishing for Copyright, Tenure, Co-authors, and other Details of the Business. Franklin H. Silverman, Publishing for Tenure and Beyond, 64-87 [some review material] 104-161. Germano, Getting It Published, 154-159.
Week 6 M August 9 THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY
Assignment: What is your role in the knowledge factory? How to succeed, transcend, escape or shift you focus as time unfolds. What is the tenure process like? How to establish a reputation as a productive scholar.
Discussion: Marc Bousequet and Carry Nelson, How the University Works, New York University Press, 2008.
Week 6 T August 10 FINAL AGENDA
Assignment: Complete Bosequet and Nelson. Identify prospective projects for graduate research, a dissertation topic, and an area of field/outside specialization for yourself. Be prepared to discuss the advantages and risks of such commitments. Identify your chosen summer project in the context of this trajectory.
ASSIGNMENT CHECK LIST
1. T July 6 Bring in cluster of journal titles and content in which you are interested.
2. M July 12 Undertake a journal review or two as a target for your publication.
3. M July 19 Bring in an updated literature review for your publication.
4. T July 20 Bring in the opening 3 pages of introduction to your publication.
5. M July 26 Turn in second draft for review by Goodnight
6 M Aug 9 Submit manuscript
7. T Aug 10 Bring in single page or two that describes your future research and
publishing plans
PERSONAL ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE
Check assignments to complete the course.
1. Journal Analysis (bring in front matter and editorial board and l pg conclusion)
2. Paradigm Selection (bring in essay, distribute, analyze sections)
3. Research Strategy (2 pages of protocols)
4. Opening Section Discussion ( 3 to 3 and l/2 pages of your essay)
5. Rough, revised, and perfected drafts. (25-35 pages draft, 7-15 pages notes
6. Dissertation discussion. (1 page review)
7. Book Imagination. (l page proposal)
Office Hours: Monday 1:00-2:00 and by appt.
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