Kursöversikt

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Course information HT20

Dr Martin Westerholm

Welcome to our course on academic publishing!  It is great to have you with us to study for part of Fall term 2020.  Because of the ongoing public health crisis, this course will take place entirely online.  There will be no meetings on campus — I am sorry not to have the chance to meet you in person!

I am from Canada, and am a native English speaker.  English will be my primary language of communication *but you are welcome to communicate with me and to do your course work in Swedish*.  I’ll say a little bit more about myself during our first session.

The aim of the course is twofold: (1) to learn about academic publishing generally, and (2) to take the strongest piece of writing that you have and to turn it into a submission for an academic journal.  The following is a proposed schedule that can be adjusted according to the circumstances of particular students.

(1) Week 37 -- Read the sections called 'Week 1', 'Week 2', 'Week 4', and 'Week 9', in Belcher's book in order to help you think through the following four tasks: (1) make a plan for completing your article; (2) select a journal that would be suitable; (3) figure out how to formulate the strongest version of an argument that you can based on the material that you have; and (4) figure out the best structure for your article given the material that you have. You don't need to be doing a careful line-by-line reading of Belcher's book as if it were gospel; there are a number of things in the book that are helpful, but some other things that I disagree with. Read with your material and the four tasks above in mind, and focus on the ideas in Belcher's book that seem helpful to you in working through these four tasks.

(2) Week 38 -- I suggest that we have one-on-one discussions at the beginning of week 38 during which we can talk through your approach to the four tasks above. Please come to these discussions with at least preliminary ideas regarding how you will approach these steps. I propose the following schedule for the meetings, *do please be in touch either to confirm that the time works, or to indicate that you would prefer to reschedule.*

Monday 14 September -- Samuel, 15.00; Jo-Ann, 15.45; Jens, 16.30.
Tuesday 15 September -- Maya, 15.00; Frederik, 15.45; Johan, 16.30.

(3) Weeks 38-40 -- Writing weeks! Get to concentrated work on forming your articles! During this time, you should definitely read Belcher's section called 'Week 10' -- introductions and conclusions are crucial! -- and skim the material on weeks 6, 7, 8, but do devote as much time as you can to reading other articles in your field, in part to build up a 'feel' for a good journal article, and in part to give yourself a broader sense of the state of discourse in your field so that you can give a clear account of where your work fits within the broader conversation of your field.

(4) Weeks 40-42 -- Feedback weeks. I suggest a two-stage process here. The dates of the process can be adjusted to fit your writing progress. Stage 1: Submit your draft to a faculty member in your field. I recommend targeting the end of week 40 or beginning of week 41 for this. Stage 2: Send your draft and the feedback that you received from the faculty member to me, and we can then schedule a one-on-one conversation to talk through what needs to be done to produce the best possible version of your article. We can, hopefully, have these conversations towards the end of week 41 or beginning of week 42.

As you wait for feedback, read the sections on weeks 6-8 in Belcher's book more carefully and think through whether you are presenting your material in the best way possible. Also: read more articles! You can never do too much reading!

(5) Weeks 42-44 -- Writing weeks! Put into action the plan that we make during our discussion with the goal of submitting your article to me and to a journal on Friday 30 October!

I look forward to working with you over the course of the term!

 When you are a registered student you will have access to further information related to the course.

Registration informationLänkar till en externa sida.

Student PortalLänkar till en externa sida.

You will find information about the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion on our web site www.lir.gu.seLänkar till en externa sida.