Summary
This chapter considered a range of tips for productive, lower-stress writing for large projects. Write regularly and pay attention to your personal writing processes. When it’s writing time, it’s writing time. Save the self-editing for later. Choose a self-editing strategy that targets the kinds of writing problems you know you usually have: surface, sentence, paragraph, or global level. Don’t be afraid to change strategies or try multiple strategies; taking more looks at your paper is always better. Peer review as it’s practiced in political science is about reviewing research design and execution, not line editing. For all papers, look for theory grounded in concepts, hypotheses that are directly observable implications of the theory, and measurement that is valid in the context of the research. For qualitative research, consider case selection, measurement, and whether the conclusions are commensurate with the scope of the theory and tests. For quantitative research, consider issues of measurement and case selection, and be alert for specification errors and analytical pitfalls the author might have missed. Helpful peer reviews provide concrete guidance about weaknesses in the paper and often include specific suggestions or requests for additional development of the paper.
Articles
Web Extra: Detecting and Avoiding Sentence Level Problems
Web Extra: Finding and Fixing Surface Errors
Nerd Words
Responding to Peer Review
Multilingual Writer Resources
Calling It Quits: Knowing When to Stop
Vocab Flashcards
[qdeck random=”true”]
[q] Casual or informal term that is inappropriate in formal writing
[a] colloquialism
[q] Grammatical structure in which sentence’s actor is the object of an action rather than the instigator of it
[a] passive voice
[q] process of identifying paragraph topic sentences and compiling them to see if the sequence of ideas is effective
[a] reverse outline
[q] Journal or other publication decision returning a paper to its author for significant revision and often re-review as a precursor to acceptance for publication
[a] revise and resubmit (R&R)
[q] Questions posed by authors with no intention that the reader will respond; cheap transition device worth avoiding
[a] rhetorical question
[q] Summary value computed by models to indicate how well they explain the data; varies by model type, with OLS and variants using R2 or Adjusted R2 and MLE based models using log likelihood
[a] goodness of fit statistic
[/qdeck]
Review Quiz
[qwiz random=”true” random_mc=”true”]
[q] Select the sentence below that uses the passive voice.
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[c]IFRoZSBlZm ZlY3Qgb2YgR2VuZGVyIHdhcyBmb3VuZCB0byBiZSAzLjIlIGdyZWF0ZXIgdGhhbiB0aGUgZWZmZWN0IG9mIA==Vm90ZSBJbnRlbnRpb24=Lg==[Qq]
[c]IEl0IGlzIGNsZWFyIGZyb20gdm9uIEJpc21hcmvigJlzIGxldHRlciB0aGF0IGhlIGludGVuZGVkIHRvIG92ZXJydWxlIHRoZSBnZW5lcmFscy4=[Qq]
[q]A journal submission that is sent out for review. The editors invite the author to respond to the reviewers and edit the paper in conformance with their suggestions, then return the paper to the journal for reconsideration. This is called a(n) __________.
[c]IGVycm9ycyBhbmQgb21pc3Npb25zIHJldmlldw==[Qq]
[c]IHJldmlzZSBhbm QgcmVzdWJtaXQ=[Qq]
[c]IHByZXJlZ2lzdHJhdGlvbiByZWZlcmVlIHJlcG9ydA==[Qq]
[c]IHJldmVyc2Ugb3V0bGluZQ==
Cg==[Qq][q] A colloquialism is ____. [
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[c]IGEgc2VtaW5hci1zdHlsZSBkaXNjdXNzaW9uIG9mIGEgcGFwZXI=[Qq]
[c]IGEgcHJldGVuc2UgdXNlZCB0byBzb2xpY2l0IHJlc3BvbnNlIGZyb20gYW4gYXVkaWVuY2U=
Cg==[Qq][q] Extracting the topic sentences from paragraphs and reading them together is called a ____.
[c]IHJldmVyc2Ug b3V0bGluZQ==[Qq]
[c]IG1hY3JvIHN0cnVjdHVyYWwgcHJvYmxlbQ==[Qq]
[c]IGludmVydGVkIGV4cGxvcmF0aW9u[Qq]
[c]IE1RRCBmcmFtZXdvcms=
Cg==[Qq][q] Which of the following is a good strategy for reviewing papers when you’re not familiar with their content?
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[c]IEFzayBhbiBBSSBhcHBsaWNhdGlvbiB0byByZXZpZXcgdGhlIHBhcGVyIGluc3RlYWQu[Qq]
[c]IEZvY3VzIG9uIHRoZSB1bmRlcmx5aW5nIGNvbmNl cHRzLCBub3QgdGhlIHNwZWNpZmljIGNhc2VzLg==[Qq]
[/qwiz]