Getting Published in
Grad School by Anthony Garcia
With the job market looking bleak for recent graduates in
the current economy, it is important for students to make themselves as
competitive as possible. This is true for students from traditional
undergraduate programs in English and related fields to online graduate programs, and
everything in between. Publishing gives students something beyond their
coursework to show for their time in school, and looks impressive to both
educational and office-oriented employers.
If you are in academia, publishing may also be your best
chance to distinguish yourself. Most tenure requirements for assistant
professors place heavy emphasis on publishing, but graduate students are more
often expected to publish in order to get ahead, and sometimes even just to be
considered. This trend may seem discouraging to students who really want to
focus on their studies, but there are many ways to start publishing while still
in school.
Something needs to be written in order to publish, so that
would seem like the logical first step. However, if you do not have something
already written, it will be helpful to do your homework before drafting your
piece. To make your
writing have the most impact, put your energy into the type of work that's
tailored to your field. For example, scholarly journal articles may be the
premium in your area of study, or may be it's short stories. Next scope out
each publication venue that looks like it might fit your interests, and
consider what types of topics are discussed, and which issues are best for the
audiences in your given area of study.
Once you have found a few possible venues to tailor your
writing to, you can begin. If you are having writer’s block, it is helpful to
have your peers give feedback during the brainstorming process. When you
dialogue with someone about your writing, it can really help get the creative
method started, and help you save draft time. Many graduate students feel
advanced, but it can be easy to forget basic writing tools, such as the
importance for outlining. Graduate students and even professors still benefit
from the outline, just as a basic writer would. This tip is especially
important when the material is dense, or you are working with the jargon-filled
prose common in the academe.
Turning conference papers into published articles is another
way to save time in the writing process, and to utilize the audience you gained
during the conference. Looking for calls for papers for different conferences
can help you get motivated to write out an idea you might have, share your work
with others and get direct feedback, and work with a shorter draft before
lengthening it for publication.
If you already have something written, you will need to make
sure that your topic is relevant in your chosen area of specialization,
especially if you plan on teaching and researching at a university level. The
less relevant and timely your work is, the less likely that it will be
recognized by scholars in your field searching for hires. If you are a
graduate-level fiction writer, make sure to scope out the best journals,
reviews and magazines for your genre. Checking out the qualifications that each
site offers before sending out your work is a useful way to write with those
guidelines in mind, and to save yourself time later on trying to figure out
where to send your work. There are many resources that
list different “homes” for writing, from children's literature to horror
fiction.
Keep writing, and keep submitting. Because publishing is so
imperative in the academe for many professional successes, getting a head start
in graduate school will show that you are a force to be reckoned with, and will
definitely help you when enter the job market.
Bio: Anthony recently completed his graduate education in English Literature. A New Mexico native, he currently resides and writes in Seattle, Washington. He writes primarily about education, travel, literature, and American culture.
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