Blog Archives

Networking Thursdays - Volume 41

11/23/2017

This week I am adding a post from Seville, Spain.

The topics for this week's post are taking chances, performing well, and patience. Last week I hoped that someone in my network would have a contact teaching here in Seville. I saw several people reach out to their networks to try and help (Thank you for trying!) but I wasn't able to make any professional connections here outside of some people in the local craft beer industry.

Even though I didn't get any good news about giving a workshop here I did get a message from a friend in Istanbul while I was waiting to board my train in Madrid. If you remember from Volume 4, I bought a cheap ticket to Istanbul and someone in my network connected me to a professor there. I spoke to her students and also gave a talk at another university through one of her friends.

In the message she invited me to come back to Istanbul to give a talk next March. I really enjoyed my visit to Turkey last year and was happy that the new relationship led to me writing an article for the IATEFL blog.

Taking a chance paid off when Anne introduced me to Aysegul, then it was up to me to deliver a strong session and make a good first impression. I hoped that I would be invited back and even though it took a year, I'm happy that my new friends thought of me and extended the invitation.

1 Comment

Networking Thursdays - Volume 40

11/16/2017

0 Comments

This week I'm back again excited to share the 40th Networking Thursdays post.

I'm flying back to Spain tomorrow. I'm going back because someone I met on my first trip there in March invited me to give a talk on the Korean education system at a conference in Toledo. They even have a budget to cover some of my expenses.

Before that I will give a talk on presentation skills at a university in Granada. This was set up by my friend, Fernando, who I met for the first time in March through a former coworker at KAIST. Thanks again, Xaq!

On my way to Granada I will stop in Seville for a few days. I don't know anyone in Seville (yet) but I plan to post on Facebook and ask if any of my friends have contacts there. Stay tuned to find out if I get introduced to any educators in Seville.

0 Comments

Tips for Scientific Writing

11/12/2017

0 Comments

Last Thursday I ran a one-day workshop for researchers in the nuclear industry. I thought it would be useful to share some of the key takeaways from the workshop here in case my readers are looking for ways to increase their acceptance rate in journals or need to teach something similar. I drew from my experience as a teacher of a graduate-level scientific writing course at KAIST, volunteering as an assistant editor for various academic journals, and working as a freelance editor and proofreader to create the workshop contents.

1. Learn what you can copy. Plagiarism is serious and can scare new researchers but learning how to copy journal articles' format and common phrases with the technical vocabulary you need to use is not only okay, it is recommended. You can learn so much from successfully-published articles beyond the content. Look at how they were written and create a database of phrases and formats in your mind.

2. Follow directions. Read the submission guidelines carefully and don't give the editorial board a reason to reject your paper without even reading it carefully. Also, follow the suggestions that the editors give you if your paper receives conditional acceptance.

3. Choose your target publication before you start writing your paper. This will allow you to write for a specific audience and write with a basic template in mind. Not all journals follow the same format. You can save yourself a lot of revision work later by writing to match your target journal's expectations from the beginning.

4. Put the Wow before the How. English is top-loaded so we want you to share your most important outcomes first. We also expect to see what you accomplished in the abstract. Don't expect readers (and editors) to read your paper from front to back. Hook us with the good stuff and make us curious about how you did it.

5. Self edit for common grammatical issues such as plurals and subject/verb agreement. If you make your proofreader guess what you meant, we might guess wrong and that could affect how the editor views your paper.

6. Think like a target reader. Ask yourself if your paper is complete and your findings, rationale, processes, and outcomes are clear. If you can find a colleague to read your paper and provide feedback, that would be even better.

7. Finally, if you are writing in your second language, you can outline and organize your paper in your first language but don't try to write your paper in your first language and try to translate it yourself (or expect Google to do it). This only works if you hire a professional translator who is strong in both languages and knows your field. That can be hard to find and very expensive. Instead, write your first draft in your second language using easy words and sentences. That way, a proofreader will be able to understand your paper better and help you build it up to sound more academic and formal.

The workshop took six hours so we covered a lot more than this but heeding these tips can go a long way toward helping researchers get their papers published quicker and with a higher success rate.

0 Comments

Networking Thursdays - Volume 41

Networking Thursdays - Volume 40

Tips for Scientific Writing

Tim's Thoughts

Categories

Archives