7/25/2019 Demistifying the Publishing Process R. L. Fielding
1/2
Demystifying the publishing process: A talk by Dr. Salah
Troudi
(University of Exeter)13.3.05 Al Mataqa Bldg.R. L. Fielding
English Department
Returning to UGRU after four years, Dr. Salah Troudi gave an
interesting andinformative talk about getting published in the
academic world: in newsletter,
proceedings of conferences, academic journals (refereed and
otherwise) and in books and
online databases.
Citing the various reasons why people write - personal
satisfaction - professionaldevelopment, Dr. Troudi went on to
recount how he first started to think about getting his
writing published. He recalled the thrill of having something
accepted and the admission
that, "I didn't want to work that day" - so great was his
excitement at this initial success.Personal satisfaction is the
great mover, in a positive sense, while the dictates of the
academic world is another, but not necessarily a positive
one.
Questions were put to the speaker, and there was a general
agreement that there is a greatdeal of difference between having to
write articles and wanting to write them without
being forced to. The professional spirit has to be accompanied
by the creative one, it
seems - hence personal satisfaction and professional development
do not always go handin hand, though when they do, the results are
inevitably superior.
Moving on from the reasons for writing and being published to a
detailed explanation ofwhat to write about, Dr. Troudi gave every
would-be-writer encouragement by making
the observation that the world of ELT is bristling with possible
topics for discussion.
Staying away from writing exclusively about theoretical issues
in English language
teaching, Dr. Troudi instead urged us that potential topics
could be found in almost anyarea of our daily working lives, in the
classroom as well as out of it.
Talking about where to publish, Dr. Troudi stated that very few
written articles originatefrom the Gulf region, and hoped that we
might be able to redress this. Being patient with
publishers was stressed as well as not making fundamental errors
such as submitting an
article to one publisher whilst it is being considered by
another, this being ethicallyreprehensible and actually illegal,
depending upon the length to which a publisher has
gone when this occurs.
Of course, the difficulty of getting an article accepted will
vary from journal to journal,
and Dr. Troudi advised writers to become acquainted with the
language, content, lengthand jargon of the many genres of
publication offered in the field of English Language
Teaching pedagogy. Targeting a journal is the way to do this;
reading back copies andstudying what is likely to be included in
the journal's pages as well as what is not.
Making your writing appeal to the widest possible audience while
still directing it at aparticular pedagogically related issue seems
to pay off, in terms of getting one's words
into print.
