The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing (The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series)

T he sign of a good book, whether it is a book of poetry, a novella, or an academic text, is that it draws readers in and causes them to refl ect on their own experiences. This book, edited by Tonette Rocco and Tim Hatcher, had this effect on me. I thought about my own scholarly writing approach, my publications in academic journals, the reasons that I have embraced writing, the scholarly voice I write in, my collaborations, and my mentoring of students as writers. These are a few of the diverse topics that you will encounter in the twenty -one chapters of this book . These chapters fold into four well -organized parts: becoming a published scholar, improving writing techniques, preparing scholarly manuscripts, and refl ecting on the writing and publishing process. Topics such as these are seldom discussed in the research literature; putting them together in one book provides an original contribution to the entire process of scholarly writing. In addition, we readers are treated to an array of discipline perspectives by chapter authors coming from such diverse fi elds as management, research methods, special education, higher education, educational administration, adult education, communication, curriculum and instruction, and comparative education. So often we expect faculty, students, and practitioners to know how to engage in scholarly writing. But that is not a given. Academics need a skill set for understanding the scholarly writing process just as they do to become good teachers.

I cannot explore here all of the topics raised in this book, but I applaud the advice to consider the skill of academic writing as more than grammar xii Foreword and punctuation. It also involves giving and receiving meaningful constructive criticism, fi nding time to write, and overcoming writer ' s block and voice issues. Audience is also important, as I learned during my undergraduate years when one of my professors told me that I needed help learning to write. My parents hired a tutor to work with me. Through many arduous sessions, I learned to write for others rather than for myself.

I appreciated in this book reference to the reality of writing: that scholarly writing emerges from rough beginnings and then smoothes out through revising and editing. I often bring to my research methods classes initial drafts of my books or articles and compare them with the fi nal version. This approach is what the chapter authors underscore: that research is a process that unfolds over time.

Advice is