Week 2 was a bit better for me than Week 1. As part of your weekly schedule and time-keeping, Belcher suggests you create a set of tasks that you aim to complete for that week. In addition to getting through all of the workbook activities, I aimed to finish reading over the original draft of my article, to add revisions and suggestions I had made to it previously, finish marking it up for needed revisions, and complete my abstract and send it to my writing partner. I was able to complete all of these tasks and wrote for at least 15 minutes per day. Though sometimes these 15 minutes were less productive, especially when my planned morning writing plan didn’t work out and I ended up doing it at night (when I am the least productive), they still got done.

Week 3 moves us from the planning and preparation stages to getting into the nitty gritty of making a publishable article. After opening the chapter by going through the various reasons articles don’t get published, Belcher focuses the meat and activity of the chapter on one of these reasons: no argument. She then goes on to talk about what makes a good argument, how to write a good argument, and provides examples from specific disciplines (alas, History isn’t included) of what good arguments might look like. This appears to be a heavy revision and feedback week, which might be difficult for me as I’ll be traveling (!!). But, travel also means long flights and airport waits, so it might just work out.

Week 3 Tasks

• Day 1: Read through page 92 and complete the activities; begin documenting time.
• Day 2: Read pages 93-94 and draft a statement of your argument, discuss it with several people, and revise based on those discussions.
• Day 3: Read pages 94-96 and review your article, paying particular attention to when you argument disappears and where your argument should appear.
• Day 4: Read page 96 and revise your article around your argument
• Day 5: Continue revising your article around your argument.

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For all posts related to this project: Week 0 (Introduction), Week 1 (The writing plan), Week 2 (Getting started), Week 4 (Choosing a journal), Week 5 (Literature review), Week 6 (Article structure), Week 7 (Evidence), Week 8 (Strengthening the intro and conclusion), Week 9 (Giving and receiving feedback), Week 10 (Editing), Week 11 (Finalizing the article), Week 12 (Send!)