Week 4, selecting the journal you want to publish in, was a very helpful week. Like Week 3, which forced me to make sure my entire paper revolved around my argument, Week 4 was very helpful for getting me to think about the purpose of my article. I got a little off track with my writing practice, and was only able to write 15 minutes a day four out of the seven days (Can I count writing this blog post as one day of writing?? If so, five out of seven, which sounds better…I’ll go with that).

Week 5 brings us back to the article and focuses on the scholarly literature the article engages with. While I’ll be following the course set by Belcher more closely, my writing partner is going to use the week to check out some articles he’s been wanting to read. This is one thing I’ve enjoyed about the book – you can follow it as closely or as loosely as you like, depending on your needs and the needs of your article.

Anyway, back to Week 5. The chapter starts out by getting you to really think about the type of literature you might incorporate – or need to incorporate – in your paper, and continues by discussing strategies for reading said literature. Belcher then addresses how to identify your relationship to the existing literature and how to avoid plagiarism. The rest of the chapter, and the tasks for the week, revolve around writing thorough and efficient literature reviews.

Week 5 tasks:

• Day 1: Read through page 163 and do the activities on those pages. Start documenting your time.
• Day 2: Read pages 163-164 and evaluate the citations currently in your article.
• Day 3: Read pages 164-167 and identify and read the literature related to your article.
• Day 4: Read pages 167-168 and evaluate the related literature from Day 3.
• Day 5: Read page 168 and write and/or revise your literature review.

I’m looking forward to a week of reading and writing. What are you looking forward to this week?

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For all posts related to this project: Week 0 (Introduction), Week 1 (The writing plan), Week 2 (Getting started), Week 3 (Arguments), Week 4 (Choosing a journal), 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!)