Never give up. Today is hard. Tomorrow will be worse. But the day after tomorrow will be sunshine. -Jack Ma
It is always hard to pen down your thoughts in an organised manner and fall in tandem with the rules stipulated by various journals and publications only to receive emails that shower you with affectionate rejections a few weeks later. In the world of academia, it is a given that you will have to struggle substantially if you wish to see your name printed on an article that you laboriously worked on. But then comes with it, a barrage of often constructive feedback that doesn't hate your writing but doesn't love it either. After having crossed 2 years of research and countless rejection emails, I write this today as a means to appease my impatient mind.
When I first started working in the education sector, I did not know that five years down the line, I will be revisiting all those teaching strategies through the lens of a researcher. If I had known, perhaps I would have groomed myself to be a better subject of this control group (obliviously, of course, but then it's a pathetic paradox). But all I did was fail shabbily in my attempts of being a decent teacher. There were some good days and a lot of bad days where I had no clue what I was doing wrong. I carried that trial and error method with me, half-heartedly knowing that I can be better and full-heartedly knowing that I did not know how to do that. With research now, I feel the same.
Of course, scholars are expected to rise up like a phoenix after every rejection and of course, they are asked to keep at it no matter what the outcome. Every rejection email, however, is a reminder, not a shocking one per se, that I need to work harder to make my mark in this uncertain world of words and knowledge. And the same emails are a reminder of how little I actually know HOW to write a good research article. Why is it that scholars these days are expected to come up with exemplar international level publications in their student life when their senior counterparts have achieved that only later in their academic or teaching tenure? Surely it is setting higher benchmarks and standards for research-based education but is that expected standard commensurate with the technical know-how of writing a paper. I have attended various academic writing workshops in these two years of my research but none guided me with the art (not skill) of curating your ideas in a structured manner let alone how to think in abstract research terms.
I believe that even something as simple (on paper) as developing a title or choosing a tool or an epistemological ground for your distinctive thought must be taught with utmost care extended towards your unique thought process. In this regard, mentoring should be taken seriously. I learnt from the mistakes I made while developing my articles and presentations. And I decided to communicate those do's and don't's with my students who now sail in the same boat as me, battling deadlines and academic expectations. Is mentoring difficult? Absolutely. Can it still be done fairly well? Sure! Can it be translated to research writing mentoring? Yes! Is it feasible? I believe so! So, how can we handle this concern differently?
Step #1: Be a good role model. How about having scholars start off their research career by accompanying their mentors/guides for a publication or two where they observe and learn the art of academic writing? It serves dual purpose. It builds some foundational academic credibility for the amateur authors to hone further; They now know what goes into creating something exemplar and will have a strong example to refer to.
Step #2: Encourage writing perspectives, reviews, and opinion pieces instead of delving straight into rigorously scientific papers. As of today, opinion pieces or perspectives have no research value. There are plenty of scholars out there who chose a topic because they were asked to choose one and not because they wanted to do it. Having this option will allow them to explore the topics and find something they can work with. If nothing else, this will provide an opportunity for them to express and give some semblance of order with respect to their ideas.
Step #3: Make research and inquiry a critical skill to develop regardless of the academic path you choose. Introduce academic writing as a course at all levels of learning. But here, they are trained step-by-step to develop a research article with each day or week focussed on a specific research milestone. For example: Week 1: Read and find a topic that you'd like to work on. Week 2: Give shape to your title and identify variables you'd like to work with. Week 3: Develop your conceptual/theoretical framework; how do variables interact with each other, give it structure...Week 15: Collect data, understanding ethics and consent...Week 20: Analysing your data, learning descriptive and predictive analysis...Week 24: Organising results, choosing significant results...Week 30: Writing discussion chapter, collating your literature with findings. And so on...The key factor is guidance. Having someone as your buddy or coach or mentor (plenty of synonyms!) can not only motivate you in creating something useful but also allow you to come up with a solid article with confidence and the technical understanding of writing one.
It is a personal belief that the right kind of support and research-oriented guidance shall go a long way in paving path for a community of scholars (like me) who are passionate about building their academic career but are lost in this vast ocean of scientific expectations. I hope that all of you who are reading this, no matter where you are on your research journey, know that you are not alone and you will be fine. Till then, continue rising like a phoenix.
