What To Do When Your Academic Writing Has Been Misunderstood

What To Do When Your Academic Writing Has Been Misunderstood

Oct 01, 2024Rene Tetzner

What To Do When Your Writing Has Been Misunderstood | Tips on How to Get Your Research Published

Authors are misunderstood and misread every day for reasons related to their text and for reasons far beyond their control. This is to say that such misunderstandings happen frequently and cannot always be resolved. If your new academic or scientific book just received a one-star review on Amazon, there is, unfortunately, very little you can do about it except try to let go of the disappointment and frustration. It represents the opinion of only one reader, after all, and there will no doubt be other and more qualified readers who will think very differently about your work. On the other hand, there are instances in which you may be able to make a difference, and in such cases it is worth doing your best to correct the problem.

A prime example is when your work has been misunderstood by an acquisitions editor or peer reviewer for a journal or press to which you have submitted your writing for publication. It is always distressing to receive a rejection from a publisher, but when it is obviously the result of your research and ideas being misunderstood, it presents special challenges. First and foremost, you must determine why your writing has not communicated what you intended. The most obvious possibility is that your writing style is failing you, and if that editor or reviewer also indicates that there are problems with your use of language, your phrasing, your grammar or anything of the kind, that will be the best place to start. If there truly are problems of this nature, however, you may not be able to detect and fix them yourself, so some help might be necessary. A colleague or mentor may be willing to read your work and give you some feedback, but when it comes to helping you correct your language and communicate more clearly, a professional proofreader or editor who specialises in your discipline will probably be the best choice.

Another possibility is that you have not presented enough evidence to render your argument convincing or that you have not explained and discussed the evidence, though adequate, in a persuasive enough manner. Again, if the editor or reviewer has provided any hints, take them seriously and ensure that you understand exactly what they mean – write and ask if you do not. You will need to decide where the weak points lie and do whatever is necessary to strengthen your evidence and the argument based upon it. Colleagues and mentors may prove particularly helpful when working to improve your evidence and your argument, and keep in mind that tables and figures can often present complex information in ways that immediately clarify what a long stream of words may confuse for some readers.

Finally, it may be that the acquisitions editor and peer reviewer do not want to understand what you are saying in your manuscript – that is, that they do indeed understand you, but are unwilling to accept your findings and your understanding of them. This can happen when an author’s research is particularly innovative and his or her interpretations of that research and its implications are groundbreaking. It is extremely frustrating to have your work rejected because it is advancing knowledge too quickly, but it happens all too frequently. You may be able to convince the editor and reviewer of the validity and value of your perspective, so if you believe this might be possible, do write and explain your thinking. However, ‘misunderstandings’ of this kind are often an indication that you need to move on to a different publisher.  

Why Our Editing and Proofreading Services?
At Proof-Reading-Service.com we offer the highest quality journal article editing, dissertation proofreading and online proofreading services via our large and extremely dedicated team of academic and scientific professionals. All of our proofreaders are native speakers of English who have earned their own postgraduate degrees, and their areas of specialisation cover such a wide range of disciplines that we are able to help our international clientele with research editing to improve and perfect all kinds of academic manuscripts for successful publication. Many of the carefully trained members of our manuscript editing and proofreading team work predominantly on articles intended for publication in scholarly journals, applying painstaking journal editing standards to ensure that the references and formatting used in each paper are in conformity with the journal’s instructions for authors and to correct any grammar, spelling, punctuation or simple typing errors. In this way, we enable our clients to report their research in the clear and accurate ways required to impress acquisitions proofreaders and achieve publication.

Our scientific proofreading services for the authors of a wide variety of scientific journal papers are especially popular, but we also offer manuscript proofreading services and have the experience and expertise to proofread and edit manuscripts in all scholarly disciplines, as well as beyond them. We have team members who specialise in medical proofreading services, and some of our experts dedicate their time exclusively to dissertation proofreading and manuscript proofreading, offering academics the opportunity to improve their use of formatting and language through the most exacting PhD thesis editing and journal article proofreading practices. Whether you are preparing a conference paper for presentation, polishing a progress report to share with colleagues, or facing the daunting task of editing and perfecting any kind of scholarly document for publication, a qualified member of our professional team can provide invaluable assistance and give you greater confidence in your written work.

If you are in the process of preparing an article for an academic or scientific journal, or planning one for the near future, you may well be interested in a new book, Guide to Journal Publication, which is available on our Tips and Advice on Publishing Research in Journals website.



更多文章