Title: “How I Write: Geoffrey Clark.” Interview by Jack Smith. The Writer (February 2009), 58. The Writer is a magazine by writers for writers.
Summary: One piece of advice comes up almost every time I read about what writers do when they write: make that first draft quick and as complete as you can. Clark: “I always try to get first drafts down fast, and then if I’ve gotten the spark I was looking for, I’ll see it through however many drafts it needs to be fully realized.”
Comment: My experience has been that if I don’t finish a draft at one sitting for short pieces and as quickly as possible for longer pieces, I will procrastinate and it will probably never be completed or published. RayS.
10-second review: Summary of RayS’s suggested program for vocabulary development in middle school and high school.
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
Vocabulary development is important because a knowledge of words increases the range of ideas available to people, enriching their personalities; because a knowledge of words is related to IQ; because a knowledge of words is vital to skilled communication in writing and speaking; and because a knowledge of words is essential to comprehension of reading material. Words are both ideas and the sources of ideas.
Generally speaking, vocabulary development is a cumulative process. Vocabulary grows slowly, gradually increasing as a result of reading, taking the time to note the context and to look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary, checking the etymology and reducing the definition to two or three words, whether recorded on index cards or in your memory.
True, Norman Lewis’s Word Power Made Easy does provide knowledge of great numbers of words in short periods of time, words that are useful and, because of Lewis’s techniques, easily remembered. But even Lewis’s book will not take the place of consistent vocabulary growth gained through learning unfamiliar words when reading. RayS.
10-second review: Some tips on solving sentence completion vocabulary tests successfully
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
SAT’s present use of vocabulary tests: sentence completions.
Sentence Completions
The Sentence Completion Test is the only vocabulary test left on the SAT, after elimination of the antonyms and the analogies.
Here is an example of a sentence completion item from 10 Real SAT’s, p 289, Second Edition:
Trinkets intended to have only … appeal can exist virtually forever in landfills because of the … of some plastics. A. arbitrary … scarcity; B. theoretical … resilience; C. ephemeral … durability; D. obsessive … fragility; E. impetuous … cheapness.
The technique recommended by the College Board is for students mentally to fill in the blanks with words from their own vocabulary that make sense in the context of the sentence.
Then, they should read the answers looking for the first word that approximates the first word they used from their own vocabulary. Next, they should check the second word. Sometimes one of the words will be correct and the other will not. They will need to keep going until they find the answer that matches both of their words from their own vocabulary.
In the preceding example, I substituted from my vocabulary the words, “temporary” and “longevity.” The answer to this problem is “C. ephemeral … durability.” My word, “temporary,” was similar to the first word in the correct answer, C. “ephemeral”; “durability” was similar to my word, “longevity.”
Not knowing the meaning of the word “ephemeral,” of course, could make selecting the correct answer very difficult. Build your vocabulary by collecting unfamiliar words from your reading on 3” x 5” index cards, using as few words as possible as definitions for each word. Will help you remember the meaning.
Remember that the purpose for this technique for solving sentence completion items is to eliminate at lest three items, leaving the choice between two. Guessing wrong costs only ¼ point in the SAT. Guessing right gains one whole point.
Whether the test is “antonyms,” “analogies,” or “sentence completions,” these techniques will not help if students are unfamiliar with the words in the test. My three steps to vocabulary development—pre-teaching difficult words before reading assignments, studying Norman Lewis’s Word Power Made Easy, and using index cards to record unfamiliar words encountered in reading, with key words from the dictionary as definitions—practiced over several years, will go a long way toward building large, useful vocabularies for writing, speaking and reading successfully. RayS.
10-second review: Some tips on completing antonym and analogies vocabulary tests successfully
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
SAT’s previous use of vocabulary tests: antonyms, analogies, sentence completions.
Antonyms
I remember in reading the instructions for how to take the antonym test (word opposites), the makers of the test pretty much said, “You either know the word or you don’t.” You just have to remember that you are looking for the opposite, which is not the usual pattern in a vocabulary test. If your vocabulary test involves antonyms, just practice. And build up your vocabulary in the manner I have suggested: through looking up unfamiliar words before reading assignments, working with Norman Lewis’s Word Power Made Easy, and by collecting individual cards with the unfamiliar words you meet in your reading.
Analogies
The analogy is traditionally stated as follows: Topic: Discourse:: A. title: play; B. subject: digression; C. guideline: policy; D. theme: essay; E. footnote: text.
Normally, students read the analogy problem as, “Topic Is to Discourse” as “A. title is to play”; “B. subject is to digression”; “C. guideline is to policy”; “D. theme is to essay”; and “E. footnote is to text.”
The first step in attacking an analogy is to state precisely in a sentence the relationship between the two given words: “The topic is the subject of the discourse” and then follow through with the exact same statement of the relationship with the rest of the test items.
The topic is the subject of the discourse as A. the title is the subject of the play; B. the subject is the subject of a digression; C. the guideline is the subject of the policy; D. the theme is the subject of the essay; and E. the footnote is the subject of the text.
Although D. The theme is the subject of the essay is close, the more precise answer is A. The title is the subject of the play.The theme of an essay might not be the same as the topic. The topic might be automobile accidents, the theme, why do they happen?
As in this analogy, if you put the given words (Topic: Discourse) into a sentence stating their relationship, “The topic is the subject of the discourse,” you will quickly eliminate most of the choices. Usually that will bring you to two possible choices and, if you are not sure, guess. In the old SAT, you only lose ¼ of a point for each mistaken answer and you gain a whole point if you guess right. You need to practice this method for solving analogies. If you are pressed for time, try a half hour a day.
I used to take the SAT each time it was offered. My practice with analogies gave me an almost perfect score almost all of the time.
But here’s the point. I found that students had no trouble in solving the analogies using my suggested method (taken from the directions offered by the SAT in its instructions) but would miss the analogies because they did not know the words in the analogy.
Build up your vocabulary by keeping a record of unfamiliar words you encounter in your reading assignments, by working with Norman Lewis’s Word Power Made Easy and by keeping a record of unfamiliar words in your reading in all your subjects and in your leisure reading. Even if the analogies are not part of the SAT today, there is still the Miller Analogies test needed for graduate school.
10-second review: Step 3 in increasing vocabulary is to provide a method for students to collect and review unfamiliar words they encounter in their reading.
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
Personal Vocabulary Collection
Finally, I always tried to encourage students to keep a personal vocabulary collection. Not everyone was motivated to do so, and some educators disagreed with my method, but here it is—based on my experience learning to read French:
To complete my master’s degree in English, I had to pass a test in reading French because French was one language in which much literary criticism had been written. I did not have the money to spend on a course in French and I did not want to overload myself with another course, considering the number of English courses I was taking already, so I decided to teach myself to read French; I did not have to learn to speak it.
I bought a box of French vocabulary cards—thousands of them—a French grammar book and a dual translation book in which the French version of a story or article appeared on the left page and the English version on the right page. I spent one hour of my day, every day, seven days a week, for a year, doing these three activities: 15 minutes memorizing vocabulary words, 15 minutes studying the French grammar and 30 minutes working on the dual translation book, first attempting to translate the French version and then comparing my translation to the English translation on the opposite page. Of course, I used a French-English dictionary to help me with the translation.
To build my French vocabulary, I would go through the cards in the box, ten cards a day. I would look at the French word, then at its meaning in English on the opposite side of the card. I noted that the English meanings were concise, usually expressed in one, two or three words. The next day, if I knew the meaning of the word without looking on the other side of the card, I placed the card in one pile, the “known” pile. If I still had to look at the meaning on the other side, I placed the card in the “not known” pile. Each day, I would start with the “not known” pile to see if I could add any cards to the “known” pile. Gradually, as day followed day, the “known” pile began to grow larger and larger. I was learning French vocabulary.
I soon realized that the concise two- or three-word definitions in English for the French words helped me to remember their meanings.
By the end of the year, my work with French vocabulary, grammar and translation, one hour a day, had given me the ability to read French almost fluently, although I could not speak it. I had practiced only reading. When the time came to take the reading test in French, I passed it easily.
What I did with the French vocabulary is what I recommended to my students interested in developing their English vocabularies, especially when the time came to take the SAT. Three of the four tests in the Verbal Section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) consisted of vocabulary—antonyms, analogies and sentence completions. The other test was reading comprehension. I suggested that each week they read as many articles as they could in one of the major news magazines—Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report—and to underline words they did not know. These magazines were an excellent source of useful vocabulary words. It was in looking up the words in the dictionary that my method differed from the traditional approach of copying the entire definition.
I suggested that the students use 3” x 5” index cards and put one word, with pronunciation, if needed, on the blank side of the card, and the definition on the other, lined side of the card. I suggested that they write only one or two, or, at most, three key words from the dictionary definition. The purpose was to avoid the mindless copying of lengthy definitions in favor of thinking about the meanings by reducing them to key words.
Using only one index card per word made reviewing the words easy, sorting them, as I had with the French vocabulary, into a pile that consisted of known words and a pile that consisted of words still not mastered.
Several students, desperate to improve their SAT Verbal scores, tried this method for a month or more before re-taking the test. They significantly improved their scores and expressed gratitude for my suggesting the method.
When I was teaching, I had students accumulate such a card collection with the words that I pre-taught before reading assignments, to which they would add unfamiliar words encountered in their personal reading and from their reading in other subjects. The point of the collection was the reduction of lengthy dictionary definitions to just a few key words. No telling how large students’ vocabularies would grow if they conscientiously followed this plan from 5th grade through high school.
Examples of 3” x 5” index cards with the word (and definition, if necessary) on the blank side and key words from the dictionary definition on the lined side:
panache (pa năsh’)……….flashy, loud, show-off
grommet (grom’ it) ………. loop as button fastener
antic ………. laughable behavior
invidious (in vid’ e us. ………. insult
quotidian (kwōtid e en) ………. daily
apostrophize (a postrafīz) ………. speak to a personification (“O West Wind….”)
congeries (kon’ jerēz) ……… collection
farrago (fa rāy’ go) ………. disordered mixture
littoral (lit’ or al) ………. close to shore
rive (rīv) ………. split
paradigm (par’ a dīme) ………. pattern
risible (rĭz’ a bl) ………. provoking laughter
dialectic (dī a lek’ tik) ………. contradiction combined = truth
midden ………. accumulated refuse
antinomy (an tin’ a mē) ………. fundamental contradiction; unresolvable
doyen (doi’ en) ………. experienced member of a group
outré (oo tray’) ………. violates convention
hegemony (hĕ jem’ a nee) …….. control by person or group
bricolage (brik’ ō lazh) ………. Constructed of whatever is handy
The key to the effectiveness of this method is the conciseness of the definitions on the lined side of the card. Too many words in the definitions would make the word hard to remember. Lengthy definitions lead to mindless copying. One has to think about the definition in order to reduce it to one, two or three words. RayS.
10-second review: Step 2 in increasing vocabulary is to use a good vocabulary text. Continued.
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
How Norman Lewis Teaches Vocabulary.
First, Lewis gives a basic list of words, each described by the idea it represents. For example, from the first chapter, “Personality Types,” here’s Lewis’s description of an egoist:
“Me First.”
Your attitude to life is simple, direct, and aboveboard—every decision you make is based on the answer to one question: “What’s in it for me?” If your selfishness, greed, and ruthless desire for self-advancement hurt other people, that’s too bad. “This is a tough world, pal, dog eat dog, and all that, and I, for one, am not going to be left behind!”
Lewis does the same for every other word in the basic ten words.
Next, he breaks the words down into roots, prefixes or suffixes. From “egoist,” he extracts the root, ego, meaning “I” or “self.” Based on that root, he adds the words, ego (self-concept), egocentric, alter ego, and egomaniac.
By the time he has finished the basic ten words for the chapter and taught the following words related to the basic ten words, students will have learned a number of additional words, among them, the following: ambidextrous, ambidexterity, dexterous, dexterity, sinister, gauche, gaucherie, adroit, adroitness, anthropology, anthropologist, anthropological, philanthropist, philanthropy, philanthropic, gynecologist, gynecology, gynecological, monogamist, monogamy, monogamous, bigamist, bigamy, polygamist, polyandrist, misanthropist, misanthropy, misanthropic, misogyny, and asceticism.
Summary of the Advantages of Using Norman Lewis’s Word Power Made Easy.
Students enjoy the focus on ideas, the emphasis on the Greek and Latin roots, the ability to remember the words because of the roots, the brief objective tests that virtually assure learning and concentration on pronunciation of some real jaw breakers. They had fun going home and showing off their knowledge of words, sometimes embarrassing their parents who did not know that “gauche” described someone who was socially awkward or that “ambidextrous” described a person who is skilled with both hands.
Buy a copy of the book, Norman Lewis, Word Power Made Easy, from Amazon.com and try it yourself. You’ll be surprised at how many words you will learn in a very short time. And so will your students.RayS.
10-second review: Step 2 in increasing vocabulary is to use a good vocabulary text.
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
What Is the Best Vocabulary Text on the Market?
As far as a vocabulary textbook is concerned, I have never found a better one in grades 9-12 than Norman Lewis’s Word Power Made Easy. You will find it on Amazon.com along with a lot of glowing praise from people who have used it. Want to learn hundreds of words, maybe even a thousand, in an enjoyable manner? Try Word Power Made Easy. Many of the words Lewis teaches appeared regularly on the vocabulary-laden versions of the SAT. These are words that are interesting as ideas.
Lewis teaches hundreds of words by stressing the interesting ideas they represent, by relating them through etymology or word origins, and by using brief objective tests to review their meanings several times in each chapter with review tests throughout the book.
Here’s a list of chapters from the table of contents of the book:
“How to Talk about Personality Types.” Basic words: egoist, egotist, altruist, introvert, extrovert, ambivert, misanthrope, misogynist, misogamist, ascetic.
“How to Talk about Doctors.” Basic words: internist, gynecologist, obstetrician, pediatrician, dermatologist, ophthalmologist, orthopedist, cardiologist, neurologist, psychiatrist.
“How to Talk about Practitioners.” Basic words: psychologist, psychoanalyst, orthodontist, optometrist, optician, osteopath, chiropractor, podiatrist, graphologist, gerontologist.
“How to Talk about Science and Scientists.” Basic words: anthropologist, astronomer, geologist, biologist, botanist, zoologist, entomologist, philologist, semanticist, sociologist.
“How to Talk about Liars.” Basic words: notorious, consummate, incorrigible, inveterate, congenital, chronic, pathological, unconscionable, glib, egregious.
“How to Talk about Actions.” Basic words: disparaging, equivocating, titillate, adulate, proscribing, obviate, militates, maligning, condone, placate.
“How to Talk about Speech Habits.” Basic words: taciturn, laconic, inarticulate, garrulous, banal, verbose, voluble, cogent, vociferous, loquacious.
“How to Insult Your Enemies.” Basic words: martinet, sycophant, dilettante, virago, chauvinist, monomaniac, iconoclast, atheist, lecher, hypochondriac.
“How to Flatter Your Friends.” Basic words: convivial, indefatigable, ingenuous, perspicacious, magnanimous, versatile, stoical, intrepid, scintillating, urbane.
“How to Talk about Common Phenomena and Occurrences.” Basic words: penury, vicarious ephemeral, euphemisms, badinage, bovine, nostalgia, cacophonous, carnivorous, clandestine.
“How to Talk about What Goes On.” Basic words: to enervate, to castigate, to self-abnegate, to recapitulate, to vegetate, to simulate, to intimate, to alleviate, to commiserate, to vacillate.
“How to Talk about a Variety of Personal Characteristics.” Basic words: obsequious, querulous, supercilious, obstreperous, impecunious, chivalrous, innocuous, bibulous, cadaverous, dolorous.
There are a lot of interesting words in that list of chapters. And they are only the beginning. Tomorrow, I will show you how Lewis teaches them. RayS.
10-second review: Step one in increasing vocabulary is pre-teaching unfamiliar vocabulary before reading assignments in all subjects.
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
Why Is Pre-Teaching Unfamiliar Vocabulary Important? A basic component of the vocabulary program has to be pre-teaching unfamiliar vocabulary words that are crucial to the meaning of the chapter or reading assignment, not only in English class but in social studies, math, science, home economics, etc. Why?
Pre-teaching key vocabulary words before reading causes students to see words they might otherwise pass over because they do not know the meanings. A consistent program of pre-teaching vocabulary before reading in every subject would increase all students’ vocabulary significantly.
Pre-teaching the words might be done in the following manner:
1. Students read the word in context and try to guess its meaning.
2. Students look up the word in the dictionary or online. They note its etymology to see if the word’s origin helps them remember the meaning of the word. For example, “ambidextrous” consists of two roots, “ambi,” meaning “both” and “dexter,” meaning “right hand.” Since the right hand is traditionally considered the skilled hand, if people are “ambidextrous,” they are skilled with both hands. (Southpaws, please don’t take offense. There is a strong prejudice against left-handers in the English language.)
3. Using 3” X 5” index cards, students write the word and its pronunciation on the blank side and, on the lined side, they write two or three key words from the dictionary definition. Write only key words in the definition. Easier to remember.
If the word has two or more meanings, I usually suggest that students write the key words from the definition that fits the context of the word in this particular sentence. They would prepare another card if they met the word in another context with a different meaning. Don’t bother writing the sentence. Too big a drag.
Filling out word cards for pre-taught vocabulary should help students form the habit of doing the same with unfamiliar words they encounter in their independent reading and their reading in other subjects.
Next: The best vocabulary textbook on the market.RayS.
10-second review: Three useful, practical methods for teaching vocabulary in secondary schools.
Title: “Building Word Knowledge.” Raymond Stopper. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004.
Vocabulary and the SAT
For most of the years that I was a K-12 English supervisor, [1970 to 1990] the Verbal Section of the SAT consisted of three vocabulary sections and one reading comprehension section. Those three vocabulary sections—antonyms, analogies and sentence completions—made the SAT truly what it was called, an aptitude test, or, in other words, an IQ test, that had little or no relationship to students’ achievement in English courses.
Admissions people at the college level and college presidents, particularly, of the California State University System, began to realize that a high IQ or SAT Verbal Test, did not guarantee high achievement in the first year of college. For example, the US Naval Academy complained to the guidance counselors at our high school that their students had very high SAT scores, on average, but could not write. The SAT had nothing to do with writing—at that time. It consisted only of vocabulary and reading comprehension, heavy on the vocabulary, three out of the four sections on the Verbal SAT.
Students did not know that the SAT Verbal Section was not an achievement test, thinking it was similar to the Math Section, which truly did test math, and, of course, when they didn’t do well on the SAT, they blamed the English department which taught writing, grammar, speaking, and literature. The Reading Section of the Verbal SAT consisted of passages from every discipline, and, occasionally literature. History, Social Studies Science and just about every other discipline appeared in the reading passages of the Verbal SAT.
The English department was blamed for the decline in SAT scores, no matter what our English teachers did to tighten and improve the teaching of writing, grammar, speaking and literature. No wonder. The SAT was not an achievement test in English. No one would listen to me. But the President of the CaliforniaUniversity system discovered it for himself and threatened not to accept the SAT unless it became more of an achievement test.
Since people at ETS, the makers of the SAT sold their test to make money, they now began to fiddle with the SAT for fear that colleges would begin to follow California’s threatened lead. First, the SAT dropped the antonyms and, later, substituted the writing test for the analogies, leaving the sentence completion test as the only vocabulary test on the SAT. So vocabulary is no longer as significant on the SAT Verbal Test as it once was. And, since the SAT is now testing writing—a 25-minute writing sample and a usage/style objective test—the makers of the test can claim that the Verbal Test is now an English achievement test, even if the sentence completion vocabulary test and the reading comprehension test are based on vocabulary and reading passages from all disciplines.
Why Is Vocabulary Development Important?
Still, vocabulary development is an important part of the English program, not just because of the SAT, but because a knowledge of words increases the range of ideas available to people, enriching their personalities; because a knowledge of words is related to IQ; because a knowledge of words is vital to skilled communication in writing and speaking; and because a knowledge of words is essential to comprehension of reading material.
What Does a Complete Vocabulary Program Consist Of?
In my opinion, a complete vocabulary program at the secondary level involves pre-teaching difficult words before reading assignments in every discipline, using an effective vocabulary development textbook and providing a system for students to collect and practice the unfamiliar words they meet in their independent reading.
Next: Pre-Teaching Vocabulary Before Reading Assignments in All Subjects. RayS.
10-second review: Selecting and teaching words to be learned by the children.
Title: “Missing in Action: Vocabulary Instruction in Pre-K.” SB Neuman and J Dwyer. Reading Teacher (February 2009), pp. 384-392. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Summary: A key to vocabulary instruction at any level is to pre-teach unfamiliar words the students will encounter in their reading. The authors reviewed pre-K commercial texts to determine if they anticipated words children might not know in what they were about to read. “In teaching vocabulary words to be learned, did the curriculum explicitly identify words to be introduced to children prior to the instructional sequence, whether it be a story, poem or song?”
The authors found that most texts did identify words to teach. But—no rhyme or reason for selecting the words and very few imaginative techniques for pre-teaching them.
All in all, the authors concluded: “…our findings offer a rather stark portrait of vocabulary instruction in the early years.”
Some suggested techniques were teaching the words through actions; definitions; choral responses, i.e., repeating words; brainstorming words about a topic; picture cards and “manipulatives(?).” The authors suggest that “clearly, strategies that introduce children to new words and entice them to engage in meaningful contexts through semantically related activities are very much needed.” (?)
Comment: “Semantically” refers to word meanings. RayS.
10-second review: Word recognition, vocabulary and reading.
Title: “Missing in Action: Vocabulary Instruction in Pre-K.” SB Neuman and J Dwyer. Reading Teacher (February 2009), 384-392. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Summary/Quote: “Vocabulary refers to words we must know to communicate effectively: words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening (receptive vocabulary). Children use the words they hear to make sense of the words they will eventually see in print.” p. 385.
Comment: And teachers use a variety of tools, including phonics, to help children recognize (word recognition) in print the words they already know. Vocabulary refers to words they do not already know—a distinction I rarely see in articles on teaching reading. Word recognition and vocabulary are, in my mind, different. Word recognition refers to words the children already know the meaning of. Vocabulary consists of words with which the children are unfamiliar.RayS.
10-second review: Explains how vocabulary relates to reading
Title: “Missing in Action: Vocabulary Instruction in Pre-K.” SB Neuman and J Dwyer. Reading Teacher (February 2009), 384-392. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Summary/Quote: “The most plausible explanation for vocabulary’s connection to better reading ability is that vocabulary is more than words. It is knowledge. To know a word’s meaning is to know what a word represents and to begin to understand the network of concepts that goes with it.” p. 384.
Comment: The more you know (knowledge), the better you read. “Prior knowledge” is a significant contributor to reading comprehension.RayS.
10-second review: Facts about developing pre-school vocabulary that I sure did not know.
Title: “Missing in Action: Vocabulary Instruction in Pre-K.” SB Neuman and J Dwyer. Reading Teacher (February 2009), 384-392. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Summary/Quote: “Talk may be cheap, but it’s priceless for developing young minds. Research confirms the importance of language interaction and its profound influence on vocabulary development and reading proficiency.” p. 384.
“In Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of young American Children, Hart and Risley’s (1995) landmark study of early language development, children who scored highest in reading and math at age 10 were reported to have heard 45 million words from birth to age 3 or about 30,000 words per day, compared with those children who scored lowest, at 13 million words.” p. 384.
“Trends in the amount of talk—the actual trajectory of vocabulary growth—and the styles of interaction were well established at 3 years old, only a harbinger of greater gaps to come.” p. 384.
“It’s not only the quantity but the quality of talk that plays such an important role in children’s lives and future possibilities.” p. 384.
Comment: Those statistics certainly jump out at me. How did the researchers learn those statistics? They should make parents of young children sit up and think. RayS.
10-second review: Tips on publishing in professional education journals. To query or not to query; peer reviews; payment.
Title: “How to Start Writing for Publication.” RayS. Teaching English, How To…. 2004. Xlibris. pp. 273-278.
To Query or Not to Query Most articles about writing for publication will suggest that you send query letters, but not the complete manuscript, asking the editor if he or she would be interested in an article like the one you are writing. [In writing a query letter, address it to a specific editor. You can find that information in the magazine’s instructions for publishing. A query letter should include your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.]
In your first paragraph give the title of your article and the reason for writing. Second paragraph should contain a short summary of the article. Don’t make it a “tease.” State exactly the main idea of your article. Your third paragraph should give your credentials, prior publishing history, professional memberships. Conclude by thanking the editor. Request a prompt reply. Try to keep to a single page. A query letter is not much different from the cover letter that accompanied my article on involving the public in reading and writing, but is sent without the complete article.
A Note of Warning. Submitting only an idea for consideration to a commercial publisher can lead to your idea’s being stolen. For example, “Would you be interested in a book that shows how to connect grammar and writing through sentence combining?” An unscrupulous publisher can reject your idea and then assign it to someone else within the publisher’s organization. Ideas cannot be copyrighted. Only works can be copyrighted. Be sure your idea is being or has been already incorporated in an article or book.
NOTE: Most publications in education will require the complete manuscript. You should read in the journal itself, or on its Web site, individual requirements for submitting articles for publication.
Peer Reviews Many professional journals are “peer reviewed,” meaning that copies of your manuscript will be sent to two or more professionals who have expertise or special interest in the topic about which you wrote. These professionals could be primary or secondary teachers, depending on the level at which your article is aimed, or professional educators in colleges and universities.
The judgments of the peer reviewers will be most influential in the editor’s decision to publish or not to publish. However, in the case of my first published article, although the reviewers were less than enthusiastic about the article, the editor suggested some revisions and promised to consider it again if I resubmitted. I made changes because of the reviewers’ criticisms and followed the editor’s advice, resubmitted, and she decided to publish.
Sources of Topics for Publication If you wish to write more substantive articles, beyond those on successful teaching techniques, you should consult the journals for “Calls for Manuscripts.” For example, a recent English Journal called for manuscripts on the following topics: “Talking Literature,” on discussing literature; “Being and Becoming a Teacher”; and “Popular Culture.”
Beginning Your Full-Length Article Most full-length articles will require background information summarizing other articles that have been written on the topic. In writing your article, you need to lay the groundwork. In effect you are saying, “Here’s what has been written about the topic up to this point, and here is how my idea improves, modifies or extends what we know about the topic.” To find previous articles on the topic, consult ERIC at http://reading.indiana.edu/ where you will find summaries of articles published in the past and be able to purchase copies of those articles. You will also find access to those articles in your college libraries.
Payment Professional publications usually do not pay for publication. They often send the writer three to five copies of the publication in which the writer’s article appears.
Summary Writing for publication will help teachers empathize with their students. Teachers who write for publication will not only contribute to the growth of their profession, but will engage directly in the writing process and will be better able to share the experience as they both learn to write. I continue to learn to write throughout my career. In the case of my first publication, I learned how to work with people who review my writing. I also learned from my second experience in publishing that the writing process changes to meet changing circumstances. Students will appreciate knowing that their teachers are also learning to write. RayS.
10-second review: Tips on publishing in professional education journals. Submitting your manuscript.
Title: “How to Start Writing for Publication.” RayS. Teaching English, How To…. 2004. Xlibris. pp. 273-278.
Submitting Your Manuscript In submitting the article to the journal for publication, always double space; include the required number of copies; and, unless told to do otherwise in the instructions for submission, send along a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the return of your manuscript. And, just in case, be sure to keep a copy for yourself in your files and on a CD, DVD or Zip disc.
Caution: You should not submit a manuscript to two or more journals at the same time, a practice that is considered to be unethical. Submit the article to a different journal only after you have received a rejection notice.
Your cover letter should include the following:
Title of your article. Purpose of the article. A one- or two-sentence summary of the article. Your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. Your position and school affiliation. Past publications, if any.
Your cover letter should never be more than one page in length.
Here is the cover letter that I submitted for my article, “Reverse the Image: Involve the Public in Reading and Writing,” that was published in the English Journal in October 1982.
Title of Article: “Reverse the Image: Involve the Public in Reading and Writing”
Purpose of Article: Written in response to “Call for Manuscripts” concerning the “basics in English.” The specific purpose of this article is to respond to the question, “How do we talk to a public convinced it’s about time to get back to the basics?”
Summary of Article: To reverse the negative image of public education projected by the media and to help parents understand the limited function of the “basics” in the processes of reading and writing, I involve the public in actual reading and writing activities. I describe two of these activities that I have used successfully.
Author Information: Name, position, school district, address, date of submission, phone and e-mail address.
This article has not been published elsewhere and has not been sent for consideration to any other publication.
Previous Publications: “Observations of an Instructional Consultant,” in Robert J. McCarthy, The Ungraded Middle School (West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Company, Inc.,1972), pp. 213-215.
“Increasing Elementary Teachers’ Reading of Professional Journals: An Inservice Program,” The Reading Teacher, 35 (January, 1982), pp. 390-394.
Next blog: Whether to query or not; peer review; sources of topics for publication. RayS.
10-second review: Tips on publishing in professional education journals. Read the journal in which you intend to publish. Writing about teaching techniques.
Title: “How to Start Writing for Publication.” RayS. Teaching English, How To…. 2004. Xlibris. pp. 273-278.
Getting Ready You have to read professional journals if you are going to submit articles for publication in them. Begin by typing “professional education journals” into the Google search engine. The amount of information you will find—links to journals, sample copies, full on-line articles, etc.—will amaze you. Recently, I typed “English education journals” into Google and was returned 57,500,000 hits in a matter of seconds.
Guide for Organizing an Article on Teaching Techniques A good way to begin writing professionally is by describing teaching techniques that have worked for you. Publications like The Reading Teacher and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy publish articles on teacher’ successful practices. The Journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College even has a section entitled “What Works for Me.” The NCTE publishes a quarterly called Classroom Notes Plus, which consists of teaching techniques used successfully by secondary teachers.
You should read a sample copy of the journal to learn the format and the requirements for publishing in each journal, together with instructions for submission, including to whom to send the manuscript. Most of that information is also available on the Web sites of professional journals.
In describing your teaching technique, give the purpose for the activity, the materials needed, steps in completing the activity, problems to watch out for, and results of the activity—how you know it is successful. When published, articles on teaching techniques are usually short and grouped with techniques described by other teachers.
Some publications require that you begin by summarizing important ideas on your topic that have already been published. If so, begin with Eric at http://reading.indiana.edu/.
10-second review: The writing process produces some strange situations. Where was page 14?
Title: “A Second Experience in Publishing: The Vagaries of the Writing Process.” RayS. Teaching English, How To…. Xlibris. 2004. pp. 272-273.
My second experience in publishing showed me that I still had a lot to learn about the writing process.
Angered by the persistent criticism in the nation’s media of public school teachers and the public schools, I decided to write an article for the English Journal called, “Reverse the Image: Involve the Public in Reading and Writing.” I had learned that when I demonstrated how our teachers taught reading and writing, and involved the audience in actual reading and writing activities, they expressed respect for the efforts of our hard-working public school teachers, who, in my experience, were doing an excellent job of teaching their students to read and to write. I decided to put my experiences in writing.
I remember coming home on a cold, rainy spring evening after an exhausting day at school. My wife greeted me with, “You had a call from Arizona. The editor of the English Journal wants to publish your article.” I was elated. “However,” she said, “you must have left out a page. He wanted to know where page 14 was. And he wants you to send it right away.”
The Mysterious writing Process: Where Is Page 14? I was puzzled. To my knowledge, I had not left out a page. I immediately found a copy of what I had sent the editor. I had typed it on one of the first Commodore computers. As I turned the pages, I soon realized that I had made a mistake in putting in the page numbers, which were not automatically numbered as they are today in most word processors. Somehow, I had skipped from page 13 to page 15 when numbering the pages. Still, since the article was complete, a missing page number should not have made a difference. The page numbers were simply wrong. But then, I began to read carefully. Sure enough, between pages 13 and 15 was a gap, a significant gap, a missing transition that I simply had not realized I needed.
What followed was difficult. I had to write that transition between the two topics on pages 13 and 15, and I had to make it exactly one page long—page 14. Somehow I succeeded, sent the “missing” page and the article was published in the English Journal of October 1982.
The writing process is a mysterious process. I had unintentionally left out material, but in putting in page numbers had not numbered the pages correctly. The page number I had left out proved to be the very place where important transitional information was missing from the manuscript. An interesting experience in professional writing—and in the process of writing.
If my readers have had some unusual experiences in writing, send them to me and I will publish them.RayS.
10-second review: The author studied who contributes to professional journals in English education—classroom teachers, university researchers, etc.
Title: “NCTE Journals and the Teacher-Author: Who and What Gets Published.” A Whitney, Coeditor. English Education (January 2009), 101-113. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Summary: By about 2 to 1, the articles published in the elementary school level publication of the NCTE, Language Arts, are by college or university faculty over classroom teachers. The number of classroom teacher authors increases steadily in the middle school publication, Voices from the Middle, until, in the high school publication (English Journal), the number of classroom teachers and college and university authors is about the same.
Comment: I thought this might be a good time to tell the story of my first publication. I find the story amusing today (2009), but I did not feel that way at the time I submitted the article for publication in 1981. I included this story of my first attempt at publishing in my book, Teaching English, How To…. 2004, Xlibris.
My First Attempt at Publishing
The Topic of My Article: Reading Professional journals Quickly and Efficiently The topic of my first published article was how to find time in a busy schedule to read professional journals. Professional journals are a most valuable source of useful ideas and teaching techniques. They shed light on important issues in teaching English. However, as a teacher, I had little time for such reading, so I experimented and found a method that helped me gain the most from the limited time I could allow for reading professional materials. I learned early in my career that many professional articles were not worth my time, so I developed a method for sampling that helped me find quickly the main points of each article and just enough of the supporting details to answer my questions.
First, I would read the title, sub-title, the first paragraph and the last paragraph of the article. Usually, this brief minute or two of reading was enough to tell me whether the article was worth reading in more detail. If I had no more interest in the article, I would jot a brief summary at the beginning of the article to help me remember its essential idea and would move on to the next article.
However, if I wanted to know more, or if I had questions to which I wanted answers about the ideas in the article, I would read the first sentence of each intermediate paragraph between the first and last paragraphs. Again, this sampling of the first sentences of paragraphs did not take long, but it often gave me the details that I needed to answer my questions. If I still had questions, I would read the entire article. That did not happen often, maybe one article a journal, but frequently my sampling was enough to give me the main ideas and supporting details of almost every article in the journal. In fifteen minutes’ reading I would gather any number of valuable ideas.
Having tried successfully this technique of reading professional journals with teachers in my school district, I decided to write an article on the technique and to submit it to The Reading Teacher, a journal for reading specialists and elementary classroom teachers.
A Judgmental Review of My Article: Not Very Helpful I worked hard on the article, never having tried to write for professional journals before. When I finished what I thought was a really good article, I brought it downstairs for my wife, an elementary teacher, to read—a mistake. She was on the couch reading the newspaper. I asked her to interrupt what she was doing to read my article; then I sat on the stairs, waiting for her to tell me what a brilliant piece of work I had produced.
Instead, she showed every evidence of being bored. She started to read. Then she leafed through the pages to see how long it was. She shifted her position, put the article down, picked it up again, then obviously began skimming in order to finish in a hurry. I grew tense. I grew angry.
Finally, she held out the article to return it to me. “I’m not very smart,” she said. “I think this is written for people who are smarter than I am.”
“But it’s written for people just like you,” I blurted. “It’s written for elementary teachers.”
She shrugged and I exploded.
“All right,” I said, stomping back up stairs. “I’m sending this in, and you’ll see!”
It was I who would “see.” The article came back with whole chunks of text eliminated by the peer reviewers. In addition, one peer reviewer said, “Everyone knows this. Not recommended for publication.” However, the editor said that if I were to find information on how much professional reading teachers did and other articles on encouraging professional reading to which I could relate my idea, she would consider publishing it if I resubmitted.
I should have known to provide background information before launching into my idea. After all, I’d read a great number of professional articles and that practice is standard.
I had to go to my wife and admit, “You were right.”
“I need your help,” I said. “I need you to review what I write. But we’ve go to change the way we do it. The minute you started to make negative judgments about my article, I hit the ceiling. Even telling me it was great wouldn’t have helped me to improve it.”
How Readers Can Help in Revising We finally agreed that she would read my articles, that she would make no judgments, negative or positive, but would ask questions any time something I wrote was not clear. It worked perfectly. Her questions were non-judgmental, simply asking what I meant when I said such and such. I clarified ideas that she asked about, included background information on teachers’ professional reading, and resubmitted the article, which was accepted and appeared as the lead article in The Reading Teacher for January of 1982.
In my next blog, I will tell you about my experience with the mysterious workings of the writing process. In the following blogs, I will give you some tips on how to publish in professional journals. RayS.
10-second review: I don’t like jargon. So when I see a piece of pompous prose in one of my professional journals, I usually collect it as an example of obfuscation, the usual result of jargon. Here’s an example. Can you rewrite it to make it clear?
Title: “NCTE Journals and the Teacher-Author: Who and What Gets Published.” A Whitney, Coeditor. English Education (January 2009), 101-113. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Can you improve this sentence?
"I think this information can help us not only to know ourselves and our profession better but also, more importantly, to consider how we instantiate in our publications the priorities and problems of our field, how we invite teachers to make their work public, and how the different kinds of participants in language arts scholarship—classroom teacher, university researchers, and others—are variously situated within our literature." p. 102.
Comment: My first thought is, “No wonder teachers don’t read professional literature.” Who wants to read language like that? My second thought is, “Can I translate this pile of verbiage into plain English?” The context of the sentence is a worthwhile study of the grade levels of teachers who contribute to our professional journals.
Let me see if I can untangle this sentence:
"This information can help us know ourselves and our profession, gives examples of the important ideas and problems in our publications, encourages teachers to publish and reveals the contributors—classroom teachers, university researchers, and others—to our professional literature."
The original sentence was 67 words. I’ve reduced it by 28 words to 39. I have to confess that I’m guessing at the meaning of the words, “to consider how we instantiate in our publications the priorities and problems of our field.” Try as I might I was unable to understand what the author meant by that phrase.
I will continue to fight my puny little war against jargon in every pompous profession. Language does not have to be like that. It can express ideas clearly and sometimes memorably. RayS.
10-second review: Types of vocabulary learned by young children and their relationship to reading.
Title: “Missing in Action: Vocabulary Instruction in Pre-K.” SB Neuman and J Dwyer. Reading Teacher (February 2009), 384-392. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Summary/Quote: “Vocabulary refers to words we must know to communicate effectively: words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening (receptive vocabulary). Children use the words they hear to make sense of the words they will eventually see in print.” p. 385.
Comment: And teachers use a variety of tools, including phonics, to help children recognize (word recognition) the words they already know in print. Vocabulary refers to words they do not already know—a distinction I rarely see in articles on teaching reading. Word recognition and vocabulary are, in my mind, different. Word recognition refers to words the children already know the meaning of. Vocabulary consists of words with which the children are unfamiliar. Those words have to be explained.RayS.
10-second review: Explains how vocabulary relates to reading
Title: “Missing in Action: Vocabulary Instruction in Pre-K.” SB Neuman and J Dwyer. Reading Teacher (February 2009), 384-392. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Summary/Quote: “The most plausible explanation for vocabulary’s connection to better reading ability is that vocabulary is more than words. It is knowledge. To know a word’s meaning is to know what a word represents and to begin to understand the network of concepts that goes with it.” p. 384.
Comment: The more you know (knowledge), the better you read. “Prior knowledge” is a significant contributor to reading comprehension. RayS.
10-second review: Facts about developing pre-school vocabulary that I sure did not know.
Title: “Missing in Action: Vocabulary Instruction in Pre-K.” SB Neuman and J Dwyer. Reading Teacher (February 2009), 384-392. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).
Summary/Quote: “Talk may be cheap, but it’s priceless for developing young minds. Research confirms the importance of language interaction and its profound influence on vocabulary development and reading proficiency.” p. 384.
“In Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of young American Children, Hart and Risley’s (1995) landmark study of early language development, children who scored highest in reading and math at age 10 were reported to have heard 45 million words from birth to age 3 or about 30,000 words per day, compared with those children who scored lowest, at 13 million words.” p. 384.
“Trends in the amount of talk—the actual trajectory of vocabulary growth—and the styles of interaction were well established at 3 years old, only a harbinger of greater gaps to come.” p. 384.
“It’s not only the quantity but the quality of talk that plays such an important role in children’s lives and future possibilities.” p. 384.
Comment: Those statistics certainly jump out at me. How did the researchers learn those statistics? They should make parents of young children sit up and think. RayS.
