Comments on: can i ask a scatterbrain?

By: laurabethnielsen

laurabethnielsen — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:28:25 +0000

Oh belle — please email me in real life — we can do this — I edited this journal for 6 years. not the review essay part, but comeon — send me the draft — and also — if there is one truth in the entire law and society world — no joking — one truth — it is that howie erlanger is the nicest person in the world (with mary rose tied). He will help you through it. he wants you to suceed.

By: socfreak

socfreak — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:47:04 +0000

speaking about writing, I have another question for scatterbrain (maybe it can be posted some other week). Grad students often turn in the first draft of their papers, and only when they start trying to publish do they figure out how much revising goes into a published article. So, the question is, in practice, what strategies do you all use for revising that have worked? I know that there is lots of books out there about writing and revising, but I’d be curious about what you do in practice.

By: tina

tina — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:47:32 +0000

Oops, I didn’t mean to skip you, Jessica. I guess I was writing at the same time as you.

By: tina

tina — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:24:23 +0000

Jeremy is right. Read up, and you will find the formula that is behind the other reviews.

After that, here’s my advice: Don’t be afraid to write stuff that sucks.

That is SO much easier said than done, but it is the only way to get to writing stuff that doesn’t suck.

By: jessica

jessica — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:21:42 +0000

Jeremy’s advice is good. Use others as models, even labeling the sections in the margins of essay so that you can just plug similar sections in those places.

By: jeremy

jeremy — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:15:58 +0000

Can you use the strategy of reading several review essays in that journal on topics you have no interest in, so that you attend more to what the form of the essay looks like?