{"id":461,"date":"2010-06-14T01:35:44","date_gmt":"2010-06-14T06:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=461"},"modified":"2010-06-11T09:51:06","modified_gmt":"2010-06-11T14:51:06","slug":"cant-these-guys-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2010\/06\/cant-these-guys-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t These Guys Read?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n

It is a gift when someone else reads my writing and offers comments. I had to learn how to accept and use that gift. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I write a lot – more than most people. Sometimes, I am fortunate enough to have a few people read my writing before I submit it for publication. The question I ask the reviewers is:<\/p>\n

What does this piece tell you?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For example, I write an article. I know the main point of the article – call it X. The reviewers come back with some comments and the big comment, “This paper is about Y, right?” They didn’t read the correct main point – the one I intended for them to read. They read something else.<\/p>\n

There are several ways I can respond. Among them:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They are stupid and can’t read.<\/li>\n
  2. Hmm, Y is a neat idea, i will write about that as well in another paper.<\/li>\n
  3. I’ll rewrite the pages and try again to say X, then repeat the review process.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I used to always conclude number 1. I couldn’t believe how stupid most reviewers were. I groaned, mumbled, and did as I wished.<\/p>\n

    Most of the times that past few years I go with 2. and 3. The reviewers aren’t stupid. The reviewers are pretty smart. What is more, they took their time to read what I wrote and used their energy to comment for me. Once I better appreciated their gift, I heeded their advice. Some of the best papers I have written were ones that I rewrote because of 3.<\/p>\n

    Lessons? Sure there are lessons here. Lessons about knowing a topic so well that I gloss over the main point and concentrate on fine points that hold no interest to others. Lessons about the value of re-reading your writing. Lessons about how the real work of writing is in the revising.<\/p>\n

    The big lesson for me: people aren’t stupid. When I think that other people are stupid, I am being stupid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Dwayne Phillips It is a gift when someone else reads my writing and offers comments. I had to learn how to accept and use that gift. I write a lot – more than most people. Sometimes, I am fortunate enough to have a few people read my writing before I submit it for publication. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[128],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}