Friday, July 28, 2006

Revising manuscripts

"There are few [editorial comments], as the writing is very good. Well done."

"Although the paper is poorly written, it has potential with appropriate re-working."

How can these comments have been made about the SAME manuscript? More importantly, how can we address them? Ah- the joys of peer-review...

btw- the person who wrote the second comment (liberally) marked the manuscript in RED ink. Does anyone else find red ink offensive in this context?

OK- enough complaining- back to revising....

edited to add:
Arrghhh!!!! Red pen is driving me insane! I've never seen so much red ink in my life. Just had to share...

4 comments:

Arbitrista said...

I had a teacher once who said that the red pen gave her the feeling of power.

Addy N. said...

Publius: You hit the nail on the head! The red pen seems to me something that teachers use to grade students- NOT something one academic uses to critique another. I actually NEVER use red pen for grading, because I feel like it has such a negative connotation!

BrightStar (B*) said...

Sounds like the person who thought the writing is poor has too much time on his or her hands... the marking up should be saved for the copy editor!

Addy N. said...

Hi B*: Thanks for checking in! While I truly value the peer-review process and appreciate MANY of the comments written by Red Pen, I am frustrated, too. This person admits not being familiar with the kind of research methods we used, so some of the comments are based on this lack of knowledge. I'll just be happy when we can send the thing back in with the revisions done!