Teaching Graduate Students in the Social Sciences Writing for Publication

Writing requires reflective thinking that takes time. Yet, our technological society has speeded up the pace of our everyday lived experience. This article describes a systematic method developed by two tenured faculty at geographically distant universities to demystify the process of professional academic writing. Using action research as method, the authors have devised steps to help graduate students begin to slow their hectic pace of life and to critically reflect on the writing process itself as a necessary step in the art of writing for publication. Their method of teaching professional writing for publication has resulted in students’ work being successfully published.