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Effective writing for
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This article appeared in the Spring 2000 edition of Short Words, the newsletter of Tim Albert Training. It was written by Tim Albert.

Writing with purpose

Decide on your target journal before starting to write, says Tim Albert

Some writers are incurable optimists.

They set out on the long and difficult journey towards publication without answering this basic question: 'Where do I intend this article to be published?'

These people insist that they couldn't possibly decide where they want to publish without seeing the finished article first. Underpinning this argument is a mixture of fear and idleness, sometimes mixed with the naïve feeling that the harder one writes the higher an article will soar.

They misunderstand the whole nature of publishing, which is like any other commercial activity where supply outstrips demand. Finding the idea for an article is only one half of the task; the other is to find someone who is likely to publish it. Even good products need a market.

Yet writers who will happily spend hours chasing up references or performing sophisticated statistical tests will firmly resist the notion that some of this time would be better spent researching the publication they are aiming at.

If you settle on your publication first, you will have three advantages.

1. You will be less likely to be wasting your time. Most editors will tell you that the most common reason for rejecting an article is that it is not suitable for their journal. A careful study of back numbers will tell you whether your article has a good chance of being published, before you commit a word to paper.

2. You can meet the market requirements. As you write you can look at and study any Instructions to Authors. More importantly, you can look at similar articles already published, and identify any patterns: how many paragraphs are there, and how long is each of them? In what kind of language are they written? What additional material, like tables and figures, is there, and in what form?

3. You can discuss changes rationally with your co-authors. Agreeing in advance where you wish to publish means that you will have an evidence-based way of settling disputes. This will help considerably during the painful stage of sending the work out to co-authors for comment. Should you write in the active or passive? Should you list 10 references, or 40? Should the headline have a verb or a colon? Simply look in the target journal - and follow that style.

Writing for publication is basically an exercise in marketing: the trick is to identify a customer, make the product that the customer wants or needs, and make the sale.

How to identify a market:

Work out what you want to achieve (fame, fortune, influence) and shortlist publications that will help you to do this.
To check whether an article might suit, look up some back issues.
Try to tap into an ongoing debate, but make sure you add something new.
Prefer publications you read, because you will be familiar with their content and style.

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