Tracks of our Teaching: Professional Writing Dawn Johnson Mitchell, SWP Teacher Consultant and Partnership Coordinator “To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being and author.” -Charles Colton

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2 Publication Requirements for Summer Institute * Workshop Proposals *Personal Writing *Possibility – Publishing Action Research Articles

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 3 Wiki Resources Summer Institute Wiki Wrestling with Writing Owl at Purdue

“What have you read that is like what you’re trying to write?” Page 35 of Study Driven by Katie Wood Ray

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 5 Workshop Proposals: Writing One That Will Work Research the Conference *Know the conference theme *Know the core audience *Read previous proposals Create a Catchy Title *You want to hook your reader and entice them to come to your workshop. *Alliteration and Subtitles are crafts that work well for this.

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 6 Workshop Proposals: Writing One That Will Work Clarity and Conciseness Counts *Be clear about what your purpose is for the workshop. *Be clear about what your participants will learn and will do in your workshop. *Be concise – Establish what, why, who, and how within a paragraph. Know your word limit. Back Your Blurb with Research *You want to validate your workshop by identifying the theory or author(s) work that you read/used to support your ideas. *You can do this by mentioning the theory, author(s) name, and title(s) of their work.

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 7 Let’s look at some Workshop Proposal Examples that have been accepted. Teacher as Professional – Let’s take a few minutes and share what we learned and our ideas for presenting our workshop.

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 8 Submitting Your Personal Writing: Know What You Write and Where You Want it to Go Know What Your Piece Is *Identify your genre – what is this piece? *Identify your purpose – why am I writing it? *Identify your audience – who is it geared to? Know Where You Want It To Go *What is your vision for this piece? *What are your mentor texts for this piece? *Could they be possible publication possibilities?

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 9 Submitting Your Personal Writing: Know What You Write and Where You Want it to Go Research Your Publisher *Know what they want / what they are looking for *Use the publication itself or Writer’s Market to help you with formatting and marketing. This is usually genre-specific. *Make sure that you write a query letter/ and FOLLOW their guidelines. Start Local *There are lots of local avenues for publication, especially online and journalistic genres like interviews, editorials, recipes, etc. *Check the wiki for possibilities.

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 10 Let’s look at some Personal Writing from the summer institute that has been accepted. “Abner Creek, 1991” – Hub City Outdoor Anthology Teacher as Professional – Let’s take a few minutes and share what we learned and our ideas for submitting our personal pieces for publication.

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 11 Action Research Articles: Sharing What You Know Consider Y our Workshop – They Are Rich for Action-Research *Identify the type of article you will write – is it a journey story, an idea to share, a how-to do this in your classroom, etc. *What is your role – a practitioner, an expert, a novice, one who is questioning…? *Identify your audience – who is it geared to? Know Where You Want It To Go *Read, read, read examples of professional writing -Language Arts, Reading Matters, The English Teacher, etc. *Consider their specific call for proposals – usually at front or back of publication *Send a query with a brief abstract to the editor.

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 12 Action Research Articles: Sharing What You Know Good Writing is Good Writing *The beginning matters – hook your reader, make us want to read. *Consider structure and the best format to tell your story. *Bulleted lists are helpful in providing reader with practical application ideas and suggestions. *Use student samples when possible (Remember to use pseudonyms) *Consider this frame work: Where I Started – What I Did – What the Student Outcome Was – What I Learned Formatting and Style is Important *Use a format/style guide like OWL/Purdue to help you with formatting. *Cite your resources and quotes correctly, but make sure there is more of you in the piece than anyone else. *Word count matters. *Consult a friend to help you edit.

10/6/2015 copyright ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 13 Let’s look at some Professional Writing from the summer institute that has been accepted. “Christmas in August – A Visit with Nicolas” – South Carolina English Teacher, Fall 2009 Teacher as Professional – Let’s take a few minutes and share what we learned and our ideas for writing our own action research articles for publication.