welcome to the "The Right Write stuff" take off of the old movie
name "The Right Stuff". I'm Tim I'm the editor of The Gazette and this
presentation is to provide information about what it takes to write for the
Gazette and hopefully to encourage first-time authors and people who have
thought about it and maybe just need a little bit of information to get over
the hump and actually write something
The Gazette has a a long history it's being around since 1962 which actually
predates the OAME it started with the the OATM and the Ontario Math Commission
which predate the OAME the OAME is actually the two amalgamated so I'm gonna focus
on the Gazette but appreciate that there's also the Abacus which is usually
an eight page insert in the middle of the the hardcopy Gazettes that go out
and you can find both of these in the online archives in the members only area
of the website The Gazette accepts contributions where the abacus doesn't
and generally the Abacus steers people who offer contributions to the
Gazette and we follow up with that so the focus here is on the Gazette itself
so the Gazette has published in September December March and June four
times a year the current June version is in the final stages and what I think a
lot of people maybe don't appreciate is the cycle for each edition starts about
two months ahead of it when columnists have to submit their piece and there's a
lengthy process that goes through for each each edition the editorial team has
five people and it really does take a coordinated effort of five people and we
have a reviewer database as well and we'll speak about those different pieces
during this session there is also an advertising manager
and the board of directors for the OAME gives oversight to both the Gazette and
the Abacus they also look after the website and that's who ultimately makes
decisions for some aspects of the Gazette this by the way is the cover of
the March issue of The Gazette
so the editorial team I'm Tim and I'm the editor and if you email gazette@oame.on.ca
those emails come to me you may get a response from my
institutional email as opposed to that one but it's all all the same and I'm
the go-to person as far as communications to do with anything any
contributions for the Gazette and I look after the reviewer database so if if
you're interested in being a reviewer for instance you email me and you ask about
that and I'll throw a few questions at you such as what you feel comfortable
reviewing whether it's you know which divisions and that sort of thing it's
it's not lengthy by any means but it's more so that you're not getting a whole
lot of emails that you don't want so I'm the editor we also have behind the
scenes Anne Yeager is a wonderful associate editor
she's very helpful and a lot of experience Jacqueline Foster is also an associate
editor Robert Shirk looks after the advertising and he deals with the rate
sheet and dealing with getting advertisements in in a fashion that can
go in the Gazette Gitta Berg looks after the proofreading
and copy editing she's a wonderful person who knows how to use a comma
correctly which is more than I can say for myself and finally Penny Clemens who
puts together the covers and she assembles the actual final product that
you see and she lays it all out and makes it fit inside the physical copies
and the electronic is really just a version of the physical one but the
physical one has limitations that have to be respected such as the page count
has to be a multiple of four so in terms of content and this is where I think
most people need a bit of support when they're first thinking about writing on
the straightforward level are things like letters to the editor and they're
welcome they don't occur a lot but they're certainly welcome and a
well-developed letter it's effectively a short article it's an opinion about
something or it's making a case for something we have short pieces which
I'll describe in a minute because they sort of don't get noticed but they're
also an entry point book reviews there are advantages to doing book reviews and
they're a good entry point of the person doesn't have much writing experience
articles are a standard item and they give you time to develop ideas and they
allow you to think things through a presentation like this you're on the
spot and you have to think on the spot and you have to sure you've got planning
but it's very much like a classroom where it's live-action where an article
gives you time to mull things over to look things up find references this
sort of the thing there are a number of columns in the Gazette and columnists
write regularly and there's process for columns for those who are interested in
that we also have reports and I'll mention them briefly because while we
have some standard reports there are places where other reports might be
welcome when people submit to something to the Gazette there is an author
agreement form which basically says that you haven't published this other places
it sorts out it's an understanding of what you're getting into so it's it's a
one page thing and it's it shouldn't hold anybody up but it's just to sort of
make sure that we're sort of formally on the same page as it were and each article
has a head and shoulders photo and a biography and that biography is less
than a hundred words these generally go in after all the leg work is done and
the article is accepted but be aware of them it is if you don't like having your
photo and it is feasible to just go with a biography but if the photo is a photo
it's not a it's not a phony picture whatever you call those things you see
on we's (???) and things We'll go through this
list and talk a little bit about each one so with the letter to the editor as
I said it's about expressing an opinion or making a case the
details here are that it needs to be diplomatic and respectful it's got
to follow the vision and mission of the OAME which are quite broad but clarity
and being non offensive are really the key details here you may be fuming about
something and you sort of have to put it in terms that can be in public and are
respecting the fact that not everybody's going to see it the same way as you
letters the editor quite good for suggesting changes they're good for just
raising an issue sharing something that's relatively brief with people if
you think that you know for instance this virtual conference if you feel that
the virtual conference had a lot of benefits that maybe should be considered
by whoever sort of looks after that kind of thing you know that's a letter to the
editor and you might just want to sort of say how wonderful this was that you
are able to access it from wherever you happen to be and is it something that
really should happen regularly? so the focus here is on clarity and you can go
against the grain as it were but at the end of the day is it's something that
people want to read? Is it a position that is appropriate to all of Ontario?
you know if it's a chapter issue maybe not but if it's if it's broad-based
perhaps it is something. We have an example in the June issue where there's
a letter to the editor and it addresses the issue that remediation in community
colleges speaks to needing to provide support for
basic skills but on a timeline that's quite a bit different than when it's
taught in elementary schools and the I don't recall the specific details of the
letter but it's pointing to a need to sort of consider how that routinization
goes on. Short pieces are something that a lot of people don't necessarily think
of as a contribution that they can make they're typically less than less than a
page less than half a page they're usually relatively small they're
not peer reviewed and where they come in is they fill in this space that's at the
end of an article. Articles always begin at the top of the page and where they
end there's quite often a hole it's maybe a quarter of a page. Those have to
be filled and it's something that I generally look after but it's also
something where I'd welcome contributions it's a good place for
creativity imagination and I'm certainly not opposed to having student driven
pieces such as having your students make stuff that could fit in there. There is
the catch though that the timing for them to appear isn't clear because it
depends on whatever space actually comes about you'll see on the slide a variety
of examples there's a word search there's a thing with Scrabble there's a
lengthy quotation from a movie there's some coins there's just a little pattern
design a photo of an integer elevator these are all from
the last from the March issue of The Gazette and you know there's a constant
need for this kind of thing I know the June one is likely to have a jumble in
it we've had different kinds of things I really have aimed for variety on these
over the last few years and there's something that you're certainly welcome
to do I would love to see some cartoons we did have one a year ago or so
but having cartoons that could be slotted in would be good it's not
something we have and everybody likes a good cartoon. To raise it up a notch book
reviews with book reviews if you email the editor and you say I'm interested in
reviewing this book then if if I approve that on behalf of the OAME then if you
submit a review within a year and you submit your receipts and stuff then you
will get reimbursed for the price of the book and really the approval is to make
sure that we don't have too many going on which hasn't happened yet it's to
make sure that we don't have more than one person reviewing the same book and
it's to make sure that the price of the book isn't outrageous if you have a
small book study going on four or five people and you want more than one person
writing the review then email me and ask and we'll sort that out I have a couple
of well there's really only one guide for book reviews I have two versions of
it and it shows you the sort of general nature for doing it and gives a few
pointers about it we typically have the cover of the book as a picture a
thumbnail we usually have a little blurb about the
author. We have the reference to where who published the book so that it can be
found. Your review should focus on why people might want to purchase and read
this book what's good about it it should address and diplomatically any
shortcomings the book might have and in as much as every book sort of fits an
audience you might say where that book leads to thinking of is this a case of
its practices you'll take directly to the classroom is it more reflecting on
your overall teaching is it a pedagogy focus if I was going to read a book
review right now I'd be thinking is this book something that is to be acted on
and go into the classroom or is it something to read on the deck with a
glass of wine perhaps and just think about teaching over the summer while
thinking about teaching over the summer when I'm sort of relaxed and have time.
So those are the sorts of things that people look for. Typically these are a
page or two and they go through the editorial process they're not reviewed
but they do go through the editorial process. Articles are the main element of
the Gazette. They take quite a bit of work on the part of the author and the
editorial team and the reviewers. They take time. So I see my role as working
with authors particularly if they are relatively new to writing.
I see The Gazette as a constructive place for people to gain experience. It's
suitable for grad students who might want to get their first publication for
instance. It's because of that view that this presentation exists. I see it as a
place where we need to engage the membership and allow that professional
space to learn more about it. When you write a piece I encourage you to
brainstorm, think about what you've done that is worthy of sharing and you almost
certainly will have you just have to think of what it is. When you write it
see if you can place photos, were they photos or diagrams, where they get used
in your article if there are any. If you have pictures with students in them if
they're under the age of 18 then you need consent. Well you need consent
regardless if it's individuals. Oftentimes there's a school board
consent done at the beginning of the school year and so you just need to know
whether or not you're allowed to have such pictures. With student work if you
remove the names of the students for and anonymize it then you know that can be
used. There's a little bit of a judgement call there and you certainly can talk to
me about it but the point here is place them roughly where they belong in the in
the file you prepare. We use APA 7. You
don't need to sweat the details if if you're aware of it if you know how to
use it that's fine. It's just a style guide it says references should be in
this format and here are some standard procedures for things like headings and
structure. If you're not aware of it then just take a previous Gazette and just
try to mimic the style and we'll sort it out but don't let it don't let it hinder
you. When you submit an article I typically aim to get back to you within
a couple of days sometimes it's a week it just depends where my workload is and
when I get back to you I do one of two things typically. Sometimes it's you know
here are some things you should consider before we send this out for review or I
say yeah I think this is good to go to review so let's do it and I look for the
reviewers. We have a list. You're welcome to be on it of course and that
process of finding reviewers to go over your article this is all blinded your
name does not appear in the file that gets sent to them so they don't know who
wrote it and you don't get to know who the reviewers actually are. That's known
as a double blind. So the reviewers typically get back to me within two
weeks that's what we aim for this is phenomenally fast. In academia it can
take months so we are impressively fast on this and what comes back is a
decision well decision opinions from each of the reviewers and
the editor ultimately takes the three opinions and makes a decision. Regardless
of of the outcome you will receive the three reviews anonymized and you'll get
the decision with justification. So as I mentioned the process is double-blind.
The reviewers don't know who wrote the article. You don't know who the reviewers
are. This is the highest standard for publishing that there is. Feedback
there's a feedback form which is what you see on right in the orange that's
the guts of it and the reviewers can use the track change feature in Word or
comments in PDF files to provide very specific feedback inside the article.
In the orange you'll notice there is stuff like is the mathematical content
accurate? Is it appropriate to the readers? Is it free of bias? Does it
reflect the vision and mission? At the bottom here you'll see that there's
publish as is which is very rare. There's minor revisions which is typically
what's required and minor revisions means that subsequently you just deal
with the editor so it's it may be things like wordings that need fixing up in
this kind of thing. Major revisions which means that the article has to go back to
the reviewers after it's been revised and then rejection of the manuscript and
that's relatively rare thank goodness.
When you initially send an article in my
perspective is that I'm trying to make sure
that it's a good bet for being minor revisions. I'm trying to avoid that major
revision so I may give you advice. You may or may not follow it and really what
I'm trying to do is help the odds that it ends up in that minor revisions
category it makes less work for reviewers it makes less work for you you
know this kind of thing. It's not necessarily a sure thing and you know
major review or major revisions isn't the end of the world and if you speak to
people who've written a lot they all have received that at some stage or
another. But minor revisions is not that uncommon and means that a little bit
more work and it's good to go into the editorial process. Recognize that writing
an article takes time. When you get involved in it it's deceptive because
you can work at your own pace as you prepare. Once you start interacting with
the editor and the reviewers and you start getting feedback it sort of feels
like you have to sort of address that and so if you have more than one article
on the go it can add quite a bit of
weight to that. So my advice is if you don't have a whole lot of experience
just focus on one article at a time. See you know just follow the process. There
will be ebbs and flows in the process and yeah you just follow it along and see
how it goes. When you're waiting for reviews for instance there will be you
know at least two weeks where you will hear nothing.
You know it's deceptive because once you do hear suddenly you've got three
reviews and you're trying to figure out how to fix up the article to sort of
address whatever they've pointed out. But recognize that it is excellent
professional learning you will learn from it undoubtedly. And after the review
process the article then goes through an editorial process and that usually is
fine-tuning and the amount of interaction with an author goes down.
So when it gets to proofreading it's very rare that I actually have to while
proofreading and copy editing it's very rare that I have to go back to the author.
Columns just to address this is not a starting place but if you have
experience writing and you think you'd like to write a column then you need to
apply to the editor formally and columns have to be approved by the
Communications Committee. So it only happens at board of director meetings so
there's a time issue with this. Columns have to have a focus and the authors
need to be sort of credible and if if you're thinking well you know I've
written the odd thing and I'm not really sure how I'm perceived. Well one way to
deal with this is to write several articles for the Gazette and then argue
your case that you've had several articles accepted by peer review and
maybe it's time for a column. Columns however do have a schedule and they are
due essentially on the 10th of the month two months ahead of the Gazette. So we
are currently in April and April 10th was the deadline for the June Gazette.
So they have deadlines and if you're interested in writing a column
appreciate that it now that that puts it on a schedule and I can tell you what
the schedule is. It's worked out every
spring in fact I should be doing that within a week or two for next year.
I'll mention reports we have a variety of them that occur regularly you'll have
noticed the fields report. We have some that appear in specific issues such as
there will be something about awards likely in September
and we have a few reports where it's a little bit by who we find who can write
one. So CMESG, we're always looking for who's actually attended it and can write
a report about it. If you have attended an event and think it might be suitable
for a short report ask me and really my focus on this is whether or not a report
about it will be of interest to the broader readership. So if you go to the
NCTM annual conference, yes we we definitely get a report on that. I might
ask you though can you work with this person who's also been at it for
instance. If it's perhaps a local event in say New York State that you went to
then we're gonna have to have a little bit of a conversation about whether or
not this really belongs and is of interest to all of Ontario. So there may
be that sort of question-and-answer thing that goes back and forth. Just to
mention a few pet peeves. The word "great" gets abused. Oh this is a great activity
that's great for the kids because there's great learning opportunities.
Use synonyms please.
We do get scenarios where people will say something not be entirely happy with
the way they've said it so they'll say it again seemingly differently and this
sometimes leads to repetition and it it's a case where if it wasn't clear the
first time maybe that just needs to be cleared up a little. It's not the end of
the world but it's one of those things where if you write a piece and you
immediately try to polish it what you'll find is you know it too well you remember
it and you're not very good at polishing it because you know what you said. If you
set it aside for a number of days and I typically say three days but say you
write it one weekend pick it up the following weekend when you've had a
chance to forget what you wrote and read it through and see whether or not there
are specific spots where you know it hiccups you will probably find such
things and it just helps to polish it that little bit. We don't have a whole
lot of pet peeves so I wouldn't sweat it too too much.
Why should you write? I haven't addressed this because chances are if you are attending this
session that you have some interest in it but appreciate that because the Gazette
hasn't lasted since 1962 without support by the organization and in fact there is
an editorial where the editor of the day said this is the last Gazette that's
going to happen. Luckily that was quite a long time ago and it's certainly not
where things are today. What you'll find is through
writing like all good communication with your own students is that you serve to
clarify your own understandings so you will get something out of this and the
readership will also gain something from it. Quite often when you're writing
you'll think up extensions for activities and things and you can add
those and you can also walk away and test them. You'll gain experience with
the way you articulate yourself and the way you convey your ideas and that to me adds
to professionalism. You can also put these things on your CV or use them in
PD workshops with permission. The experience piece if you submit an
article you can put it in your CV as submitted. If it's been accepted so it's
through peer review and it's accepted as minor or as is then you can say impress
effectively so that's it is there and eventually it comes out and it's quite
powerful seeing yourself in print and it's one of the things that you don't
see happening but it does is that when the Gazette comes out I contact authors
who are in it and I say would you like a hard copy? So if you are in The Gazette
then you'll get contacted as to whether or not you would like a hard copy of the
Gazette mailed to you.
So there's a lot of opportunities with the Gazette and I encourage you to to
really think about it and consider it have a look at it and ask whether or not
you could make a contribution and maybe it's a case of reviewing them so you
sort of get a sense of of what's needed and reviewing causes you to take a much
closer look. Reviewing might also be that little
nudge that just periodically reminds you that there is an opportunity. Letters
and opinions are certainly welcome. Short pieces whether it's you or you encourage
your students we can certainly use an ongoing supply. Book reviews are a very
good way of sort of gaining some experience and if if you're quite
anxious about of writing maybe you find somebody that you could collaborate with
and you know write a book review together that's an option. Articles again
you can collaborate with them and stuff and share best practices and we
all get better when we share good practices. So the Gazette really is
your publication and it's the membership who makes it what it is and it's
withstood the test of time. It has won awards and it's an excellent publication
and I hope you are inspired to contribute something and there there's
no particular rush. You can take your time but if you have any questions
whatsoever you're certainly welcome to email the editor you'll find contact
information on the first page of The Gazette.
Its gazette@oame.on.ca and email your questions as far
as things you're thinking you might contribute and if you need that bit of
clarity we'll get it for you. All right well have fun writing and
enjoy the rest of the conference and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.