What To Do Before Publishing Your Study

When the time comes for you to publish your study, it is natural to get excited. All the time and work you have put into the finished product gives you a great sense of satisfaction and that is mingled with the anticipation of how your published material will be received. It's only natural to be keen to publish your study. But here comes a word of warning. Don't be in too much of a hurry and double check a number of things before you proceed to the final step.

The first thing to do before you publish your study is to forget about publishing. Your task has been to research, plan and write whatever type of thesis or essay has been set for you. Put the publishing aspect out of your mind completely. That will take care of itself when the time comes. Before the time comes, you must devote yourself to the execution of the writing process. Get the finished product ready first and then, and only then, start to think about publishing.

Editing, rewriting and feedback

It's possible to divide your writing task into three areas. The first is the research and planning stage, the second is the writing stage and the third is the proofreading and rewriting stage. We could talk about the fourth stage which is the actual publishing of your study. But forget about the fourth stage until all three of the other stages are complete.

So you have finished the research, the planning and the writing and now you come to the editing and rewriting. By all means get as much feedback as you can. This can be from people you know and trust and even people you don't know and even people you are prepared to pay to give you professional feedback. The more quality feedback you can get the better. As was stated at the beginning of this article, the publishing will take care of itself. And once your study has been published it's there forever. That is why you need to spend time listening to feedback, correcting, editing and rewriting.

If you have one guiding rule throughout this editing and rewriting stage it is that quality always beats quantity. There will be a certain number of words which will have to be produced for your study. But every one of these words needs to have value, they need to have quality.