ABSTRACTS AND PROPOSALSSLAT Colloquium, October 18th 2013

Lionel Mathieu | Department of Linguistics / SLATAreas: Analysis and Processes

M’Balia Thomas | SLAT Interdisciplinary ProgramAreas: Use and Analysis

Paolo Renigar | SLAT Interdisciplinary ProgramAreas: Use and Pedagogy

Why should we attend and present at conferences?

• Professional development– Learn the culture of academics

– Develop presentation skills

• Integrate into our academic community.–Share knowledge and experience

–Improve teaching and research techniques

–Network

• Overcome “myopic views” of SLA

Who is the audience? Know your audience

-National or international?

-Theme?

-Keynote speaker(s) and other presenters?

Explain when necessary.

Avoid being redundant.

Provide a framework.

What do you mean?“my title isn’t clear.”

Presentation titles should be…

• Relevant

• Descriptive

• Eye-catching, but informative

• Short

Dr. Kumar’s 3 questionsDoes your title…

1. give a full, yet concise and specific indication of the work?

2. entice someone interested in your topic to the abstract?

3. adhere to the requirements of digital libraries?

Choosing your conference…

• Conferences use valuable resources of time and money.

• Select with your research agenda in mind, the scholars you wish to meet, and the type of scholar you want to be.

• You may also want to think about whether the conference has published conference proceedings. These count as publications.

• You may feel a conference is “out of your league” or that you simply do not have time to prepare. No worries, apply for a poster presentation, instead.

Pick what is of interest to you or what is relevant to the type of research you wish to do -- but pick wisely!

Writing a good abstract…

• It should (concisely) tell your reader: – what your work is about– what problem is being addressed– what your research has uncovered

that is new (a new approach, method, result) and why and in what ways it is relevant to the field.

• Even if your “something” is not “earth-shattering” big, your goal is to clearly communicate some point of difference that you can argue is relevant to the field.

The abstract is the thing that sells you to a committee.

Writing a good abstract…Be sure to touch on the following:

• The method, theory, analysis used in your work. This locates for the reader your theoretical positioning within the literature.

• Clearly specify your results; what you found and why is it relevant to the field

• Your work should relate in some way to the conference theme, or some major research focus of the conference.

• Sometimes there is leeway here, but if you are not sure, find someone who is familiar with the conference and ask.

The importance of volunteering…

• Serve as a travel grant judge with GPSC.

• This exposes you to different styles of proposal writings; you can see which sell themselves to you and why.

• Help out with a conference. This allows you to attend the conference and hob-nob with the scholars.

• AAAL, for example, offers discounted

registration rates

Volunteer your time and talents

The essential ingredients• Title

long/wordy, obscure, ‘colorless’ short, transparent, appealing

• Length superfluous words (‘very’, ‘also’), empty adjectives (‘interesting’, ‘great’) abide by the word limit (if asked for 300 words, write 300 words)

• Language long sentences, pretentious words, unpacked abbreviations, future tense short sentences (1 idea = 1 sentence), polished prose … proofread!

• References the more, the merrier be selective, relevant, and current

The organization

• 1st paragraph/section/part

– contextualize the topic, state the issue, reveal your conclusion

• 2nd paragraph/section/part

– present the relevant data, articulate the problem

• 3rd paragraph/section/part

– provide a solution, state why it is better than, or fills a gap

• 4th paragraph/section/part

– conclude, offer implications, convey its relevance/importance for the field at large (or at least the conference theme)

Publishing wisdom

• Everything starts with your current work, right now! – in classes, – in seminars, – in exams, – etc.

• Publishing doesn’t have to be unattainable. Don't be afraid to get your feet wet ... failures abound along the way, but don't give up!

• Publishing doesn’t have to be in the top-notch journal of your field.

• Publish small, but publish nonetheless.

Publishing venues

Publishing venues

• Conference Proceedings – most conferences have those, secure your spot– turn your abstract/presentation into a piece of writing– one of the easiest way to …

Publishing venues

• Conference Proceedings – most conferences have those, secure your spot– turn your abstract/presentation into a piece of writing– one of the easiest way to … publish!

Publishing venues

• Conference Proceedings – most conferences have those, secure your spot– turn your abstract/presentation into a piece of writing– one of the easiest way to … publish!

• Book Reviews – LinguistList.org– create a profile, place 3 bids (1-20 of each month), get selected– 6 weeks to write your review, submit, revise, and …

Publishing venues

• Conference Proceedings – most conferences have those, secure your spot– turn your abstract/presentation into a piece of writing– one of the easiest way to … publish!

• Book Reviews – LinguistList.org– create a profile, place 3 bids (1-20 of each month), get selected– 6 weeks to write your review, submit, revise, and … publish!

Publishing venues

• Conference Proceedings – most conferences have those, secure your spot– turn your abstract/presentation into a piece of writing– one of the easiest way to … publish!

• Book Reviews – LinguistList.org– create a profile, place 3 bids (1-20 of each month), get selected– 6 weeks to write your review, submit, revise, and … publish!

• Journal Articles – term paper, written comps, etc.; start from something solid– carefully select a journal venue fit for your research– submit, revise, resubmit, re-revise, …

Publishing venues

• Conference Proceedings – most conferences have those, secure your spot– turn your abstract/presentation into a piece of writing– one of the easiest way to … publish!

• Book Reviews – LinguistList.org– create a profile, place 3 bids (1-20 of each month), get selected– 6 weeks to write your review, submit, revise, and … publish!

• Journal Articles – term paper, written comps, etc.; start from something solid– carefully select a journal venue fit for your research– submit, revise, resubmit, re-revise, … publish!

Take home message

Everything that we write while graduate students should lead to some kind of publication (ideally).

We will garner expertise along the way, put that expertise to work in the form of abstracts, proceedings, book reviews, journal articles, etc.

We are professionals and experts in the becoming, so make that known to others through conferences and publications.

Resources

• LSA website for good/bad abstract examples

http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/model-abstracts

• Linguistlist : http://linguistlist.org/

Q & A

Lionel Mathieu | Department of Linguistics / SLATAreas: Analysis and Processes

M’Balia Thomas | SLAT Interdisciplinary ProgramAreas: Use and Analysis

Paolo Renigar | SLAT Interdisciplinary ProgramAreas: Use and Pedagogy