Author Interview, Dr. Sandra Rasmussen

1. Please briefly describe your current work. 

I am presently writing a second book for clients with the working title of Jacob’s Ladder: A Best Practice Program for a Good Life.

A good life is an individual right and a personal responsibility. We believe people can develop a good life. A good life manifests being, becoming, and beyond. Life is good when people meet their needs for life, health, wellness, quality-of-life, personal gain, and public good. According to psychologists, needs motivate behavior. We use this idea to develop a best practice program for a good life we call Jacob’s Ladder. Knowledge, values, and applications from the life sciences and psychology support the program. Developing a good life is an informed, committed, and active process.

My most recent book (2015) was for clients: Ready, Set, Go! Addiction Management for People in Recovery.

2 How did you come to be in this area of study? 

Most of my teaching, practice, research, and publication served health professionals: books and articles. It just seemed time to write for clients.

3. What do like best about writing? 

Another way to share my passion for recovery.

4. What do you dislike the most about writing? 

It has been, and continues to be, a challenge to think and write for a lay audience. 

5. Advice for new researchers and writers who would like to be published? 

Write when you have something to say. Pray for discipline and dedication to the process and product. Prepare and accept rejection.

The Pain of Writing

Writing is painful. Sorry, that tends to be everyone's reality. It is hard work to think through complex ideas and find the best way to present them so that someone else can understand them. A few general things though, if you are having problems. First if you find it very hard to write, I recommend this book: 

Saltzman, J. (1993). If You Can Talk, You Can Write. Grand Central Publishing. 

As you can see, it is an older book, so it is available very cheaply online. It will reduce your anxiety and will help you get something down on paper. I strongly recommend reading your paper aloud; you will catch many errors. If nothing else, read to your dog or cat, they will find you fascinating! You will reduce the number of needed corrections by simply rereading your paper carefully.

Be prepared and open to many revisions. Your reviewers have much more experience in writing at this level, trust their guidance. Revisions are simply part of the writing process, keep in mind that the final article you see in the journal has little resemblance to where it started. As an example, a recent article that I wrote with colleagues went through 25 revisions (yes, I counted!).

Revising

You have a draft of your article, then what? First give yourself a cheer and celebrate, then begin the rewriting process. Rewriting?? Yes, you have done a first draft, hopefully including all of the necessary parts, but it is rough, and needs a lot of polishing. I suggest reading through the draft in full, make notes to yourself (I use track changes) and mark areas that are not complete, that may not be clear to someone reading it for the first time, or that needs more support with citations. Then start at the beginning and read each sentence aloud, is there a way to make it clearer, more concise? Picture your grandmother who knows nothing about the topic reading it, would she understand that sentence? Check for any pronouns (they, he, and she), is it clear who the pronouns are referring to? Check your plurals versus possessives (this makes me crazy when they are wrong): plurals (e.g. “girls”) do not have an apostrophe, possessives do have an apostrophe (e.g., “the girl’s bike;” “the girls’ bikes”).  

Do you know a former English major? Someone who is a great writer? If so, ask them to read through your paper and offer suggestions.

 

An Interview with Researcher, Dr. Richard Jimenez

1. Please briefly describe your current research. 

My main research interests are HIV and STI (sexually transmitted infections) prevention,  patient safety and medical error reporting and prevention, and  I also enjoy program evaluation. 

2 How did you come to be in this area of study? 

I became aware of and interested in the challenges of HIV prevention when I worked as a volunteer for the American Red Cross.  Shortly after the first cases of HIV were reported in the U.S. in 1981 I started to lose friends to HIV and was appalled by the lack of response to the epidemic by many civic and Public Health agencies.  My interest in program evaluation started with my work with community based organizations and the need for these agencies to demonstrate the efficacy of their programs as they grew and applied for private and public funding for support of their mission and programs.   

3. What do like best about doing research? 

I particularly enjoy the collaborative nature of the research process, especially for community based research.  I believe that community based research should be based on trusting partnerships between the formal research staff and community stakeholders and leaders.    

4. What do you dislike the most about doing research? 

I don’t think there is anything that I particularly dislike about the research process, but I do find community based research sustainability a challenge given limited resources in many communities.  How to develop and implement research and health interventions that are sustainable in communities is often challenging and frustrating for me.   

5. Any advice for new researchers who would like to be published? 

For new researchers, network as much as possible and write for a variety of outlets, such as professional blogs, webpages, editorials, conference proceedings and comment sections.  Volunteering to review abstracts for professional meetings and conferences is another great way of networking and meeting potential editors and collaborators.  For journal submissions, be sure to write your research manuscript l to align with the editorial mission of the journal and to appeal to the readership for that particular journal. Also, follow the editorial guidelines to the letter.