on rejection

I don't I write about rejection much ... Today I had one. I'd sent off a book proposal on transcription to a publisher. I'd not heard back in over a month so that delay was a harbinger (love that expression from Douglas Macbeth) of the bad news to come. It was in my work email box this morning. I kind of wish I hadn't opened it today as I have quite a lot of work to do and rejection doesn't really engender the rallying of a lot of energy (smile). However, and the point of the post, if I can't handle the rejection and do something with it then I might as well not be in the game. The editor's feedback - brief - was that the focus (transcription in education research) was too narrow a focus to market. He probably wouldn't think that if he took a look at some of the weird and unsystematic transcripts that are produced in education research. Still, I take the point. I will think now about widening the focus to transcription in qualitative research (something that I toyed with constantly anyhow when putting together the proposal). The final thing I want to say about rejection, before getting on with my life, is that it is hard to handle when a lot of work and thinking has been injected into the writing (be it a book proposal or journal article). It seems like an awful waste and represents, for me, a lack of progress. I don't want to say a waste of research time, however, if I don't turn around the rejection of the proposal in some way then it will have been a waste of time.

the end

Today I finished making the changes to the chapter. I hadn't really envisaged that the revisions would take as long as they did. The thing for me about revisions is that if not handled carefully, parts of the article (chapter) can get out of alignment. It is a delicate matter and a process that I decided today to simply stop. Enough is enough.

I will now move onto the revisions for the article on ethnomethodology and literacy research. I am really really happy that the draft was accepted and have agreed to meet the editors' deadline of 4 May for the (very tiny) revisions that I need to make. Long term, this article will really lead me into a co-authored publication with a new PhD student who will also employ ethnomethodology/converation analysis to focus on early digital literacy/literacies.

Revising children's disputes chapter

Today I begin my revisions for the book chapter. I have nine days to complete it and will probably need all of that time to do justice to the chapter and feedback. One of the requirements is to address more of the gaming literature and I've started on that this morning. I've found some very very interesting work this morning. In particular, Pål Aarsand and Karin Aronsson have co-authored and written individual papers which will be useful for me. I'm spending this morning reading several or those including:
Aarsand, P. (2010). Young boys playing digital games. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 5(1), 38-55.
Aarsand, P., & Aronsson, K. (2009). Response cries and other gaming moves. Toward an intersubjectivity of gaming. Journal of Pragmatics, 41,1555-1575.