05.21.09
critique
I don’t know if I can survive in this business. As an update to a previous post, my ASA submission was actually accepted, so I’ll be presenting in a regular session. But while this is good news, the feedback I received has my heart racing and my stomach all upset and I don’t know if I can deal with this for the rest of my career as a sociologist. The first review was not so bad, suggesting that I add something to the paper to further contextualize it. Fine. But the second review, while stating that the paper is well done, boils down to saying that I’m not saying anything new. Which, in a way, I agree with. I don’t think much of anything in sociology is saying anything new. But what I think I’m doing is conceptualizing something that we already know to 1) broaden the concept as it’s been used in the past and 2) give us a new way of understanding not just the phenomenon I use as an empirical example, but also other parallel phenomena.
Ok, now that I’ve written that out I feel a little better in that I have a response to the critique. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Oh man, this is going to be the death of me. Please tell me this gets easier (even if it doesn’t, I need to be talked off of the ledge.)
yli said,
May 21, 2009 at 4:27 pm
it definitely gets better. hang in there. and glad to hear that the paper got accepted into a regular session. good luck!
gradmommy said,
May 21, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Please don’t make anonymous comments here – it’s my blog and I’ll delete if I want to.
Char said,
May 22, 2009 at 8:24 am
A professor I trust a lot once told me that too much pressure is placed on people (especially young people writing PhDs etc) to come up with something new, when (like you say) hardly anything is new.
Social sciences aren’t like medicine or physics – you never find a new cure or a new subatomic particle. Instead, our scientific progress is about increments, building on what others have already told us. Making a contribution to the field doesn’t necessarily mean coming up with a new theory or empirical finding – what you might do instead is set the stage for a new line of discovery. By broadening the concept and its understanding, you open up different pathways to move on to new questions, either in your own work or that of others. To me, the two responses you have are perfect, and because they fit this definition they are definitely doing something new – even if not in the narrow-minded way in which your reviewer is thinking.
If you can justify your research, which it sounds like you can, then you will write a convincing response. Good luck, and congratulations on a fantastic achievement!
olderwoman said,
May 23, 2009 at 10:43 am
Criticism is part of our game. If you think about, you dish it out, too, when you criticize the things you have read. I know you are sometimes critical of other people’s work. It can be hard to get used to receiving criticism. The trick is to learn not to take it personally and not to overreact to it. If the criticism (or some of it) has merit, figure out whether there is anything you can do about it and use it to improve your work if you can. If you know the criticism is valid but there is nothing you can do about it, then just accept it, perhaps acknowledging the point briefly but stressing what does have value. Absolutely all work is subject to some valid criticism, including major works that everyone thinks are great. If the criticism is just wrong or unfair, just brush it off and ignore it as much as you can. Or, if you can see how someone would have gotten the wrong idea, see if you can clarify to avoid that mistaken reading. Sometimes a piece that gets a critical read by one audience is seen as novel and important by another. Sometimes a reviewer just has a bad day.
Re anonymous comments, WordPress has an option that lets you just prevent them.
gradmommy said,
May 24, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Char – wise as always
OW – you are absolutely right. I critique other’s work, and I’m not always very kind about it
Of course, it’s not to their face. And I do take it personally. *Sigh*
Articulate Dad said,
June 3, 2009 at 7:41 am
Hey… umm… you on the ledge… yeah… over here. I got a cup of tea for you. Come on in. Sit down. We’ll talk.
Just remember in all of it, you are you, not what is expected of you. You don’t have to be or become anything. The ledge is no safe place to be… but while you’re up there, just look… there are lots of buildings out there, besides this ivory tower. You could choose any of them.
Lilian said,
July 2, 2009 at 11:20 pm
OH, my dear online friend Articulate Dad made such a beautiful comment that I don’t even know what to say. First, my apologies for not visiting in a while… good thing you didn’t post much during this time
… I really need to have a feed reader in my blogroll.
Anyway, I feel the same you do about getting feedback. That’s one of the reasons why I got the degree but I’m not doing anything with it. That and the fact that I’m lazy. Congratulations on being accepted, I can tell that writing the post was a bit therapeutic for you. Oh, and I’m glad you haven’t simply given up blogging. Hang in there, blogging can be helpful. Didn’t this comment help?
gradmommy said,
July 3, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Thanks AD for a great comment. I have to constantly remind myself that while it’s the name of the game, it doesn’t have to be my game. And honestly, it made me more compassionate for the first blind review I did, and compassion is a trait that I’m always looking to build.
Lilian – yes, the comment helped a lot.