Cover Letter Worksheet

In your lab notebook, briefly explain what you learned by reading this letter to the editor. (From Becca Price's Worksheet). 

Well the very first thing I learned from this letter to the editor was that the more care you take to polish your work and take into consideration what certain journals may be looking for, the more work you will save yourself on the other end in having to re-edit and or adjust your article to get it published.  I also noticed that a letter to the editor doesn’t always serve as merely a notice of making the changes a journal editor asked for, but may also serve as a second opportunity to re-sell keeping some of your work the same and explain why some of the issues they had with your work should actually remain as is in your opinion as the author of the article.  Obviously the letter to the editor is also a very important sales pitch upon an initial semi-rejection of your piece, so you want to be very polite and convincing in how your writing is conveyed.  For example, you obviously don’t want to come as, “well actually I’m the one that did the work and know what this article should include”.  Instead, as shown above you want note that you definitely see where the editor is coming from, but based on a certain experience or issue previously made unaware, you think a certain part should remain the same.  Based on the above letter to the editor, it also seems very important to directly address the changes you made and explain exactly how you may have used their advice to make these changes, rather just changing everything they pointed out and listing it as changed.  In closing, the one of the most important things is to come off as thankful for their advice and input.