Perhaps when we are writing, we should share our process with our students. We should model.
I had a 1400-word article rejected, or returned for a revise/resubmit (depending on how you want to think about it). The editor gave me very specific feedback. (Yeah, editor!)
So, I wrote and wrote, adding the work he asked for under part one of his three part feedback.
The article was now up to 2000 words. The problem with that? The maximum words for the article are 1500– and I hadn’t written in points two and three.
So I went back through the article, tweaking, removing, shortening, resolving… And I got down to 1260. That gives me 240 words to meet his other two criteria. Not much space, really. But I’m still working on it.
How many of my students would take a paper up 600 words and down 700 in order to add 200 more? Maybe only those who wanted an A. … Maybe writing for this editor is like wanting an A. I’m willing to change my article to make it more what the publisher wants, because I want to be published.
We’ll see how it works out.