From the June 2, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times - KINETIC3
Three Questions for Dr. Bill Henk
A New Resource for Aspiring Authors in the Kern Institute
Writing for publication is a highly developed skill that typically requires years to master and can benefit from scholarly mentoring. Read about a longtime professional educator who is eager to share his knowledge about writing success honed over several decades as a faculty member and academic administrator in higher education…
What is your role with the Kern Institute and what goals do you have for that work?
My role with the Kern Institute primarily will be part-time writing consultant for members of the Medical Educator Research tracks that are part of KINETIC3. In this position, I expect to draw upon my lengthy experience as a senior faculty member, department chair, school director, and dean in mentoring faculty members with aspirations to write for publication.
Working in cooperation with Drs. Kristina Kaljo, Michael Braun, and Amy Farkas in the Kern Institute for Collaborative Scholarship (KICS), my goals are to provide informed advice in identifying a publishable idea, orchestrating the work with distinction, and most of all, rendering the resulting manuscripts in a compelling enough way to warrant publication in refereed forums.
What is your background in academic writing and how did you come to do this kind of work?
Many years ago, as a graduate student, a member of my doctoral committee encouraged me to submit the pilot study I had done for my dissertation to a top journal. I thought he was delusional, because I had never done anything remotely like that before, and its rigorous standards were legendary. But miraculously, the manuscript got accepted outright, and so did the next two thought pieces I submitted. I remember thinking, “How hard could this publishing gig be anyway?” And then the next five articles I wrote were summarily rejected.
After graduating with my doctorate, I still somehow landed a plum position at the University of Georgia, a bona fide “publish or perish” institution. A number of major figures in my field were on the faculty there, and they regularly reminded me of the absolute necessity to place my research in refereed journals. Although they didn’t directly mentor me, they set an example for what it meant to be prolific, and I realized then that I had better figure out the publishing “game” on my own, and soon, or start looking for my next job!
Through trial and error and untold hours of intense effort, I landed on a formula for publishing success that has served me well over the course of my career, largely at Penn State and later at Marquette University:
A timely, relevant, and sufficiently unique topic, properly researched, professionally rendered, and submitted to an appropriate forum.
Skillfully executing the formula is much easier said than done, and even then, there are no guarantees of success. In my experience, it’s the subpar rendering of manuscripts that most often prevents deserving science and exposition from getting into print. That’s where I believe I can help most.
This belief is rooted in the considerable success I fortunately enjoyed as an author, which led to being invited to serve on key editorial review boards and then, to co-editing a journal. All these formative experiences abundantly highlighted the caliber of work necessary to publish manuscripts regularly enough to meet and exceed institutional promotion and tenure criteria.
What do you enjoy about academic writing?
Even though I’m no longer required to write professionally anymore, I still do, because I will never tire of having a paper accepted. Truth be told, I do the “dance of joy” each and every time a manuscript makes the grade, because to my mind, no scholarly effort is more professionally affirming than having extremely demanding editors and reviewers embrace one’s work.
But nowadays, helping others experience that same joy through their publishing success provides me with the most gratification. So, I am excited about the opportunities and challenges my new role presents and look forward to contributing to the scholarly productivity of Kern Institute associates as appropriate.
William A. Henk, Ed.D, is a writing mentor for members of the KINETIC3 Medical Educator Research track in the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education. He served as an assistant professor at the University of Georgia, and as a professor, department chair and school director at Penn State University and Southern Illinois University before being named Dean of the College of Education at Marquette University in 2004, a role he retained for over 16 years.