When I was a struggling junior faculty member, every publication mattered so much that rejection letters felt like physical blows. And it wasnâ??t only the brute fact of the rejections that caused pain: Readersâ?? reports on my manuscripts were often written in a tone of sharp annoyance. Touchy and ill-tempered, they seemed to see only the flaws. It was as if Iâ??d somehow insulted these readers, breaking rules that I didnâ??t know existed. Thereâ??s no question that Iâ??ve had much to learn about framing, pursuing, and clinching an argument. But Iâ??ve certainly never had any intention of irritating my readers.
Caroline Levine is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.