I'm a published woman

Again, actually!

I wrote an article for Language and Linguistics Compass that was published earlier this year. I was so excited - my first single-author publication! I could care less that it's a new online journal - it's a publication, and that's what counts! And then I was even more thrilled when the editor asked me to create a "Teaching and Learning Guide" to accompany it. This just came out, and I'm tickled pink. The guide is basically a syllabus, in case someone was just so inspired by my paper that they wanted to teach a whole course on it. I realize that's probably not going to happen, but I was pumped because (1) it gives me a second publication that I am the sole author of and (2) I already have a syllabus in hand if/when I apply for a job as a professor!

It's interesting to note the differences in publications between the so-called hard sciences and linguistics (and I assume many social sciences). In the hard sciences (specifically physics and astronomy, my husband's field), an article might have some 8 or more authors! What?! In linguistics, an article usually has one author, and almost never more than three. I guess we're just realistic like that - only one person really wrote the article, or maybe two if you have a good working relationship. My one other publication has my name along with two others. But one of the other "authors" and I are quite happy to admit that it was all this other guy's work! Sure, we did do the project together, and the two of us helped with proofing and other things, but Chris is really the one who deserves the majority of the credit.

Not that I was going to turn down having something to put on my CV!