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Mentoring

Mentor role.

A mentor can be assigned to help support and guide less experienced or first-time authors who are members of LT SIG or primary members of TESOL CALL-IS and interested in publishing in the edited volume. 

A mentor will be expected to help aspiring contributors with issues such as:

-         article structure and overall organisation

-         linguistic accuracy and academic style

-         awareness and reporting of relevant literature

-         discussion of relevant conclusions and implications of the study

Mentors are not expected to write up parts of the article but to give suggestions and guidance to the prospective author towards improvement of his or her article.

Mentors are not responsible for getting the work of the author accepted for publication.  Rather, they will help and support improving the author’s work as best as they can. The prospective authors need to understand that the quality of the submitted work is ultimately their own responsibility.

Requesting a mentor.

Prospective authors will initially submit a proposal and a short bio to the editors (see the CFP here). Based on this information, the editors may advise on the prospective author working with a mentor. It is, of course, up to the prospective author to take up the suggestion or not. Working with a mentor is not compulsory.

In other cases, the request for a mentor can come directly from the prospective author--authors may request a mentor along with the proposal or anytime after. In either case, if a mentor is requested, the editors will try to find one who is suitable for the prospective author; mainly as regards area of expertise.

Volunteering as a mentor.

If you would like to volunteer as a mentor, see the description below. Both the LT SIG and the CALL-IS communities have a long tradition of volunteering and giving back to the profession. The role of the mentor is similar to that of a journal peer reviewer (i.e., not an editor or a co-author). However, the mentor's role is not to recommend acceptance or rejection of the paper, but rather to help the author to produce an effective and persuasive presentation of his or her work.

Ideally a volunteer mentor would have the following characteristics:

-         experience in carrying out and reporting research

-         a record of published research

-         experience in peer reviews of articles and/or other relevant editorial experience (e,g, for journals and conference selection committees) 

If you think you fit the mentor profile described above, please contact the editors: Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou (sophiecy@yahoo.com) and Phil Hubbard (phubbard@stanford.edu) with a short bio indicating your experience in the preceding areas. We would love to hear from you.

Feel free to contact us if you need any further information or clarifications.