How to receive feedback of reviewers objectively?

1. Remind yourself that your best efforts are only "best" at the time you submit that manuscript, and you would have new views by the time you are ready to revise it.

2. Remind yourself that your mind is limited. No matter how many times you might have checked your work, you will have blind spots. And the reviewers' role is to serve as the person to point out the blind spots in your writing and thinking.

3. Know that the job of the reviewer is to be expert readers so their objective is to make your manuscript better. It is to your advantage that any work of yours which gets published is of very high quality. Your reputation is at stake! So be grateful for people who check your work and give suggestions to make it better.

4. Remind yourself that the main goal is not publication, but publication of high quality. It is better to have a few impactful works than many poorly written pieces.

New Manuscript to Revise

I submitted this article in December...

Now it's March, and I'm reading it with a cringe again. It's amazing how much an individual grows in the span of 2 - 3 months.

So with this perspective, let me welcome those three reviewers comments with great delight! Because, remember, Shuyi, it's not about publishing many! But it's about publishing something worthwhile and impactful and helpful for society. With this is mind, it's alright if it takes a longer time to get something published, so long when it does get published, it is of a quality beneficial to those who will read it, rather than cause others to cringe as I have.

M pointed out to me that the feedback was "thoughtfully and professionally delivered" and "the quality of the feedback is very good" as it was "thorough and specific" and "further, they have acknowledged the good work you have put, and with specifics too."

M's comments made me went back to the feedback and read the strengths of the articles. As a typical Chinese, I normally ignore praises and fixate my eyes on criticisms. But I shall change this too and receive with gladness these positive feedback before I zoom into the areas for improvements.

Feedback

I think I enjoy thinking about writing, sometimes more than writing itself. I am in the thick of it. I have revisited my Chapter 1 and a newly created Chapter 4 which talks about the context of Singapore. And recently, I have started revising my Chapter 5 which is findings. And now, time for a break. I read this passage in Harry Wolcott's Writing Up Qualitative Research (ed. 3 page 73):

The search for theory, like a cogent review of the literature, offers another way to link up with the prior work of others and a shorthand way to convey the gist of our interests and inquiries. This "searching" stage is where one's dissertation committee, one's faculty colleagues, even anonymous reviewers, can - but seldom do - render invaluable service. Rather than belittle the efforts of novice researchers who thrash about trying desperately to hook up with theory, those more experienced in inquiry of this kind can - and should - suggest possible leads and links. We all run the risk of getting tunnel vision when writing up our own research, failing to see the broader implications or remaining unaware of relevant work that might provide a fresh or clearer perspective. 

I like this passage because I have been the recipient of many kind feedbackers. I don't take very well to criticisms and praises. I'm like those tender reeds that break easily, though I'm put in that situation so often, I hope my skin has grown thicker. So I have been extremely blessed that people who give me feedback are always very kind. They never fail to first draw out my strengths, before showing me my weaknesses. My confirmation reviewers wrote such nice comments about my work that I hid the comments for about a year. I was so embarrassed by it. But when I took them out to read them more objectively, I found that they had given me very good directions about how to expand my work, rather than having that "tunnel vision".

I've written here a couple of times about how I broke out of that theoretical box and that mesmerization with theories. It took me one year to get out of it. But actually, early into my study, my reviewers have already pointed out that I should break out of it. As I continued my research, the part that I have wanted to distance myself most from - the context of Singapore and Asia - were what my reviewers and supervisor thought were key to my research. The more I analyze my data, the more I realized what they said were very relevant and true on hindsight.

So that was my journey. Your feedback counts. :) So invaluable to my thoughts and thinking.