When submitting an article to a journal for publication, scholars can feel a bit like hedgehog in the fog; the process and supporting texts are hidden from view. A cover letter, for example, is a genre of writing that supports the research and publication process, but, as John Swales states, it is “occluded.” We’ve heard of cover letters, but we’ve never seen them. They remain mysterious. In this webinar, I present the basic content and form of a cover letter with some examples. We will discuss when and if a cover letter is needed, how to locate the instructions for authors (IFA’s) on the target journal’s website, and what information to include in a cover letter. The webinar’s goal is to provide participants with a simple and professional template they can modify and use to submit their articles to various journals for consideration and review.
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Melvin Hall, PhD in Composition and Rhetoric, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA; Assistant Professor of English, Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia