• Before you start writing your manuscript, identify the journal where you might potentially submit it. Scholars find that those who have a clear idea of the audience and the venue of their article are more successful in publishing it. This is because successful authors orientate their writing to a specific disciplinary conversation and context. This awareness also makes the writing easier. Not knowing whom you are addressing makes writing vague, disfluent, and unfocused.
• Know that there are different genres of submission in every journal. It is important therefore to read the guidelines of the journal to see where your article fits. For example, some journals may not accept an article that doesn’t contain original research and the author’s own data. Some journals have a separate section for theoretical or reflective essays (such as “Forum”) and may ask for shorter articles of that genre.
• Find out the expected length of articles accepted in that journal. Typically, research journals accept a length of 8500 words. Some might go up to 10,000 words. The journals also specify whether the length is inclusive or exclusive of references and footnotes.
• The subject matter and disciplinary orientation of the preferred articles cannot be judged from the title of the journal. In some specialized journals, the guidelines might also indicate the type of research and methods preferred (i.e., corpus analysis, ethnography, narrative research, etc.) Read the guidelines carefully for the subject matter and research methods accepted to determine the suitability of your manuscript.
• Each journal has its preferred style manual for citing references, organizing and labeling the titles of the sections, formatting transcripts and figures, and preferred use of footnote or endnotes. Submissions that don’t follow these conventions may not be sent out for review by the journal. Therefore, read the style sheet for the established conventions and make sure you adopt them in your manuscript.
• Most journals ask for a short abstract to accompany each manuscript. The length may vary between 100 and 300 words. Check the requirement and compose an abstract after you write your manuscript.

–Suresh Canagarajah