September 5, 2003

Thank You for Advertising, but Your Needs Don't Meet My Interests

By MARK MONTGOMERY

For some people, the academic life is a long series of triumphs and accolades, beginning with a National Merit Scholarship and culminating a few decades later when the king of Sweden hangs a medal around their neck. For the rest of us, it involves a lot of rejection letters.

Of course, rejection letters are often quite helpful. They contain information vital to improving your work, like the comments that (a) your references overlooked an important recent article, and (b) the important