Chapter 2: Choosing a Venue and Readership

Choose a Reader Before a Destination

A venue’s reputation is not a sufficient reason to send it a manuscript. Examine who it addresses, what forms it publishes, and how comparable pieces use evidence. Read several recent examples, including their openings, lengths, source treatment, and endings. Record observations separately from explicit requirements: a pattern in three articles is not necessarily a submission rule.

Fictional teaching case: The campus-transit records and outlet briefs in Chapter 1 are invented practice material. They are not publishable evidence or real submission policies.

Compare Fit in Concrete Terms

Outlet A’s public explainer could address a reader who sees “boardings increased” and wonders whether a service problem has been solved. The essay would explain the distinction between more trips and later departures without assuming expertise in transport research.

Outlet B’s scholarly reader would need to know the study’s research setting, its relation to existing work, and how the method supports its conclusions. The small teaching dossier cannot establish that contribution. A writer choosing B must plan additional research rather than simply lengthening the public explanation.

Write a fit note with four fields: intended reader, article form, contribution, and evidence needed. Add a fifth field for a concrete mismatch. For A, the mismatch might be a manuscript dominated by unexplained methods terminology. For B, it might be a broad claim based only on a convenience sample.

Keep a Shortlist That Can Change

Choose a primary destination and one alternative. Save the guideline address and access date, then check them again before submission. Record practical constraints such as format, timing, fees if stated, and rules about simultaneous submissions. An absent rule is a question to resolve, not permission to assume.

Do not rewrite the whole manuscript for every possible reader at once. Choose one route, make its requirements visible, and retain a separate note describing what another route would require.

Try It Yourself

Write a 100-word fit note for Outlet A and a second for Outlet B. Identify one passage that could serve both audiences and one that would need substantial redevelopment. For a real project, replace the fictional briefs with current source notes from the actual venues.

Check Your Work

Have you identified readers more precisely than “everyone”? Are your requirements traceable to guidelines rather than guesses? Does your preferred venue accept the form you intend to offer? If its evidence expectations exceed your material, revise the project or change the destination.