The Writer: A Guide to Research, Writing, and Publishing in Biblical Studies
Book Summary • Nijay Gupta, The Writer: A Guide to Research, Writing, and Publishing in Biblical Studies (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022). Kindle Edition. 160 pp. $10.
Read time: 4 min
Summary
In The Writer, Nijay Gupta provides a detailed guide for those looking to research, write, and publish within biblical studies. The book opens with Gupta’s reflections on his own writing journey and the broader reasons for engaging in writing, particularly in an academic context. He addresses how to choose a research topic, test its viability, conduct exploratory research, and decide on the intended audience and impact. Gupta advocates reading primary sources widely and critically to develop one’s voice before reading secondary literature. He helpfully details an 11-step approach to the research and writing process, including how to study primary texts, engage with secondary sources, and refine drafts through multiple stages. The practical advice offered on notetaking, organizing ideas, and seeking feedback from peers is particularly valuable for developing effective workflows. Later chapters address a variety of matters, including overcoming common challenges such as writer’s block, finding a personal writing voice, navigating the arduous publication process, and explaining how to pitch ideas to publishers, write book or article proposals, and manage contracts. He concludes by suggesting strategies for promoting one’s work and handling feedback and reviews. I found The Writer to be an engaging introductory yet comprehensive resource for writers looking to establish themselves in academic publishing.
Quotations
“Find your writing voice. Don’t just sum up scholarship or weave together quotes from other writers. Yes, engage with academic scholarship and acknowledge when you are depending on the ideas of one person or another, but your book should be your book. Your work should have your voice” (15).
“How Do You Choose a Writing Form? When considering the writing form, you have to take into consideration (a) expertise, (b) audience, (c) impact, (d) platform, (e) time, and (f) passions” (32).
“It is crucially important to sit down with these primary texts and jot down your own thoughts, insights, reflections, and notes at an early stage. Later on, when you have spent hours upon hours looking at secondary scholarship, it will be hard to separate your “fresh thought” on the primary texts from what you have learned from other scholars” (40).
“Everyone writes according to their own personality and preferences. But as for me, I start with a large-scale outlining of the manuscript towards a first draft. I ‘chunk out’ the whole project into its big pieces. For a book, that might be chapters. For an article or essay, I will create major section headings. At this stage, the titles of those headings are basic, kind of like ‘placeholders’” (48).
“It is good to write with a dash of humility, but if the writing lacks drive, it can be underwhelming, and you run the risk of losing the reader’s interest. Aim for a space in between meekness and rage, the shy mouse and the charging rhino” (52). ❖
Quote this Review
Footnote: Timothy J. Harris, “The Writer: A Guide to Research, Writing, and Publishing in Biblical Studies,” Practical Theologian, August 4, 2024, www.practicaltheologian.com/blog/bookreview-ye2x4.
Bibliography: Harris, Timothy J. “The Writer: A Guide to Research, Writing, and Publishing in Biblical Studies.” Practical Theologian, August 4, 2024. www.practicaltheologian.com/blog/bookreview-ye2x4.
