Tricks of the Trade

A Special “How-To” Edition of Military Review

The Harding Project is renewing professional discourse across the force with increasing momentum. Professional journals are significantly modernizing, and many individual soldiers are picking up the pen to add to conversations, some for the first time. 

Still, publishing an article or establishing a unit-wide program to promote discourse may seem daunting. To ease the burden, a group of like-minded individuals across the Army, champions for professional discourse in their own rights, came together to share their experiences and offer “how-to” guides for help cause. After months of work and teasing the project’s release, the Military Review special edition is available online and thousands of copies of this handy tool are in the mail. 

The guide is designed for beginners and seasoned writers alike—as well as organizational leaders looking to develop programs for their unit. While I hope you already clicked the link above to download your own copy (here it is again), below is a quick synopsis of what the special edition entails.

 Although you are more than welcome to read the magazine cover-to-cover, we deliberately divided the special edition into three distinct sections to help readers easily reference what they need, with most of the articles building on each other or referencing the others throughout. After all, writing is a process.

For individuals

The first section is designed for the individual. Capt. Theo Lipsky’s “How to Write an Article” and Lt. Col. Zachary Griffiths’ “How to Write a Book Review” set the foundation for the guide, providing step-by-step instructions for the two most likely projects an aspiring writer will pursue. “From PME to Publication,” coauthored by Maj Gordan Richmond and myself, offers some tips as well as some warnings about converting a paper you’ve already written for another purpose, such as a graduate paper, into something publishable. Building on this baseline, Dr. Trent Lythgoe’s addition, “Rewriting: The Secret to Writing Well,” offers simple guidelines for revising, editing, and proofreading drafts. Finally, to close out the section, Lt. Col. Matthew Jamison, an author who contributed some insights that ran counter to a senior leader’s earlier article, offers some advice on dissenting professionally in his contribution, “With All Due Respect: How to Foster Dissent in the U.S. Army.”

For units

The next section is for units, covering topics designed to improve discourse in an organization. Many readers will be familiar with these concepts, as they were adapted pieces from online exclusives. This section begins with Lt. Col. Erik Davis and Lt. Col. Nick Frazier’s how-to guide for “Building and Running an Online Forum,” which shares experiences from their NSTR platform. Lt. Col. Ferguson then argues for the importance of “Catalyst Papers: A Practical Writing Style for Army Leaders to Share Ideas.” But the foundation of the section is Lt. Col. Jay Ireland and Maj. Ryan Van Wie’s shared personal experience in “How to Develop and Run a Unit Writing Program.” They provide tangible recommendations and are candid about what it takes to run such a program successfully. Finally, Maj. George Fust’s article “Speech: It’s a Technique,” takes a different approach to professional discourse as he emphasizes the importance of tools like debates and digital media.

When publishing

The last section is for those considering publishing. I led this section off with Capt. Leah Foodman, coauthoring a guide on coauthoring entitled “Writing is a Team Sport: How to Find and Write with a Coauthor.” Capt. Rebecca Segal and John Amble provide critical resources for advancing an idea across the finish line to publication in their articles “A Writer’s Guide to Giving and Receiving Feedback” and “Your Draft Is Done, Now What? Working with an Editor.” Segal discusses the processes of gaining and providing informal feedback from colleague, subject matter expert, and mentor. Amble builds on this piece, sharing his experiences as the Modern War Institute editorial director at West Point. Similarly, Lt. Col. Nathan Finney discusses the importance of teamwork for developing and refining ideas in his guide “Building a Community: How to Create a Professional Writing Network.” Finally, Col. Todd Schmidt, the editor-in-chief of Military Review, and William Darley, the journal’s managing editor, candidly explain what it takes to get selected for publication in his closing piece “Punctuation Mark: Article Selection by Professional Publications.”

In addition to these how-to guides, the special edition is filled with hand-drawn artwork and has articles that highlight the history of the Army journals, detail why Soldiers should write, and discuss the efforts behind renewing professional writing. This unique publication will hopefully create confidence across the Army to contribute to professional discourse. As I stated in Parameters just a few weeks ago, “This how-to guide will equip the force to enter the conversation. Individuals can leverage the publication to action their ideas, leaders across the force can learn from their peers, and those who succeed in publishing their work can help shape the force.”

Grab a copy

Download a copy today and look for it soon in print. If you want to follow up on a specific topic, contact the authors. I know from experience that they want to hear from you.