Completing a rebuttal letter is your chance to defend your article. This letter can save you from deleting or changing big part of your original work. Therefore, you should pay proper attention to its writing. We have completed a short article with recommendations on how to write a rebuttal letter so that you can complete your letter easily.
Step 1: Know Your Enemy
When you apply to editors and reviewers, you should find out as much information about them as possible. That way, you will be able to imagine those people as if you were acquainted to them personally and it will be easier for you to communicate with them.
All editors and reviewers have vast experience in their area of expertise. Each of them is immensely knowledgeable in the field. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t express your opinion and that you have to agree with everything they tell you.
Step 2: Analyze Accusation
1) Examine reviewers’ comments and suggestions thoroughly.
Some of them can be offensive for you and that’s okay. During the whole process of reading the reviews, keep in mind that nobody meant to hurt you. Reviewers have the same purpose as you. They want your article to be published and they offer you the way to reach your purpose. Hence you should perceive their comments as recommendations, not as insults.
2) Classify all of them into categories.
If there are a lot of comments, you should classify them so that you have an easily defined structure. Your rebuttal letter should be well-organized. Our suggestion of categories:
- Writing style
- Inconsistencies
- Lapses
- Format
3) Decide which comments you will rebut.
We recommend that you rebut only the most important points for you. Also, take into consideration that you should stay objective. Maybe you should really change some parts even if they seemed to be excellent. However, you should also keep balanced. Don’t agree with any single suggestion. You should at least try to rebut some points. Otherwise, editors may think that you haven’t taken much effort to complete the original work.
Step 3: Think of the Line of Defense
When you write a rebuttal letter you engaged in negotiations. Hence you should have a strategy to succeed. Follow these instructions to create your strategy:
- Define which pieces of information you don’t want to change at all.
- Try not to make it obvious which paragraphs are crucial for you.
- Use the information that you found out at the first step. This will help you to choose the most appropriate style of approaching the information.
- Evaluate your chances. If you understand that you are more likely to fail, create plan B. Find other journals where you can publish your work.
Step 4: Write Your Letter
Now, you can start writing you letter.
- First point that you need to add is your gratitude to referees. They spend their time and effort to explore your work so that you can publish it. This is worth your appreciation.
- The next section is dedicated to your refutation. Don’t answer everything at once. Copy and paste each reviewer’s comment and write your answers after each of them.
- Conclude you letter. Here you need to express you gratitude one more time and mention your anticipation. Also, you should write that you are able to make more amendments if needed.
Tips and Suggestions on How to Write a Rebuttal Letter
- Apply with respect. Even if you think that some reviewers’ remarks were unreasonable, you shouldn’t be aggressive towards those people. You should make an impression of a thoughtful person who has an adequate attitude toward critiques.
- Stay formal. This type of letter demands formal speech only. Here you should sound a bit like a robot.
- Don’t make it personal. You shouldn’t accuse reviewers of your failure. If you are sure that the reviewer wasn’t objective for some reason, don’t write about that. The editor also reads reviewers’ comments so that he or she can make his or her opinion whether you were misjudged.
- Answer every comment. You shouldn’t avoid a chance to give an answer to reviewers’ critiques. Furthermore, you should comment on suggestions that you agree and disagree with. If you agree with a suggestion, you should write that you agree and demonstrate the amendments you put in.
- Don’t offer excuses. Otherwise, you won’t be taken seriously. If you have clearly failed with anything, just say that you agree with the suggestion and provide editors with proof of your making the amendment.
- Don’t be stubborn. Your article can’t be excellent for everyone. Good articles are the result of the work of many people. If you would like your work to succeed you should take into account remarks of several experts. We know that you have already spent a lot of time and effort on your paper. However, you should make one last gasp before you succeed. Do you know that some novels have been written for years and decades? There is always room for perfection.
And Finally
To say is easier than to act. Despite the fact that we have told you a lot on how to write a rebuttal letter, we understand that sometimes it can be difficult to apply those recommendations. If you feel that you can’t cope with your letter on your own, contact writingcheap.com. Well-qualified writers will help you to defend your work. With their help, you’ll increase your chances to publish your paper and make the appropriate amount of amendments. If you are looking for information about another type of letters, you can read other articles on our blog, for example, The Complete Tutorial of Writing a Formal Complaint Letter.
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