In another thread, I had asked for limericks on collaboration for a book chapter I am writing. Shu suggested that I start a new thread on it so that people wouldn't forget.

I will be writing a chapter on collaboration in health care and would love to start it with a limerick. Of course, if I use yours, I will acknowlege you.

Thanks!

... from another thread ....

Controversies are often polemic;
They spread like a great epidemic.
Providing the wealth
To finance Public Health
Is pragmatic -- not academic.

* * ** *** ***** ******** ***** *** ** * *

Collaborators working together
Might be called birds of a feather
Healthcare providers
Sympathetic insiders
From high summits and Lands that are Nether.

Here's my initial attempt:

Now healthcare we know's a vocation
And caring and help its foundation.
And in this great task
Is it too much to ask
That we strive now for collaboration?

Frankenstein, pioneer surgeon,
Had assistance that needed no urgin',
From Igor, whose task,
Without gown or mask,
Was to help with the creature's emergin'.

That chapter is now coming to fruition, and I am putting together a limerick to start my chapter. If you have any other ideas, please send them my way.

I've tweaked Richard's a bit, and here is what I've come up with:

Now nursing we know's a vocation
With theory and care its foundation,
So in this great task
Is it too much to ask
That we struggle for collaboration?

I don't much like "struggle," but I struggled with that last line. Thoughts?

How about: That we all strive for collaboration?

I used the wording I did in my original submission to avoid the negative connotations of "struggle". But if you don't like it then here are a few more ideas to add to Arnie's:

For a measure of collaboration
That our aim should be collaboration

or change L4 as well and then:

What I'm wanting to ask
Is for everyone's collaboration.

Oh, I liked "strive" much better than "struggle." "Struggle" tends to have a negative connotation, I agree. I just didn't like the 2 "nows." Perhaps I could start the limerick without the "now?"

Remember, I am a little anal about meter and stresses, unfortunately.

You could start it with another "filler" adjective or article. How about "all"?

Here's what I sent them:
Since nursing’s a teamwork vocation
With theory and care its foundation,
Is it too much to ask
In this admirable task
That we focus on collaboration?

I understand that editors do their "magic" (as the book editor told me) so that there is some cohesion in a multi-authored book. However, I didn't expect the her to edit my limerick! She might have requested that I delete it, but I was surprised that she edited it and even more so by her edit of line 5. Therefore, I have requested that they delete it in total. Here's the editor's version. I am anal about meter and just can't live with line 5:

Since nursing’s a teamwork vocation
With science and art its foundation,
It’s not much to ask
For this admirable task
To invite altruistic collaboration.

Request? With that line 5 I'd demand.

Incidentally on the minuscule amount of published work that I have I've always accepted that in the case of prose the editor can do what he likes with it providing the agreed fee is paid. It's work for hire and as such ceases to have anything much to do with me once it's done.
With limericks the same would be true with the extra stipulation that metre is maintained. If I submitted a serious poem (The House on the Rock Cycle, for example) I would expected it to be changed only after consultation with me. I work damned hard at the poetry and while I often revise it myself I wouldn't take kindly to someone else making unauthorised changes. So far (with my even more minuscule amount of published poetry) it hasn't happened.

I agree, Bob. I will demand it.

And, of course, I won't get a dime from the countless hours I put into writing this chapter. Academic writing, at least in the U.S., is purely for your CV. That's your reward. In fact, I recently published an article that we decided all our members should receive. We had to pay over $500 for reprints of the article that I wrote! They at least used to send us some free reprints. I suppose the Internet has interfered with their bottom line.

As I have said in the past in various contexts, anyone who can get something for nothing will usually take something for nothing. I even had a publisher call me a few weeks ago who wanted me to write some editorial for some local Government publication (or that's what he claimed it was). Then he said, "There is a financial implication..." To which I responded, "Of course. I charge £300 per thousand words and for that you retain copyright".

There was a silence and he said, "Ah, we were expecting you to pay us for the privilege of being in our prestigious publication!"

I explained to him that prestige doesn't pay my bills and that was the end of that.

If you don't ask for payment then you'll not get payment; if you do ask, then you sometimes do. That's been my experience.

Frankly, I believe that any organisation who thinks that professional people should give of their services for nothing, so that THEY can make money by using the results, has a bloody cheek. Tell them to get politely lost.

Edited to correct typo.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Richard English,

I agree with Bob and Richard.

As an additional point, how dare an editor of academic journals decide to change poetry, even if it's 'only' a limerick? What qualifications does she have to judge? Why does she change the entire meaning of the limerick, both in L2 and in L5, to say nothing of ruining the scansion?

Either she should reinstate the limerick as originally written or remove it.

Editng books is my shtick
At cutting and pasting, I’m slick
I’ll improve your rhyming
By changing the timing
And the structure while altering the sense of your limerick

Edited for dumb spelling eror- oops, error

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Proofreader>,

quote:

Editng books is my schtick

And spellign too?

Of all the places in the world to make a mistake, it had to be in this joint!

I edited several organization newsletters many years back, and I would NEVER change contributors' offerings without their permission --- especially if it involved poetry.

quote:

If you don't ask for payment then you'll not get payment; if you do ask, then you sometimes do. That's been my experience.

It sounds good, Richard, but it doesn't work with academia. No one (as far as I know) gets paid for writing articles for journals, at least in health care. Perhaps it's different in England, but you just don't get paid here.

When you get paid, Richard, I suspect the publications aren't academic in nature. Were I to write an ongoing column for the Chicago Tribune, for example, I'd be paid. However, I already do write an ongoing column for an academic journal and I (nor others who write them) don't get paid. I have been paid for a few things I've written, but not many.

Don't worry about mistakes in this joint, Proofreader (an ironic name!). We all make them, including our illustrious Richard.

By the way, the editor of the collaboration book said she loved the limerick and has agreed to my changing it back to my original one.

quote:

It sounds good, Richard, but it doesn't work with academia.

A long while ago two Northampton shoe manufacturers sent salesmen to Micronesia since they had noticed that they sold no footwear to that part of the world.

They both arrived at an undeveloped island and after researching, each sent a cable (I told you it was a long time ago) back to his company.

The first said "Natives here do not wear shoes so no possibility of making any sales. Am returning on next ship".

The other cabled, "Natives here do not wear shoes. The market is wide open - please send bulk supplies of all sizes and styles"

And the moral of that old story is, just because nobody's done it that doesn't mean it can't be done. It might simply be that nobody's tried it.

Academic journals make money through the sale of advertising and reprints (and almost certainly in other ways). They are therefore operating in a commercial environment and can pay for contributions. Indeed, they DO pay for contributions, that I guarantee. They will be paying their editorial staff to start with. But they will happily accept something for nothing if they can get it, and they will never offer to pay if good writers are prepared to work for them for nothing. Incidentally, I don't know if it's true in the USA, but over here GPs (who give their services "free" under the NHS) charge a lot of money for any private, non-medical, work. You want a passport application signed? You local GP will happily do the job and charge you probably a tenner. And I am quite sure that they also charge for any articles they write as well.

As soon as I finish here I will be writing 300 words for a trade paper and I will not charge. BUT this is a quid pro quo since I do get a lot of paid work from the publication. So long as I let them have 1000 words per annum for nothing they will let me have paid reporting and feature-writing work. But they accept that I will only give them so much for nothing - because that's the deal I negotiated when I started working for them around ten years ago.

The labourer is always worthy of his hire.

Authors of articles in academic journals do get paid, though not in actual money. They are expected to write and can cite the publication of articles in their resumé (CV). By this means they can gain the respect of their peers and incidentally hold out for the better-paid jobs that come up.

quote:

Authors of articles in academic journals do get paid, though not in actual money. They are expected to write and can cite the publication of articles in their resumé (CV).

Oh yes. I've heard this one many times. It's a wonderful way for the publishers of academic journals to make money out of the efforts of others without paying them.

But I'll be willing to bet that there are those who get paid in cash as well. Those people who have already achieved fame and who have no need to enhance their CVs will be wearing their boots on the other foot. The journals will want articles from those who are famous in their fields and won't be able to blackmail them into providing free material on the threat of not publishing their work, since the threat means nothing.

I am quite sure that there are plenty of people in that category - and it wouldn't be difficult to find out who they are and what they charge.

The editor-in-chief of a major nursing journal is at this conference. I will ask her tomorrow if anyone has ever been paid for their articles. She surely will know the rest of the industry, too.

If some of the big gurus do get paid, which I doubt, that won't mean anything for me anyway. Sadly, I am not a big guru. I mostly published to disseminate our work, though it is helpful for my CV (as arnie says), just in case I'd ever move.

quote:

Sadly, I am not a big guru.

Don't underestimate yourself; you wouldn't be asked to attend conferences, speak and write articles if you weren't very well thought of.

But certainly ask the EIC; she will surely know the situation.