Literature and insights

Literature and insights

Article Type: Literature and insights From: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Volume 21, Issue 6

I think we are missing an opportunity. We could be promoting the articles in academic journals in a more dramatic fashion, and the AAAJ is about to set a new benchmark in this regard. The blurb on a recent book said that it “brilliantly restores the energy of telegraphic communication, launching line after line toward a potentially infinite horizon of meaning”. Now you know that this is a book you have to have. Would not you like someone to say that reading your article propelled them “toward a potentially infinite horizon of meaning”? We can create similar excitement in relation to articles about auditing or governance, for example.

So, after hours toiling in a secret underground laboratory attached to the vast Emerald Publishing works, I am proud to announce the new AAAJ blurb generator, or ABG, as we fondly call it. As a special service to contributors, we are offering the ABG for a trial period of three months at no cost. When you have an article ready for submission to the honourable editors of this August journal, all you have to do is select from the options in each list, as shown below, and complete your own article blurb to go with it. If you are feeling adventurous, you might even incorporate your own variations. Once you have done that, the only thing left is to find the right person willing to add their name so that you have the cachet of a celebrity endorsement. A well-known footballer would be best but a Nobel Prize winner would do.

The form of the blurb is: “Not since [A] has there been an academic article of this [B]. It will [C] and bring you [D]”. Your own blurb might read something like this: “Not since A Tale of Two Cities has there been an academic article of this grandeur. It will beguile you and bring you hours of delight.” The list of options in the trial kit is as follows:

A

• •

  War and Peace

• •

  Moby Dick

• •

  Heart of Darkness

• •

  A Tale of Two Cities

• •

  Rambo

B

• •

  sweeping scale

• •

  grandeur

• •

  insight

• •

  dazzling ingenuity

• •

  reckless beauty

C

• •

  change your life

• •

  open your eyes

• •

  comfort and enlighten you

• •

  beguile you

• •

  seduce you

D

• •

  a new way of seeing

• •

  hours of delight

• •

  a sense of perfect relief

• •

  a feeling of utter enchantment

• •

  bewildering bliss

There is a huge audience out there that is missing all the thrill of these articles just because of a lack of entrepreneurial flair. In the next issue, I will tell you about the Parker-Guthrie Gilbert and Sullivan Generator that automatically converts academic articles into lyrics for stage musicals. In the meantime, please send in your poems, short stories and non-fiction contributions (with blurb attached).

Steve EvansLiterary Editor