Meet Karen Quick the author of "Linguistic Inclinations in Query Letters."
Karen Quick is a junior at Montana State University majoring in English and Psychology. She is the author of "Linguistic Inclinations in Query Letters," in the 21st volume of Young Scholars in Writing.
From a young age, Karen enjoyed writing her own stories and novels, with the hope that she would publish them in the future. Her personal experiences while searching for an agent to represent her writing led Karen to look more insightfully at the purpose and effectiveness of language within query letters. Specifically, she was eager to dive deeper and search for “a way to empirically define acquiring success rather than just subjective ‘Oh, well it depends’ answers” as it pertains to aspiring authors.
Karen looked for a way to apply what she was learning as a Psychology major to her interests as an English major. After experimenting with different methods to analyze query letters, she used the Linguistic Inquiry Word Processor (LIWC) to decrease potential bias. However, collecting query letters for unpublished projects proved difficult for Karen as it required a lot of trust from other authors to volunteer their projects. Ultimately, her own literary experiences helped her navigate this issue as she began to “approach potential participants as a member of the community rather than a researcher looking in.”
Karen’s research allowed her to immerse herself in the literary publishing industry, making sense and finding comfort in a world that had seemed daunting previously. Initially, she felt that one has “to have numerous accolades under your belt” to get published; however, these preconceived notions were reevaluated upon executing her research. Her experience writing for YSW helped her break free of the “rat race” that she, like many young authors, had found herself in by establishing “a fire and an interest in researching for me rather than an interest in just pushing words for publication.”
Looking back, Karen is glad to have written about a topic in which she’s passionate, stating that “if [the research topic] matters to someone, and it makes a difference, then put your whole heart into it, and send it off to submissions.” She hopes to continue pursuing her dreams of becoming a published author in the near future while also experimenting with the literary publishing industry and potentially returning to studies and querying down the road.
When asked about any encouragement she might have for future YSW contributors, Karen reminisced on the initial intimidation she felt after spending a few weeks looking at the journal in her first year. “I remember thinking [the published undergraduate researchers] were leagues above me,” she commented. To others interested in submitting their work to Young Scholars in Writing, Karen notes how her experience was incredibly rewarding and expressed gratitude to the YSW team for having “such a phenomenal working system put up that helps elevate research, students, and faculty.”
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This post was initially developed through a partnership between Dr. Cope’s Fall 2023 WRT280: Research Methods students, who interviewed the author, and Dr. Cutrufello’s Fall 2023 WRT320: Digital Writing students, who drafted the post. Lee Krauss edited and updated it for publication.
