So I got the reviews back from one of the manuscripts I submitted to linguistic journals over the summer.

Good Thing: It wasn't rejected completely.

Bad-ish Thing: A complete rewrite was recommended. And I do mean complete.

Good Thing: The suggested rewrite will make it appeal to a wider audience.

Bad-ish Thing: The suggested rewrite will require a heck of a lot of literature review in alternative theories.

Good Thing: I'll then be aware of those theories and be able to explain how they get worked into the current model. I'll also know how much of my model relies on the current syntactic theory du jour and how much is more durable.

So, all in all, a sort of happy thing. Now, if I can just remember this as I re-read the individual reviews....which aren't so very nice at all.