In this presentation, I reflect on my journey of conducting and publishing a study with my thesis supervisor in Language Learning and Technology journal (LLT) when I was a master's degree student. LLT is an SSCI journal, which has an Impact Factor of 4.313 and is currently ranked #1 in the world among Open-Access Journals in the field of Linguistics and Languages. The paper in question is titled "Exposure to L2 online text on lexical and reading growth", which aims to investigate the relationship between the amount of English reading on the Internet and Vietnamese EFL learners' L2 abilities (i.e., lexical knowledge and growth of reading ability). My discussion involves five subsections: introduction to the paper, its conception, the process of conducting the study, writing the manuscript and getting it published on LLT. Also to be discussed are the importance of being active in learning new knowledge and skills and the value of having support from an experienced scholar in addressing the reviewers' comments and revising the manuscript. Lastly, I will also provide some tips for writing an effective abstract for journal publication. Insights from the presentation are useful for graduate students and novice scholars working in the field of applied linguistics, especially when it comes to publishing in high impact journals.