my writting is falling below academic standard

positivenote

Hi all,
i'm approaching the transfer stage of my PhD and have had the second draft of a chapter returned by my supervisor with the same feedback as last time; Im going in the right direction but my writing style is falling below the expected standard (grammatically/structurally/ Depth of focus). I'm struggling as I thought it was of a sufficient standard but looking at the corrections I can see I was way off and the supervisor is being polite. Are there work shops / tutorials that could improve academic writing to a PhD standard or are there proof reading services or even software that can help?
any help would be appreciated
Thanks

sullivlo

positivenote wrote: »

Hi all,
i'm approaching the transfer stage of my PhD and have had the second draft of a chapter returned by my supervisor with the same feedback as last time; Im going in the right direction but my writing style is falling below the expected standard (grammatically/structurally/ Depth of focus). I'm struggling as I thought it was of a sufficient standard but looking at the corrections I can see I was way off and the supervisor is being polite. Are there work shops / tutorials that could improve academic writing to a PhD standard or are there proof reading services or even software that can help?
any help would be appreciated
Thanks

What university are you based in? And what is your field of study?

I ask because different institutions have different courses on offer, and different fields of research have different approaches to writing.

Firstly, ask to speak with your supervisor regarding writing style. Tell him/her that you have concerns and can they suggest anything you can improve on. If they don't commit to anything specific, read as many of your supervisors papers and learn as much as you can about their writing style - how they structure sentences, how they deal with discussing others results etc etc. You will find a trend, and if you write like them they may be less inclined to pick holes in your work.

Secondly, read read read. I cannot stress how important it is to read up to date papers. The more you read, academically speaking, the more academically you will write. The reading part is also vital in terms of writing discussions and dealing with your results effectively.

Use short sentences. Don't be afraid of the full stop. It's easier to understand a long sentence when it's split into a few smaller ones if necessary.

Remember, it's not a narrative. You don't want to describe the graph. You don't say "the amount of cells decreased over time", you would say "cell count data showed that cell numbers decreased as a function of incubation time" - you need to be as scientific as possible.

In terms of grammar there are proof reading services out there. But they can be expensive and should really only be used in an emergency. You could ask the postdoc in your lab (if there is one) to proof read for you. I'm a postdoc and proof reading is essentially the only way I learn what the students are doing or even ask a non-academic friend to take a look over it for you. Sometimes we can be too close to things to see the errors.

Structurally this will come over time. Structural was my main issue too. I have never had any experiments to do after getting reviewers comments back from journals - it has always been restructure the writing! Again, this can be worked on. Don't be afraid to ask someone in a more senior position for advice on the flow of the work and whether it makes sense to someone not close to the project.

In terms of depth of focus... Read. Read. Read. Then read some more. I think I read maybe 4 papers for every 1 that I ended up citing in my thesis. There is always a wealth of information out there. I find it useful to read review papers on the topic initially, and then start to read topics more specific to your research. Don't be afraid to compare and contrast, and don't be afraid to go against what has already been seen if you can stand over your data.

All universities - at least those that I have been involved in - run academic writing courses. Trinity has a student learning section where they have people who meet with students regularly to advise them on how to write / progress their work.

Failing that, other sources would be conferences aimed at postgrads - most will run some workshops in conjunction with the conference.

There is also a guy based in UCC who runs courses on scientific writing. I can PM you his details if you need. He might be able to direct you to who he would recommend you speak to in your own university.

It's not easy, but it can be improved on. Writing was my big downfall but with a bit of hard work, I managed to get to a point where it was mostly acceptable.

It was, however, embarrassing having my non-native English speaking supervisor correcting my grammar!!

Roselm

In UCD the library offers courses in academic writing (I don't know specifically if they do writing for a PhD) but your library might do something wherever you are studying.

positivenote

Thank you for the detailed response. I'm part-time in DCU and my research is in the field of communications/sociology studies looking in to some ethnographic field work, once i get through my transfer. I have been sending drafts of work to my supervisor and they have been extremely helpful regarding the feedback, but each draft is falling short regarding the academic standard of writing. It is improving, but still needs work.

sullivlo

positivenote wrote: »

Thank you for the detailed response. I'm part-time in DCU and my research is in the field of communications/sociology studies looking in to some ethnographic field work, once i get through my transfer. I have been sending drafts of work to my supervisor and they have been extremely helpful regarding the feedback, but each draft is falling short regarding the academic standard of writing. It is improving, but still needs work.

I have friends in DCU. Will ask them & get back to you.

positivenote

sullivlo wrote: »

I have friends in DCU. Will ask them & get back to you.

thank you, feel free to PM.

Kavrocks

In the past year a writing centre has been set up in DCU to provide support for very similar issues, there were emails about it before Christmas. They provide one to one support as well as hosting workshops and events designed to help people with their writing. There are also several modules available for you to take

• LC602 - Advanced Writing Support for International Students
• GS608BS - Strategies for Academic Writing
• LC600 - English for Academic Purposes

There was a workshop called "Turbocharging your Writing" on in January. There is another called "Writing in the 3rd Year" on in April too, both of these are offered by the Graduate Studies office and advertised via the Loop site (which all PhD students should be automatically registered for and receive emails from) as well as the postgraduate research mailing list (same story as Loop site).

Most importantly though, the Loop site has a dedicated section on Writing Supports for Graduate Researchers too.

Tom Dunne

I had a similar issue up until recently and this book (in addition to my supervisor) had a big part to play.

Kavrocks

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I had a similar issue up until recently and this book (in addition to my supervisor) had a big part to play.

That book has been highly recommended to me also. I'd consider buying it but wouldn't know when I'd get the chance to read it.

sullivlo

Kavrocks wrote: »

That book has been highly recommended to me also. I'd consider buying it but wouldn't know when I'd get the chance to read it.

Time spent learning how to write effectively is time saved further down the line. If you want to pursue a career in academia / research, it's publish or perish, so the quicker you learn how to write effectively, the easier the publishing process will be.

Tom Dunne

sullivlo wrote: »

Time spent learning how to write effectively is time saved further down the line. If you want to pursue a career in academia / research, it's publish or perish, so the quicker you learn how to write effectively, the easier the publishing process will be.

Couldn't agree more.

While I felt that the above book was tangential to the topic of my writing, I felt that the time I spent reading it more than makes up for the time I spent starting at a blank Word document or typing prose that my supervisor would reject.

Voltex

Just as another book recommendation;

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Scholarly-Publication-Anne-Sigismund/dp/0761918051

positivenote

thanks again for the replies, can I ask if the copy of 'Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for supervision' being referred to is the 2nd edition (2014) as there is a copy of the edition from 2006 in the DCU library. Would either publication be hugely different or both equally beneficial for my writing/
thanks

sullivlo

positivenote wrote: »

thanks again for the replies, can I ask if the copy of 'Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for supervision' being referred to is the 2nd edition (2014) as there is a copy of the edition from 2006 in the DCU library. Would either publication be hugely different or both equally beneficial for my writing/
thanks

I can't see the basics changing in the different editions of the book

ilovesmybrick

Sullivlo's advice is spot on, no matter the discipline. I come from the humanities, so in terms of content and style it would be quite different from Sullivlo, who sounds like bio-chem or something? Either way I found that once you get the broad structural issues under control you can relatively quickly identify the smaller issues that come up in academic writing.

I found with undergraduates and masters students they tend to over-think the tone and style and ignore the most basic aspect of writing, everything, from a sentence to a thesis has a beginning, middle and end. Paragraphs are the usual problem with students trying to stuff as much information into overly lengthy paragraphs. One major point and move on. Introduce it, make the argument and conclude and transition to the next argument. If it needs to be further refined or developed you will catch it at the re-drafting stage. This is especially important if you are discussing large amounts of quantitative data because otherwise you run the risk of overwhelming the reader with information. Short and snappy is your friend!

When I was starting my own research I would read a paper and bullet point the structure to see how it was constructed. Make a note of how the introduction and conclusion tie together, then the major points in each section. Usually you can summarise the flow of a 20-30 page academic paper in less than a page. Don't look too much at the content, look at how an argument is being posited and how the author transitions through points to build a convincing argument. Pick a paper that you both enjoy and find quite engaging and see what they are doing to make it an interesting paper. I used to do this with first years to teach them about academic essay writing and it was reasonably successful. Writing can be improved quite readily, it would be more worrying if you were going the wrong way with your research! Re-reading my own writing from the first two years of my PhD was quite upsetting!

P.S.-Find a good North American student. They can be vicious proof-readers as they are still taught the basics of grammar. It's upsetting but invaluable feedback in terms of passive voice, to be verbs etc.