My grad advisor wants me to show my paper draft to one of the technical writing tutors. Should I be offended?

Writing a research article is likely very different than anything you've ever done before. It's a learning experience. It's okay for you to struggle and need help. Go to the tutor and learn as much as you can.

The question you should ask yourself is:

Is there any possibility he would do this with the sole intention of offending you?

If, as seems likely, this is not the case, your advisor's only plausible is that he/she sees something in your writing that can be improved, and he/she wants you to produce the best paper you can.

If you view it from this perspective, and still feel offended, then recognize that you are choosing to hold onto a view of yourself as perfect over and above being willing to seek avenues of improvement that would challenge this self view. That's pretty much human nature, but it's not very helpful.

Writing sentences properly, and knowing when to punctuate, are not skills you possess.

No, you shouldn't be offended. You're in grad school, take all the opportunities for help and learning that people can provide, and actively search for even more than that.

The most important thing in the grad program isn't what you know, it's how you know it and how well you can use the processes of academia to get work done.

No, you should not be insulted. You need to take your ego out of it and focus on producing the best writing possible.

Being edited is part of producing good writing. If great writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe needed editing, your writing probably also needs editing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Perkins

should i be insulted? wrote:

First of all I was born and raised in the US and scored very high on the verbal/writing portions of the SAT, have generally done quite well in my writing classes, etc. even though I am a STEM graduate student.

I have a big paper draft my advisor is editing but he suggested I take it to one of the technical writing tutors on campus who would help me edit it. Should I be offended? I know there was a Chinese student in our group who went there but I feel like that's more understandable.

'First of all' (sic) you might ask for some editing assistance before posting to a running message board with a stupid question about grad school, etc.

Find a new advisor...this one has disrespected you, snowflake.

You should not be offended; you are there to learn.

Yes. You should always get offended when someone suggests a way for you to improve an important professional skill. This is really the only appropriate reaction.

If you are offended by this, wait until you get back a paper submitted to a peer-review journal.

Report the advisor to your student life dean. Someone this insensitive should not be working with young people.

OP, you should not be offended. I've worked as an editor for a staff of eleven writers. I found that I had to be very careful in critiquing my writers because some of them took my comments personally.

Years later, I wrote books, which in turn were edited by professionals. In almost all cases, I had to admit that their editorial feedback improved the final product.

Even minor grammatical mistakes can become a mental speed bump to readers, jarring them away from thinking about your content and instead thinking about your grammar. When grammar mistakes are repeated often, as is the case in the OP's original post, the reader eventually becomes skeptical of the accuracy of the content as well. If the grammar is sloppy, how much trust can the reader put into the research done by the writer?

OP, let me critique your post to help you understand what I mean.

"First of all" [Delete this phase. We know it's first because you're writing it first. It's like starting a sentence with "So." It is not professional.]

Failure to precede the word "but" with a comma. [This is very basic grammar. Doing it twice in one paragraph makes it a real mental speed bump to your credibility. I find this particularly jarring, but it's fortunately an easy fix.]

Generally, you should avoid using "etc." in a sentence, although this wouldn't be considered a problem on message board.

"the SAT, have" This should be "the SAT and I have" or "the SAT, having." This is also jarring to the reader because it appears that you are writing a compound sentence with three or more parts, but there are only two.

The first sentence is 40 words long. This is more acceptable in scientific papers, but since the sentence is grammatically incorrect, the length makes it even harder to read. You should try to avoid sentences longer than 30 words, although this is sometimes hard to do in professional papers.

You should not be offended by my comments. I'm taking time out of my day to help you. My guess is that your advisor saw similar errors and wanted to help you get rid of them.

should i be insulted? wrote:

First of all I was born and raised in the US and scored very high on the verbal/writing portions of the SAT, have generally done quite well in my writing classes, etc. even though I am a STEM graduate student.

I have a big paper draft my advisor is editing but he suggested I take it to one of the technical writing tutors on campus who would help me edit it. Should I be offended? I know there was a Chinese student in our group who went there but I feel like that's more understandable.

You should absolutely be insulted at the least, and triggered at the most. I suggest you round up a flash mob of fellow "participant ribbon" types to really drive home your point. Putz.

'Getting offended' is an immature and self-destructive reaction in any scenario.

Your supervisor's suggestion is an indication your writing skills are below par, especially given that you are a native English speaker.

One remedy is to read more literature in you field. This takes discipline to do regularly, but you will be rewarded for your effort. Reading relevant literature more frequently will improve your understanding of your field, and make it easier to write about. You'll also get a better understanding of how a paper should be structured and written.

What do personal feelings have to do with churning out a good paper?

Your advisor is most likely sexually involved with whoever runs the writing department and sends everyone there regardless of need to artificially inflate the demand for their services and ensure they stay gainfully employed. I'm a professional writer so I know what I'm talking about.

Ms. Piggy wrote:

One remedy is to read more literature in you field. This takes discipline to do regularly, but you will be rewarded for your effort. Reading relevant literature more frequently will improve your understanding of your field, and make it easier to write about. You'll also get a better understanding of how a paper should be structured and written.

+1

should i be insulted? wrote:

First of all I was born and raised in the US and scored very high on the verbal/writing portions of the SAT, have generally done quite well in my writing classes, etc. even though I am a STEM graduate student.

I have a big paper draft my advisor is editing but he suggested I take it to one of the technical writing tutors on campus who would help me edit it. Should I be offended? I know there was a Chinese student in our group who went there but I feel like that's more understandable.

Wow snowflake alert. He offered you good advice and you wonder if you should be offended. What a joke. As 34 year old I hate being classified as a millennial with you whiny 20 year olds.

So you are a STEM grad student? In what area?