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

should i be insulted? wrote:

STEM grad student in computational science and engineering (essentially an applied math/science degree). My undergrad was done at a top 10 university and I am in graduate school at a top 5 university.

Ok you certainly need writing help them. Did you take any writing beyond freshman English?

Embrace the fact that you have an advisor who is interested in your education and improvement. You will learn from this. That is the point of school.

I took some social science classes that included writing large essays and generally did pretty well on these. I tested out of some of the writing requirements from my SAT score. Oh I also got almost perfect on the writing section of the GRE.

Not all native speakers of a language are great writers; you seem to be offended because you associate getting help with writing with being a second language writer. You may also be having issues with metalinguistic issues such as genre conventions; these need to be learned by experience or through someone like the tutor you were recommended. Just being a "top student" does not mean you can write a publishable paper without assistance. If you are butthurt about something like this you need to thicken up your skin a bit if you are sticking with the academic world.

should i be insulted? wrote:

I took some social science classes that included writing large essays and generally did pretty well on these. I tested out of some of the writing requirements from my SAT score. Oh I also got almost perfect on the writing section of the GRE.

^Cringeworthy writing. FYI: There is punctuation beyond the period.

1. You have not developed a command for the structure of the subject's discourse as some others have mentioned.

2. You are a decent writer at best, and your adviser has high standards, maybe compounded by the above. I would think that you'd be able to do well, and not just "pretty well" on your essays in university with such brainpower and just high school English.

3. Your adviser is lazy.

Somewhat off-topic, but do you like physics, and did you excel at it?

luv2run wrote:

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

Pfft. Usually, unless one of the reviewers is a grammar nazi, you wont hear anything until proof. SO many authors and reviewers, and editors are non native English these days.

Journals have software (or busy grammar editors) that will correct a lot of errors in proof and ask you to approve. Caution is advised as sometimes the meaning gets twisted inadvertently.

One of the most tiresome thing about academic writing these days is when it devolves into a d!ck measuring contest. Everyone thinks their writing is perfect and yours sucks. Its idiotic.

should i be insulted? wrote:

I took some social science classes that included writing large essays and generally did pretty well on these. I tested out of some of the writing requirements from my SAT score. Oh I also got almost perfect on the writing section of the GRE.

That depends on what your goal is. If you want to learn how to write better, than you will not be offended. If you want to brag on how you aced the homework, then you should be offended.

When Molly Huddle's coach tells her she needs to work on her speed, do you think she starts listing off her accomplishments? Or do you think she gets down to work?

I'm pretty sure Ms. Huddle is a much better runner than you are a writer. So....

FWIW, I doubt the tutors can make you a better writer. That will take more time and skill than they have. If you really want write better, buy Joseph Williams, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Work through it slowly and deliberately. Do the homework.

I say this based on having taught "writing intensive" classes to everyone from freshmen to grad students. They all say that after reading it, they finally know what makes awkward writing awkward, and how to fix it. Their only complaint is that they weren't assigned it earlier.

PS I have a good friend who got a MacArthur genius award in his late 20s. His two favorite comments are, "I don't know anything about that. Could you tell me more"? and "I'm not sure I understand. Could you explain that again?" It it works for him...

Okay, it's funny that people are insulting my writing on here when this is a forum where people write colloquially. Anyway, my advisor does have very high standards (you don't become a professor at a top school without high standards). I also made this topic partly out of jest but I must admit I did associate going to the tutor with being a second language writer since the last person my advisor referred to the tutor is from China.

Yes I like physics and did excel at it. Why? I did well in math in general, hence my focus.

insulted troll wrote:

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

Irony is a bitch.

Perhaps you didn't read my first post since you made the same grammar mistake in this post. Let me again try to help you improve your paper with this simple and easy to remember rule.

When the word "but" is used to join two independent sentences, it is always preceded by a comma. You can easily determine this by removing the word but and seeing if you're left with two complete sentences.

Note that the first part of this sentence "I also made this topic partly out of jest" is a complete sentence. The part after the word but is also a complete sentence. You must always use a comma before the word but when it joins two complete sentences.

This is a common grammar mistake, but reviewers of your paper might find it very distracting. It could subconsciously affect their perception of the accuracy of your content.

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 will have difficulties working in the workplace if you can't accept constructive feedback. It was a suggestion to make you better and learn. With your attitude you will always remain a low level worker.

You could start by learning how to spell adviser.

phidipidippides wrote:

You could start by learning how to spell adviser.

hihi wrote:

Irony is a bitch.

Use of a cliché is an indicator of poor writing skills.

socrateees wrote:

phidipidippides wrote:

You could start by learning how to spell adviser.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/advisorhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/adviser

"Advisor" has mainly come into usage by people who can't spell good or intentionally tried to evade regulatory obligations.

Only Millennials use advisor.

You shouldn't be offended because your writing sucks. It is verbose, sloppy and lazy.

All published works are edited by many other sets of eyes prior to publishing. A good writer cannot competently edit his own work, and you should be smart enough to know this.