You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 12

Posted on March 31, 2009 by Desray J

Learning where to find the right help

 

Okay, by now you should have a clear idea of what a university can offer and hopefully what your university does offer when embarking on the doctoral or master’s road. One usually chooses one advisory’s team (advisor and 2 committee members), but even that does not guarantee a smooth road.

The trick is to know what each person should be providing. Students seldom get all the help that the university should be providing, but you should know where to look for the help. That way you can avoid the disappointment of looking for help in the wrong place, from the wrong person. Do not expect your advisor to write your thesis or dissertation. Do not expect your academic editor to be a miracle worker. Be decisive and choose what you wish to include in your paper when you get conflicting advice from the various levels of help. And do not allow faculty to shift their responsibility onto the editor.

How can you be confident about finding your way through differing opinions about what you should do? Equip yourself to understand what each person can offer you. Learn to do some basic self-editing to bring all the ideas into focus. Need help understanding how to self-edit? Download your own handy copy of the Language Online 21 Proofreading Tips to help guide you through trying times. Be sure to print the guide and have it on hand. And when you have competently completed your share, hand over to a good academic editor for some editing TLC.

Click on cover to request your copy: 

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Words within Words

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Desray J

Different word game, and so easy for some and difficult for others. Our brains are all different.

Inside each set of the following words, there are a pair of smaller words. By putting & between them, lo & behold, you’ll make a familiar phrase. For example, “Thighbone/Swallowtail” conceals “High & Low.”

  1. Skyrocketing/Trolleyman
  2. Thermometer/Apoplexy
  3. Delaware/Bordering
  4. Surprised/Trashiness
  5. Throughout/Stumblebum

Continue reading →

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You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 11

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Desray J

Understand who could and should be involved with your thesis or dissertation.

 

I’ve borrowed some thoughts from a university to their students. The sections in []  are my additions. This combination can vary from university to university, but the point still is that there are many official university appointed people involved. And one academic editor who should in no way be directly involved with the university. Helps keep some of objectivity in what is an intensely emotional process at times.

Levels of Help

“During the dissertation review, you will benefit from perspectives and recommendations from 8 levels of review:

  1. 3 committee members[: an advisor and 2 committee members is often the combination]
  2. 1 academic reviewer
  3. 2 IRB reviewers [the AR and IRB combination varies from school to school]
  4. the APA editor [often a statistician can also be included here]
  5. the dean’s review


The purpose of these reviews is not punitive, but is intended to increase your scholarly writing abilities and to ensure that the dissertations produced by students … are scholarly in form and style.”

Out of the 8 people supposedly involved with an edit, 7 are from the university. That means only the academic editor isn’t. Each one has a clearly defined role within your studies. And the definition of what an editor must do is very clear in the use of the above example of an APA editor: language, punctuation, academic style, school’s style (if provided), and APA formatting. Essentially this is what I call an academic copy edit. The term “copy” is terminology from the publishing world and means your paper.

So now you know what to expect and from whom 8-) .

Next up is how to use that help wisely.

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More Authors and Books

Posted on March 28, 2009 by Desray J

Back to braingle and more famous books and their authors. I love when I don’t always get all the books or authors. See if you are better at it than I am. One could easily make up a ton of these.

Same formula. Letters have been taken from each book and each author.

From the letter list below fill in each letter to give the names of the books and authors.

An-e-s and D-m-ns
D-n -ro-n

Pe- Se-at-r-
S-ep-en K-n-

C-r-nic-es of N-r–a
C – L-wi-

A F-re-e-l to A-m-
E-n-st H-mi-gw-y

A M-sq-e of Me-c-
Ro-e-t Fr-s-

T-e Hu-t for R-d Oc-o-e-
T-m C-a-cy

Bl-ac-e-s
Jo-n Gri-h-m

Continue reading →

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You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 10

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Desray J

Choose an editor soon and wisely

 

Academic editors often feel as if in a battle: deep in the trenches, straight in the firing line. And truth be told, editors like to be in the backrooms, quietly working away.

Why the battlefield? Well, doctoral students and advisors often expect miracles from academic editors. Good editors are extremely reliable, but they are only one cog in a very complex wheel and have no say over what a school requires.

It is a good idea to choose an editor right at the beginning of your writing process and work together for the full number of years it takes to complete your studies.

A good editor will want to know what a school requires so that school guidelines can be included in an edit. Nothing more satisfying for a flexible editor than providing a student with an integrated edit that includes the basics of good English, academic style, strict formatting (like APA), and a school’s house style.

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Word Play Joke: accidents

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Desray J

I Originally read this as a cartoon. Now it arrived by email and it still make me smile. This form of humor has a name. Not important you know the name though, but does it make you smile.

 

Moving Again

“Why are you moving? You’ve only arrived in our lovely neighborhood a few weeks ago.”

“I know, but I read some frightening statistics in the local paper: most auto accidents happen within eight miles of your home.”

 

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You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 9

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Desray J

Still focusing on you and your editor.

 

Whatever you do, give your best effort to an editor. If you send careless work, the editor will always be dealing with the first layer of the onion or the first rung of the ladder. The idea of using an editor is to raise the bar and improve the level of your work.

A few steps before you use an academic editor:

  1. Get friends and family you trust  with reasonable language skills to read your dissertation or thesis. Make sure people edit with tracking on. You must know what changes are being suggested.
  2. Incorporate any suggestions from your advisor and advisory committee.
  3. Then self-edit as many times as you can. Do you know anything about self-editing or proofreading? You owe it to yourself to learn some basic tips. Download your own handy copy of the Language Online 21 Proofreading Tips. Be sure to keep a printed copy next to your computer.

Now you can send to an academic editor. Be prepared to pay a reasonable fee and wait a reasonable amount of time for the edit. You want excellence; give the person the space to provide you with excellence.

Quite simply, provide your best first and then use a good editor: the perfect formula for success.

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Definitions: theory, experiments

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Desray J

Theory, Experiment

A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it.

An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it.

Albert Einstein

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You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 8

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Desray J

I classify three basic types of editing.

  • copy editing
  • content editing
  • format editing

As a editing service, Language Online offers copy and content editing. Format editing is absorbed into a copy or content edit. Almost impossible to do it separately. Proofreading is for you and for your friends and family who might read for you. It is also forms a part of any copy or content edit.

But what do you need to do. First, get your content in place. This is actually what your advisor and advisory committee are for. They must work with your on content. Then pass your writing on to your academic editor to copy edit: refine and ensure all the language, punctuation, academics style, school style preferences, and formatting are correct and consistent. Content and how work is written are really not mutually exclusive, but if you are needing to separate the focus, start with content and then move to honing the writing detail.

Ironically, if there are problems with your content, the reverse is true. Some advisors actually want you to get the written part sorted out before they finalize the content with you. The reason is actually very simple.

Clear writing reveals problems with content.

Fuzzy writing, hides content problems.

So if you have the time and financial resources, have an academic editor edit before and after the input of your team.

The best way to ensure good writing and content is to involve your chosen academic editor step by step. Give each chapter to an editor and be sure to edit at the proposal and dissertation stage as well.


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Five Senses and School

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Desray J

Hope this does not offend, but I thought it amusing. Humor can be very different for people and so I tread with caution. As always, there is some word play and hence my smile. Email humor.


Don’t LOOK at anything in a physics lab.
Don’t TASTE anything in a chemistry lab.
Don’t SMELL anything in a biology lab.
Don’t TOUCH anything in a medical lab.
and, most importantly,
Don’t LISTEN to anything in a philosophy department.

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