This is a problem I have faced on several occasions.
One reason for the problem is that students have little
experience in writing, very little experience in understanding
editorial comments, and very little experience in rewriting.
If the writing has not improved over successive iterations then
my guess would be that the student is not understanding the
editorial comments.
I try to pick one goal for each set of revisions. For example, if
the ms is poorly organized then my goal may be to get the student
to understand how a ms should be ordered. (I ignore the dangling
modifiers, unreferenced pronouns, and inconsistent use of plurals
in that version.) I provide the student with a general flow for
a section (past to present, general to specific, human vs.
nonhuman subjects) and get the student to start cut-and-pasting
and deleting paragraphs. Then my editorial comments begin to make
sense. ("Why is this animal study being included with the human
studies and not with the other animal studies?")
Once the organization is acceptable, then I may work on
grammatical issues. I will take the 1st page of a section and
explain the problem with and solution to some issue like unclear
pronouns. Then I will circle the problem in the rest of that
section and have the student work on correcting the problem. This
task will take a couple of revisions but the student does
understand the editing goal.
Finally, I reassure the student that all writers must rewrite and
rewrite and rewrite.
Ken
Wuensch, Karl L wrote:
Can you TIPSters offer any advice with the problem presented below?
A friend who is an assistant professor at an institution
that offers a masters degree asked me: I am trying to go over a thesis
proposal so the student can get it out to his committee members, but I
am having a good bit of difficulty with it. The information is there -
in fact it is a rather exceptional review of the literature - but most
of the manuscript is simply incoherent. We have had several iterations
and his writing is just not getting any better. Do you have any
suggestions? I am confident that this will be a problem when it comes
to writing the thesis itself too.
My response:
I wish I could say that this is a problem I have never
faced. My most recent experience with such a student damn near drove me
over the edge. I have tried two basic tactics in the past, with limited
success:
* Keep sending the draft back with advice on what the problems are
and how to address them. This is the high road, as it should
result in the student learning how to write properly. Problem is,
when YOU skid off the edge of the high road you have a helluva
long drop.
* Write the damn thesis yourself. This is the low road, as the
student will not really learn much other than that passive
aggressive behavior works. If, however, the student is simply
incapable of professional writing, it may be the better choice in
terms of the amount of YOUR time that is taken getting the thesis
written properly.
There are, of course, other options. One, which I have not taken, is to
resign as chair of the thesis committee. Another is to insist that the
student get professional help, either from your university’s writing
center (if it has one) or from a paid professional.
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Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. steel...@appstate.edu
Professor and Assistant Chairperson
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
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