Hello everyone, I am new to the forum but am in the second year of my PhD. I have been 'advised' by my supervisors that I should consider giving up as my writing style is not commensurate to a PhD. They say they cannot help me! I am English, it is not as if English is my second language which would be understandable, but I clearly have a lot of problems nonetheless. Can anyone recommend books, courses, online courses or anything that might help me up my game please? Thank you!

Most universities offer some kind of study skills support service, so it would be worth investigating whether there is anyone at your uni who is able to provide some advice on writing at PhD level. Another idea would be to ask your supervisors if they could recommend one or two theses which they consider to be well written. Then compare them with your own writing and try to see what the good writers are doing differently. Or if you have any colleagues whose writing has been praised by their supervisors, perhaps you could ask one of them to comment on an extract from your thesis.

I teach academic writing to post-graduate students (mostly international but also some native speakers of English) and I've never found a book that provides really good advice on writing well. However, if all the suggestions above turn out to be no use, I can try to suggest a couple of not-too-awful books. It would help to know what field you are in. PM me if you like.

Hi Dumbo, what field are you in?

I have just completed my PhD and am an academic journal editor - I have been working with many authors who are struggling in making their point across in academic English, and often the problem is that they have too many ideas and try to follow them all up in their writing and then the text becomes a soggy mess. PM me if you want to chat more, I am happy to look at a couple of pages of your text and give you an opinion if your field is related to mine (social history/visual studies/cultural history/historiography).

I have found Pat Thomson's blog on academic writing SUPER useful - just google "patter" and "blog" to find it.

Best of luck anyway :)

It also seems quite odd to me that they have simply said they can't help. I would talk to student services about any courses that are available to postgraduates in academic writing - most universities have such courses available (mine certainly does!), and maybe try to tease out more from your supervisors? What exactly do they have a problem with -- is it the tone of your writing, the language, structure? It's difficult to know what to work on if you don't know specifically what is wrong!

In the news very recently, there's an article about the 'staggering' trade of fake degrees revealed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42579634

"Thousands of UK nationals have bought fake degrees from a multi-million pound "diploma mill" in Pakistan, a BBC Radio 4's File on Four programme investigation has found."

Apologies, this is more connected to the comments about buying essays and academic fraud.