I'm wondering if this is normal. When I submit work to my main supervisor, instead of telling me what changes should be made, she does them herself. Like sometimes she would write whole long paragraphs herself to add to what I have already written. I mean it certainly is less work for me but is this standard practice?

You are the luckiest person in the academic world!

It's definitely not normal in my experience....but embrace it!

I know someone who has this done for her PhD - not me personally, I wish! But I actually think its great, cos the person learns loads about writing style etc a lot quicker than having loads of revisions sent through. The main way this has been done is that she was doing a paper for publication that was changed by supervisor, which she herself then adapted for thesis.

actually I don't think this is such a great thing! Someone in my lab had her paper written for her like this, in fact everything she wrote was rewritten by our supervisor (even if it conveyed exactly the same as what she wrote in the first place). Now not only does she have no confidence in her own writing style, it has come to thesis writing time and our supervisor is nowhere to be seen. She is now struggling so much to write as she is used to having someone rewrite her stuff. This could be a particular problem for those whose first language is not English and needs the practice. I should also point out that our supervisor has been in trouble for this 'rewriting' recently. Having said that as long as you know your stuff inside out, it shouldn't give you problems with things such as vivas, however it can undermine your confidence. Its as though what you have written isn't good enough, especially frustrating if what is rewritten says exactly the same as what you wrote in the first place, just reworded.

hmm, Yes I would have to agree - my friend only really gets stuff added or changed places, never re-written as such, perhaps the use of slightly better language, as she is dyslexic and often uses the same phrases throughout.

This isn't standard practice and like what the previous posts have said I am not sure it is a good thing in the long term as it could prevent you from developing your own style. Sometimes I get really frustrated when my supervisors try to get me to write in their style, so I can end up with 5 people telling me to write things in 5 different ways! Also it can sometimes be quite obvious where things have been written by someone else so that is something that you'll have to bear in mind! But on the plus side it does save you time lol!!

I know of a supervisor who does this regularly for his students, but his actual style of writing is very verbose and nothing like anything his students would write. It is largely overlooked, as some of his students do not have English as their first language, but it is regarded as a rather dodgy practice. I'm wondering what this will look like to an external examiner. If I see very distinct changes in writing style for undergrad essays, I know it's either not referenced properly from some text they've read or written by someone else, with a possibility of plagiarism in the worst case scenario. Can you rewrite your supervisor's additions in your own words, so it looks like your own style, at least?

Lostinoz - i will pray tonite that i have a supervisor like yours when i start in january (up) Wow! enjoy! lucky you!! :-)

This is definitley not standard practice and I don't think it's a good idea. It would drive me barmy.

i have just had my lit review returned to me with huge chunks having been rewritten by my supervisor, and to be honest when i saw it i felt like crying! i felt like he hadn't trusted me to write it myself, especially as all he had done was put what i had written into different words, without actually adding any extra information. i have three supervisors (1 from industrial partner + 2 from uni) and i felt he had done it just to impress the other supervisors with his writing style. not only that but his spelling and grammar was atrocious, so it has made more work for me in terms of correcting his work, and picking out which bits are actually worth including. i don't want to offend him by ignoring his additions, but at the same time it is really frustrating as i don't feel that his corrections added anything to the original! he said my first draft was fine, then he discussed it with my other supervisors, i did a second draft, and that is when he suddenly decided to rewrite big chunks.

so overall , i wish my supervisor wouldn't do it as it makes me feel like my writing style isn't good enough, and instead of trying to help me out and improve, he just imposes his style on me instead! and somehow i can't imagine he's going to write my thesis for me, so i wish he would offer some constructive criticism which would be of more use to me in the long run :-s

I don't really mind this as it is so much less work for me. My supervsior usually expands on what I have already written and it always sounds so much better. This whole practice makes me think and hope that supervisor will write small parts of my thesis too ;-) I have no trouble understanding what is written it's more that I'm too lazy to do it myself.

maybe i'm being too sensitive and should just be grateful! ;-)