Thesis Editing: Whose responsibility is it?
Yesterday I attended a thesis writing workshop at my University by one of the leading authors in the field. When asked (at the end of the day, when we were finishing about 30min early) about whether she had suggestions on thesis editing, her response was 'No'. She said that editing and proof reading is the supervisor's role and that the supervisor should be reviewing the thesis a large number of times to do this role. I am interested to know what your opinion on this is.
My supervisors want to see my thesis a maximum of 1 or 2 times each (I have 2 supervisors). However, the 'workshop leader' said that supervisors should see the thesis many times (much more than a couple are her words). I am not sure what system I prefer. However, if I were to know my supervisors were going to see my work a million and one times, I am not sure I would make such an effort in editing/proofreading my work to make sure that I give them as close to a finished product as possible, although I would like to be able to receive a number of drafts with comments and being able to send them my first draft and telling them to focus on the structure, then another to focus on the argument etc etc. I am seriously mixed up on this, and welcome any discussion.
I've not go to this stage yet, but I'd say that it's the student's responsibility to make sure their work is edited to a standard that the supervisor can focus on the content. The supervisor may then make editing suggestions, but shouldn't have to carry out basic level stuff.
It does depend slightly on the dynamics of the individual student-supervisor relationship, so I'm a little perplexed that the training person seemed to suggest there was a single approach.
I had two supervisors and they each read each chapter only once. I made the required changes but never gave it to them again.
I do think it depends a bit on the student and the relationship with the supervisors. I felt happier giving them what I saw as completed drafts for each chaper (or as good as I thought I could make them) and then didn't really have a lot of comments for changes. One supervisor did pick up on some typos and made a few comments on structure, grammer, but the other only really commented on content.
I'm not sure I've known anyone where their supervisors looked at multiple drafts, certainly not many more than two.
hi Ailicec,
Have you thought about the workshop leader's role in your phd--because at the end of the day, no matter what he/she says, it's your own supervisor(s) who will decide whether they want to do thesis editing/proofreading.
If your supervisors have told you that they want to see your thesis a max. of 1 or 2 times, then the editing and proofreading should be mostly done by you. If you have a totally exceptional supervisor who is willing to proofread, put comments and edit at the same time, that is all the better :-)
The thing with theses is that they change a lot. What I suggest is that you just send in your best one (edit to your heart's content) and then step back and relax. Because when the comments come in, there will be changes again, and again, and again etc.
love satchi
Thank you for all your comments. For my own project, I will definitely edit over and over again, proofread it, send it to friends for comments etc., prior to sending to my supervisors. My first supervisor wants the full first draft in 3 weeks, so editing/proofreading is what I am mainly doing at the moment. I just wanted to see what the situation with other people is and perhaps get some discussion going.
I made sure my thesis chapters were as near perfect as I could get them before sending to my two supervisors. Once of them checked scientific content only, the other checked both scientific content and made minor suggestions for changes to grammar etc. I think it is definitely your own resposibility to thoroughly edit your thesis; your supervisor has enough to do! If I had sent a very poorly edited draft to my supervisors, I imagine they would have sent it straight back and told me to tidy it up before sending it back to them again. It is not their job to edit your thesis for you.
I sent my draft chapters out to my supervisors just once; they commented on the draft, and I made the suggested changes and compiled the thesis into a whole before sending it to them again. Pretty sure they never even looked at the completed thesis though. It was entirely down to me to ensure that the structure, tables, referencing etc. were done correctly, and no one checked them for me.
I plan to hire a professional editor after I am happy with my first draft and my first supervisor has gone through the context quickly...
I will send the edited draft to both supervisors for final comments (all that IF I EVER manage to produce a draft)
Pretty sure they never even looked at the completed thesis though.
I'm pretty sure my supervisor would do the same thing : /
Not sure if that's a good thing.
It was entirely down to me to ensure that the structure, tables, referencing etc. were done correctly, and no one checked them for me.
I think I may have the same plan; mind telling me why you've planned to do everything on your own?
My supervisor edits mine and we discuss structure and so on too. He talks me through each point, even about grammar and writing style so I learn. This has worked very well and these days my work comes back with much less ink on it. He even circles the odd times in my bibliography when I've left an extra space after a full stop. Clearly, I am a lucky PhD student...
Where has the 'quote' button gone?!
Anyway, I did all the checking of my thesis myself because no one else would do it for me, and to be fair, why should they? It was my thesis, so I was responsible for it. It was a long and boring job checking all the refs, tables etc., so unless I paid someone I can't imagine anyone would want to do it. I did ask family to take a chapter each and have a quick check over it to make sure I hadn't done anything stupid with the formatting, spelling and grammar, but I'm not sure they did that thorough a job as none of them are academics/scientists so they found my thesis pretty boring!!!
Obviously, it would have been nice if my supervisors had helped out a bit more, but I certainly wasn't going to pester them about it when I could just do it myself. I guess if they thought I wasn't capable of editing it properly myself they would have let me know, and either helped more or encouraged me to get someone else to check it for me.
In my experience, it's the student's responsibility to ascertain that the thesis is clearly written and edited so as to enable the supervisor to focus on the contents' nitty-gritty. Of course, in spite of you editing your work, vigorously, anyone reading it could still pick up a few things here and there. Your supervisor can spot these and bring them to your attention. Poorly edited work gets in the way of whoever is reading it with a critical eye and mind, and with a view to providing a feedback. Besides, if the PhD student can't get it right at this stage, when would s/he do so? You may soon realise that after earning your PhD you're in a situation or an environment where you finish working on a manuscript intended for publication in a journal article and the opportunity to ask someone to help you read and provide feedback before sending it off simply isn't there. In that case, if poor writing gets in the way of the reviewers assessment, that could lead to a rejection.
