How to handle supervisor's revisions?

[Sagesaga]

I found gradcafe a very safe place to share our experience in grad school. Thank you guys. I'm a bit stressed out whenever I see my supervisor's edits on my work. I want to hear out how you guys handle this.

I recently switched to a new supervisor. He is very supportive and always gives feedback on my work promptly. His feedback is detailed and constructive. I know that he read and thought about my work thoroughly. However, sometimes, his edits are a lot. If you guys are familiar with track changes in Word,  you probably will know the feeling when you see red ink/changes all over the pages.  It's like he re-wrote the whole paper. Whenever I see this, I'm mired in self-doubt. I question whether, one day, I will ever be able to make it and become a professor like him. II feel discouraged, but I do know that my supervisor is doing the right thing to help me grow. I just want to know whether you had similar experience and how you handle it?

[Sigaba]

37 minutes ago, Sagesaga said:

I found gradcafe a very safe place to share our experience in grad school. Thank you guys. I'm a bit stressed out whenever I see my supervisor's edits on my work. I want to hear out how you guys handle this.

I recently switched to a new supervisor. He is very supportive and always gives feedback on my work promptly. His feedback is detailed and constructive. I know that he read and thought about my work thoroughly. However, sometimes, his edits are a lot. If you guys are familiar with track changes in Word,  you probably will know the feeling when you see red ink/changes all over the pages.  It's like he re-wrote the whole paper. Whenever I see this, I'm mired in self-doubt. I question whether, one day, I will ever be able to make it and become a professor like him. II feel discouraged, but I do know that my supervisor is doing the right thing to help me grow. I just want to know whether you had similar experience and how you handle it?

This professor is showing you a great deal of respect by "bleeding" all over your drafts. The detailed comments are an indication that he's treating you like a peer and/or that he's attempting to mentor you.

The challenge you face is to acknowledge how you feel then to put those feelings aside so that you can wrestle with his recommended changes. (Easier said than done! I once got so worked up over some coaching I received that the departmental chair took me to lunch so he could calm me down. It's not a good essay, he said.)

Do what you can to understand how the recommended changes improve your work and give you an opportunity to grow as a scholar and, maybe, a person as well. At the same time, do what you can to develop a sense of where you want to draw the line -- are points where you want to stick to your initial approach? If so, how would you explain your position to your professor. What will you do if he insists that you make the recommended changes?

(Here, I recommend that you learn from my experience -- do not say yes or no right away. Say something along the lines of "This is a lot of food for thought..." and then give yourself time to figure what you really want to do. The big picture here is not pleasing someone you may respect or admire, but to develop your sensibilities as a professional academic.)

To address your question, I've been on both sides of this dynamic. Long story cut short, while I'm very conflicted about my experiences and my choices as a graduate student, I know I'm much better off from having a couple of professors willing to kick my ass up and down the hallways and stand on my head during office hours. The professors who leaned in  and helped me improve my critical thinking and writing skills to the point where I could earn jobs in vastly different industries.

[PsyDuck90]

I second what Sigaba said. Also, even successful faculty get their work edited. I am currently working on a manuscript with my advisor, and she sends drafts to her colleagues all the time for feedback, and they deliver. Writing is always a process, and people will always see things that you don't in your own writing. Even when you submit to journals, readers are providing feedback. 

[bibliophile222]

My program was a clinical masters program, so probably a bit different from yours, but one of my clinic supervisors was notorious for an insane amount of track changes and multiple drafts required for every piece of clinical writing. It was frustrating at first to make all the requested changes, hand it in, then have to make entirely separate revisions on the next draft, but it was something we just had to get used to. I feel like when writing for almost any professor there's an adjustment period where you learn their preferred style and tailor the writing to that style. Over time, I began to know what my supervisor was looking for and ended up with fewer and fewer changes as I went along. It was something I just had to shrug off and adapt to, just like for any other professor, and it made my writing stronger in the process. 

[PokePsych]

13 hours ago, PsyDuck90 said:

I second what Sigaba said. Also, even successful faculty get their work edited. I am currently working on a manuscript with my advisor, and she sends drafts to her colleagues all the time for feedback, and they deliver. Writing is always a process, and people will always see things that you don't in your own writing. Even when you submit to journals, readers are providing feedback. 

This also goes the other way sometimes. I've also made heavy edits/comments on one of my advisor's grant application before because I felt significant parts were missing and there was an opportunity to massively strengthen the application (he felt they were super helpful). 

Plus be mindful that the amount of 'red lining' may also reflect the way people edit. Rather than changing a specific word, some people juts rewrite the whole sentence (whereas effectively they're just changing one word). If you are worried, you may also ask what 'critical' part leads to so much editing. Is it the structure (e.g., the way you order and organize your arguments?), writing style, something else?

[RyanS]

Getting feedback on our writing is hard because it's our own voice that's getting critiqued. It feels personal. In my experience, I notice that when I get a lot of red line much of it is simply style preferences. It helps me to see those as less personal, and I just let those go. The rest is there for your growth. No one starts out being a perfect writer.

[bubble_psych]

Agreed. And at some points in your training you feel like you've really mastered a good academic writing style, based on Mentor A. Then you end up working with a new person, Mentor B. Mentor B's writing style is different from A and now you have to start all over lol. Red everywhere, It can be really frustrating! But part of the process, and we get better, more flexible writing styles we can decide to use when we are independent writers. (Well, until a reviewer doesnt like your writing style ?)

[Sagesaga]

Hello everyone!! Thank you so much for all of your kind words and support. I found that I no longer feel frustrated and hopeless after reading your comments and spending a few days without thinking about it. The inner voice that "you suck" has subdued. I guess this is just the process a graduate student will go through

 

Thank you, wish all the best for your academic career and life!!!

[dr. t]

On 8/18/2020 at 9:15 PM, Sigaba said:

It's not a good essay, he said.

"I usually would not recommend someone with this level of writing ability go on to graduate work."

Yeah, that one stuck with me.

[dr. t]

On 8/22/2020 at 6:34 PM, Sagesaga said:

Hello everyone!! Thank you so much for all of your kind words and support. I found that I no longer feel frustrated and hopeless after reading your comments and spending a few days without thinking about it. The inner voice that "you suck" has subdued. I guess this is just the process a graduate student will go through

Time is usually best. It's why I insist on 48h between giving out a grade and scheduling a meeting about it.