Do supervisors edit students' work

[tachik]

Is that part of their role?

[fuzzylogician]

It'd be good if you could ask all your related questions in one thread, instead of starting a new thread for each one. You've started 5 in the last hour, and as far as I can tell they are all basically about the same problem. 

Professors are not required to edit their students' work. Some do it more, some do it less. On just everyday assignments (as opposed to theses, etc.), many won't bother at all because there are just too many assignments they have to grade, and they are there to teach you professional material but not writing. Your advisor will usually do more of it than professors you just have for one class or two. If you are having difficulties with your writing, you may need to visit your university's writing center or get some other type of help specifically for that. 

[tachik]

Thanks! And is it against school policy that supervisors/advisors help students with editing? I would like to ask my professors.

Edited October 27, 2015 by tachik

[fuzzylogician]

You'd have to check the policies at your own school, but I've never heard of a policy that prohibits a professor from helping a student with editing. 

[TakeruK]

In the other threads, it sounds like you are asking about writing in coursework. In that case, it is not part of your research supervisor's role to edit your writing for coursework (at least, this would be strange in my field). One exception would be if you chose to write the final paper for a course on your actual research project. Your supervisor might offer to read it over and give some comments (although it's still rare for them to actually make the edits or edit for spelling/grammar instead of just content).

However, if you are asking about professional writing, such as journal articles, grant applications, conference abstracts etc. then your research supervisor would be fairly involved. It does depend on each person though. My own advisor takes a very hands-on approach for editing when it comes to their students' work. They would not just edit for spelling/grammar correctness but also think about better ways I can phrase certain things. This is especially important for grant applications! But not all professors will do this and how much they are involved would depend on the amount they have at stake. For example, a professor might spend more time on edits if it's their student (i.e. invested in student's success). But, if it's not their student or postdoc (but they are still a coauthor) then they might spend less time and for major spelling/grammar issues, they might suggest the author use an editing service.

As for policies, I've encountered class policies that prohibits outside help with editing (whether it's a prof or another student or the writing center). Some fellowship applications also say that the student must write the statement "on their own" or "independently". I'm not sure exactly what this means---so far, I've interpreted it to mean that all the writing must be mine but a professor (or any other person) can look it over and give feedback but not actually make edits or do any of the writing. 

[bhr]

Peer review and revision (from another student, the writing center, or a professor) should be part of the writing process for anything you submit. The amount of feedback you receive, and how you use it, it up to the reviewers and yourself. It's also important to learn how to give feedback without significantly changing the content (so, no re-writing someone else's work as part of reviewing).