From a BA of French literature to an MA of English

[rising_star]

It's not cheating. Most programs expect that a professor will have seen and looked over your writing sample before you submit it.

[anxiousphd]

19 hours ago, Yanaka said:

Hey guys,

So I have a question and I don't know where else to ask it. Rutgers answered telling me my WS should be top-notch (obviously). Now, I know some of you ask professors to read your material, but in my case I was wondering if that would be "cheating".

Lemme explain: I am not the best dissertation-writer just yet (especially not the French one), and my English language has a few flaws since I'm not 100% bilingual like never mind, I speak and write like any other American who's always stayed in contact with the language outside of books and the solo experience they come with. So of course my WS would benefit from someone looking it over and making comments on the structure and the language, especially considering that I translated this essay from French to English. Someone proof-read it and helped me out, but she wasn't from academia (she's an American who graduated with an English major BA).

But I do not want it to be perfect because I don't want to be overrated and misplaced in the anglophone academic world. Does that make sense? 

How did you feel about having top-notch professors correcting your writing sample?

I received a ton of feedback on multiple drafts from two of my favorite professors, and my best friend (who is a textbook editor and holds and MA in lit) looked over my final draft before I submitted it.

What I mean is, nearly everyone who applies gets some help, and many applicants get a lot of help. As long as it's your work, it is completely fine to have peer review, a proofreader, or a professor's guidance. 

[Yanaka]

Thanks for the answers. So neither of you think it's bas even for you to submit something that's been "pimped" thanks to professional researchers or editors? 

[Metaellipses]

I think it would depend. In my case, I had a workshop with two other students from my undergrad. We all read each others' drafts and gave verbal feedback. We were also all getting feedback from the two professors who put the workshop together (generally written feedback). I would say that you should get as much conceptual and compositional feedback as you possibly can. But I think the important distinction to make here is that all the work has to be your own. Having professional researchers and editors look at it and give suggestions is valuable, as long as it's still all your work (I'm not quite sure what 'pimping' implies, but to me it evoked pay-for services where professionals rewrite your essay to improve it. I'm sure you didn't mean it this way, but I'm just distinguishing for others). TLDR: solicit any and all suggestions from people you respect who have done academic work at or near this level (taking the useful suggestions and discarding the ones that aren't useful). But the implementation should be all you.

 

[Dr. Old Bill]

11 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

Thanks for the answers. So neither of you think it's bas even for you to submit something that's been "pimped" thanks to professional researchers or editors? 

This is a very unusual question, quite frankly. Collaboration is key in professional writing. You certainly can write in a vacuum, but when you think about the entirety of the academic process, it's clear that your work will always be passing through revisions or other forms of review -- formal or otherwise. The same should be true of your writing materials when applying to graduate schools. In other words, getting external feedback is not only not "cheating"...it's almost essential!
 

[anxiousphd]

46 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

Thanks for the answers. So neither of you think it's bas even for you to submit something that's been "pimped" thanks to professional researchers or editors? 

As others have said, I think it just depends what you mean by that. For example, I once worked for a professor who was a non-native English speaker. I often rewrote large portions of her articles for her, rather than just offering feedback, proofreading, etc. Something like that is probably frowned upon, but I don't suppose adcoms would have any way of knowing if you paid someone to write for you; it would just come back to bite you later if you couldn't produce the same quality of writing later in your seminars.

[Bumblebea]

46 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

Thanks for the answers. So neither of you think it's bas even for you to submit something that's been "pimped" thanks to professional researchers or editors? 

I'm not sure what you mean by "pimped"? Do you mean "pimped out" in that other people have had a hand in polishing it? 

If that's the case, it's really not a big deal as long as your language and ideas aren't being altered. I paid a professional editor to help copy edit an article I was trying to publish. ESL students frequently hire native English speakers to help them edit their dissertations. 

[Yanaka]

I know my question is strange, and I am having a hard time wording it. I was only worried that having input would basically mean that I wasn't capable of coming up with a good paper on my own. But it's true that research seems to always work that way, with people reading your stuff and commenting--I'm not too familiar with that aspect just yet  

Yes pimp out. I forgot there was a little word there missing!