Research teams and language abilities

[Adelaide9216]

How does it work it work in a research team where everyone has to do a lit review but not everyone is bilingual (EN and FR)?  I might be in that situation, working with a faculty who is unilingual anglophone. I speak and understand English, but I am a francophone and do not feel comfortable doing an entire lit review in English due to my grammar. I don't want the prof to be spending time correcting my grammar throughout the process...

 

any thoughts? 

[rising_star]

It's not the professor's job to correct your grammar. That's when you hire or work with a copyeditor. If you're that concerned about your English grammar/writing up front, why not start working with someone in the writing center to improve your skills? I'd also share your concerns with the professor.

[Sigaba]

3 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

How does it work it work in a research team where everyone has to do a lit review but not everyone is bilingual (EN and FR)?  I might be in that situation, working with a faculty who is unilingual anglophone. I speak and understand English, but I am a francophone and do not feel comfortable doing an entire lit review in English due to my grammar. I don't want the prof to be spending time correcting my grammar throughout the process...

 

any thoughts? 

1. Start looking for websites and published guides on academic writing for non-native English speakers.
2. Pay extra attention to how the pieces you're reviewing are written--your lit review should have many similar elements.
3. See if you can find journals in your fields that are published in French. Pie in the sky, you'll find articles in French and English on the same topic that will provide a "road map" of sorts.
4. Start thinking about expanding and increasing your ability to step outside of your comfort zone. Don't deny or suppress your feelings. But don't let your feelings get in the way of embracing opportunities to grow.

 

[fuzzylogician]

6 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

How does it work it work in a research team where everyone has to do a lit review but not everyone is bilingual (EN and FR)?  I might be in that situation, working with a faculty who is unilingual anglophone. I speak and understand English, but I am a francophone and do not feel comfortable doing an entire lit review in English due to my grammar. I don't want the prof to be spending time correcting my grammar throughout the process...

any thoughts? 

If you're working in an English-speaking environment and expected to do research in English, then it's going to be expected that you produce writing that's up to par as well. If you're concerned about your writing skills, now would be a good time to start working on them, as others have mentioned. Academic writing is an acquired skill for everyone -- native speakers or not -- but certainly it's more of a challenge for non-native speakers, for obvious reasons. You have good advice above about how to proceed.

It might help you to acknowledge the feeling of uncertainty and accept that your first-pass product might require some work, but know that this isn't uncommon for beginning students (all of them! including native speakers). The important thing, as @Sigaba points out, is not to let this stop you from doing what you want to do. You may have to put in some work learning to produce the kind of writing that you are comfortable with, but it's worth the effort, so you can get to have all the opportunities that you deserve. 

[Adelaide9216]

So I contacted the prof about this, explaining that I want to do this and am willing to work hard on this (even if that means going to the Writing Center or having my writing proofread) and she never got back to me. So I just let it go, I am assuming that she is not interested and am hesitating to follow up. 

She has a reputation for being very difficult grader/prof in our department. I was discouraged by a past student to take her class, even. But I see this as a learning opportunity because I want to be the best scholar as I can possibly be. And I have a great bound with her in class and I've had a wonderful experience in her class. She has acknowledged multiple times to our group that she was a more difficult prof in the past but that she has evolved, and I genuinely believe her. I also got an A+ in my first assignment with her as well and our views align in terms of the topic we address in class. However, I was told to be careful not to place myself in a situation where I'll be stressed for no valid reason, but I'm still willing to work with her and learn from her because I believe that I can improve as a student, a writer and a scholar with her. But maybe she believes it will be too difficult so I just never followed up on the fact that she never got back to me. 

[TakeruK]

3 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

She has a reputation for being very difficult grader/prof in our department. I was discouraged by a past student to take her class, even. But I see this as a learning opportunity because I want to be the best scholar as I can possibly be. And I have a great bound with her in class and I've had a wonderful experience in her class. She has acknowledged multiple times to our group that she was a more difficult prof in the past but that she has evolved, and I genuinely believe her. I also got an A+ in my first assignment with her as well and our views align in terms of the topic we address in class. However, I was told to be careful not to place myself in a situation where I'll be stressed for no valid reason, but I'm still willing to work with her and learn from her because I believe that I can improve as a student, a writer and a scholar with her. 

(emphasis added)

I want to second this very good advice you have received. I have had a similar experience: a prof that is very tough but I thought I would learn a lot and be challenged by them. Initially, they were one of my advisors (for one of two first year projects). Eventually working directly with this person on a daily/weekly basis was way too stressful for me, our styles just did not mesh. I kept them on my committee though because I appreciated their challenges. But it was then a lot easier when I only had direct interactions with them once per year. I felt in that set-up, I was able to get the benefits I wanted from their expertise/toughness without adding a ton of stress onto my daily life. I have to admit though that having this person on my thesis defense committee made the defense go on a very different direction than expected. I survived though. If I were to do it again, I am honestly not 100% sure if I would have kept them on my committee (not sure if I would have excluded them either, it's hard to say).

[Adelaide9216]

So she emailed back and we should meet in the next couple of weeks to discuss what I could do for her next term.

I still feel like I am going to have to pay someone to proofread my texts before I hand it to her.

[Hope.for.the.best]

15 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

So she emailed back and we should meet in the next couple of weeks to discuss what I could do for her next term.

I still feel like I am going to have to pay someone to proofread my texts before I hand it to her.

There is more good than harm hiring a copy-editor. I had a lot of concerns regarding this back then. I decided to get my dissertation copy-edited in the end, because I was told that examiners view a dissertation with grammatical mistakes and difficult-reading sentences negatively. I really don't wish to get penalised simply because of my English. You know, I have had too much stress and anxiety to produce this dissertation. I just can't afford to be asked for extensive revision! The copy-editing process is going well at the moment. I can't emphasise enough that my copy-editor has been very helpful. I thought she would just make the changes, but she is willing to explain why to me. As a result, I have learnt a lot of things that I didn't learn in my English classes. Turned out, my biggest weakness is the use of punctuation. I am so glad that she points that out, so I know what to work on. Yes, it is very costly, but that is worth it in the long run. 

[maxhgns]

Copy editing can be very expensive (I spent some time as a copy editor myself). If you've got research money to spare, then it's fine. But if you don't... While it's a decent short-term solution, you need to think about what you're going to do when this comes up again. And again. And again. For most fields, English-language publication is a must these days (largely due to the quality and reach of the venues). And unless you manage to snag a job in a francophone university with low research output expectations (e.g. UQTR), you're going to have to do it again. Lots. (Note: I say this as a Francophone myself.)

In the long-term, you're going to have to start getting comfortable writing in English. If I were you, I'd ask my Anglophone friends and peers to look over my lit review and other English-language writing. Most of the time, they'll be happy to do it, and they'll do it for free. You obviously can't rely on the same person to do it over and over, but there's no harm in having them help with high-stakes stuff. You can offer them help with French-language stuff in return. If you're at an English-language university QC, then you can offer to help them with translations for their dissertation abstracts, for FRQSC applications, conferences or journals, job market materials, etc.

Edited December 2, 2017 by maxhgns

[PokePsych]

If you get your friends to copy-edit, make sure to find some reliable people. I asked my 'friend' to proofread my SoPs and she totally bailed on me - too busy being drunk if I have to believe instagram. No longer friends