For all you grad students and/or writers

Ember01

I saw this quote today, and it made me laugh...

"Asking a working writer what we thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs" --Christopher Hampton

Hahaha... This is how I feel whenever I get papers back or rejections from journals/conferences! I'm glad someone was able to sum it up so nicely!

motoLyn

Hahaha thanks I needed that today.  I just heard back from my dept. advisor and my grad advisor about my writing style.  It was not good.....

DanieKA

True! But I don't know what's worse, hearing back and it being a rejection or a not great response, or getting no response at all. I send out essays occasionally and it's like I imagined it because it's POOF and I never hear from them again!

Ember01

That sucks. It's hard to hear when your writing isn't good enough.

We have to do prelim papers in my program once you finish all the coursework. I was always told I had great papers and was a good writer. I wrote my first prelim paper, and it failed. I have never failed at anything school related, I was crushed. The good news is that we can write a second paper and it passed.

I'm writing a dissertation now, so I think I might print out this quote and hang it above my desk at school

SeaTea02

My thesis professor says my writing is too wordy and I use too much legaleese. My English professors always seem to love my writing though. 

peekaboo2011

Definitely needed that today.  Not necessarily because I got feedback about my writing being crap, just because today was crap in general.

Thanks for that

sweetbird

Ah, that's a great quotation, thanks! Doing my PhD I have two co-supervisors, and everytime I send them a chapter, it comes back heavily copy-edited by one but the other doesn't have much to say in terms of 'style'. Trying to find a balance can be tough.

Blue & White

Moto, my writing style is the opposite of science writing.  Needless to say, writing my thesis was torture.

We just got rejected with a HOSTILE review though.  So that was kinda lame.  But it'll get accepted somewhere - it's good research, if I do say so myself.