Xjyuk

I am a math professor at an R1 university. I have taken up a new graduate student (my n'th for n<=10), who is mathematically quite strong, but whose writing skills are a couple notches below what I have had to deal with so far.

We have a new result, which he currently is writing up. He is relatively new to English, and his native language is much unlike English. Though one can understand what he says in a conversation, writing a paper is a real struggle.

Most research students that I have worked with start with poor mathematical English skills. Their first drafts have several major problems, and require many rounds of thorough revision. However, there is always at least something which is right from the start. In contrast, this student's drafts appear nearly unsalvageable: they have hardly a sentence in common with any proper exposition. I have lost the track of revision number, but it is likely to be in double digits now.

The student is working hard, and the draft is showing some signs of improvement. However, I cannot shake the feeling that there should be more that I can do than provide extensive feedback. I am also worried that if this continues for another few months, the student can get much discouraged.

I believe that a part of the problem is the sudden jump in writing difficulty. The mathematical content of the paper-in-writing is more complex than it is typical for a first paper of students that I have supervised so far. This makes the writing task harder. I wish only that the student could practice on a simpler, shorter paper first, to provide a smoother transition from writing homework exercises.

I am looking for suggestions. Note that I would like to avoid writing the paper myself (which would be far less work for me than this), for I want the student to learn how to write himself.

What I have done so far:

• extensive comments on drafts, with some verbal explanations




• suggested some mathematical readings which I know are well-written (to learn by example)




• provided general encouragement

As a partial answer, perhaps you university has a writing Center you could refer the student to for help. For example the University of Wisconsin-Madison has a writing center and Texas Tech even has a graduate writing center.

Have them write up mathematically simpler things first, to reduce the English complications.

Giving fairly-formal oral presentations, on relatively simpler things, can also "expose" in real time issues with formation of sentences.

I do also encourage my students, native English speakers or not, to write as-simple-as-possible sentences, thinking in terms of subject-verb-object, rather than lengthy compound-complex sentences. (Many textbooks and papers are bad models in this regard.)

Ideally, the student needs a tutor, preferably someone trained in ESL (English as a Second Language) and also familiar with the student's native language.

Ideally, but probably impossible to find, is someone conversant in mathematics.

The student probably needs a crutch, but also a plan to be able to throw away the crutch before he graduates.

This isn't, of course, a zero cost solution, but it might be worth it if the student truly has promise to contribute.

Of course, writing in the student's native language is another possibility, but it would, then, be hard for you to evaluate it. A colleague with the required language and math skills might be able to do that. This might be preferred if the student intends to return to his native land eventually.

My wife, who was a writing coach for scientists, once had great success with a native speaker of Japanese whose written English was poor. She suggested he write the first few drafts in his native language, so that he could be sure he had the main ideas right. Then he translated his own work into English as best as he could, ready for revision.

Another possible strategy with a similar goal (getting the structure and basic ideas right first) might be for you to sketch a first rough draft, with the theorems in place and some of the expository scaffolding. Then the student could work on fleshing out the proofs and adding details - to be revised, of course.

(I wish I could check that second strategy out with my wife.)

You could rewrite the paper with the student. This will expose the student to their mistakes (which they'll hopefully identify themselves in the future) and to good writing (which they'll hopefully strive towards in the future). Unfortunately, it is a highly labour intensive approach. As an alternative, one of your better students could rewrite the paper with the student (possibly in exchange for co-authorship, which seems reasonable, given they'll be rewriting the paper).