'English needs work'

I need to work harder on my English writting. This is a comment from Clive after he read my journal submission (he was 'accidentally' asked to adjudicate my paper which the journal editor was unable to make a decision because the two reviewees' comments went to extremes. I was surprised when he told me he got my article from the editor. Actually I has sent him for comment long before formally submiting it but he was too busy to take a look):

'I suggested restructuring a bit in the end because of the repetition. The paper felt long, which is an indicator that it is not flowing as it should. I think all your points are basically valid but they could come across better.

The English needs work and unfortunately is a major distraction. Your basic style is good but gets let down by various errors. You will see where in my corrections. No journal will accept papers with these errors so you either need an English speaking helper or to learn yourself. You might want to consider co-authorship unless the latter works for you.'

Actually, Prof Jim, my MPhil supervisor, had made a similar comment on my thesis - verbose and ambiguous, and suggested me to work harder on English. I got even more harsh comments on my rejected papers - one reviewer described it as 'awful'. Have to admit that my English writting is not good - by academic standard. Really need some professional English editing service next time when I sumbit something for publication............

Thesis proposal seminar passed

Passed my thesis proposal seminar! With generally positive comments. Only a handful of people came (coz of the location & lack of advertisement), but almost everyone asked questions (more means good). Yet I think I still need to learn to handle Q&A better.

Now ready to submit my proposal, and move on to the next stage. The next challenge is the research design. Outlined in my proposal but there are still lots of practical issues and uncertainties unsolved. Especially this is a medium-size project and we work with another team in CSIRO. Means it'll get more complex as things unfold. Will fix them in the coming months.

Another ongoing task is writing the literature review. It's really time-consuming, but exciting. I plan to produce at least two publications from this review. One to be published with Clive. My target is get the first draft done by September this year.