My articles are never rejected "due to poor and ineffectual language." I never hire professional writers to improve the quality of my writing. As the author of three academic or scholarly books, I proofread the galleys and page proofs, mainly because the publishing house's staff editor assigned to my book publishing project did not have specialized knowledge of the content. I am blessed to be able to publish books, chapters, essays, and articles in my native language, which is English, in a country where English is the official language.

After I earned the Ph.D. degree and taught for three years, I successfully completed a College of Engineering summer course designed for post-Ph.D. faculty members seeking certification in Teaching Technical and Professional Writing primarily in courses enrolling upper-division and graduate students majoring in engineering, business, sciences, pre-law and social sciences, and education.

English-As-a-Second Language (ESL) is a separate course of studies. ESL courses are designed for students who are first tested and then required to take appropriate courses offered by the ESL Department before they are allowed to take required courses offered by the department in which they are interested, whether to enroll in courses or to complete a two-year associate degree, bachelor's degree, master's degree, or doctoral degree.

As an administrative director of a university writing program, I strongly recommended that undergraduate and graduate-level students demonstrate their proficiency in English via the ESL programs. Most academic departments require transcript evidence of proficiency in English. Graduate students are required to do all of their written assignments without help. Post-graduate employment opportunities are restricted if a job candidate is unable to read, write, and speak English with a high level of proficiency. A scientist who is worth his or her salt typically works hard to achieve the highest level of competency in writing research articles without resorting to "professional writing services."

Dear Tarun, Personally, I have never used any English editor, but my home language is English. I have worn many hats:

I have never recommended to any of my English Second Language students that they get a proof reader. This is because I wished them to (hopefully) learn nuances of writing in English themselves.

In general, in refereeing papers and examining theses, I have sadly found that poor language use is closely correlated with poor research. So I have never had a paper or thesis pass the grade though external editing. I attribute this to poor reading skills. Research papers are usually somewhat obscure and arcane, requiring a good knowledge of language for decoding them and reading between the lines.

I am also not happy about external editors modifying the material past the point where it is the student's contribution. I always would ask myself: would I hire this graduated student to do this sort of work in industry, or will I, as employer, be sentenced to forever fixing up the person's writing?

If grammar is poor, reviewers can give up trying to make sense of a paper, so it's important

I never consult with professional writer. After a Ph.D. in writing I feel fairly confident, although I may ask a fellow writer to comment on my work. Every place that publishes work of ours ask that we sample the journal itself. I grudgingly agree. On a similar note, I served for more than two years as a writing consultant to the School of Business at the University of Louisville. As you might guess, my job was to critique papers that business faculty was trying to get published. I don't know how successful I was but they did keep me busy. Marshall Myers

As a native speaker who is a very experienced writer, I never employ outside editors. When I review papers from authors whose native language is not English, I often recommend editing by a native speaker who is a qualified scholarly writer.

My articles are never rejected "due to poor and ineffectual language." I never hire professional writers to improve the quality of my writing. As the author of three academic or scholarly books, I proofread the galleys and page proofs, mainly because the publishing house's staff editor assigned to my book publishing project did not have specialized knowledge of the content. I am blessed to be able to publish books, chapters, essays, and articles in my native language, which is English, in a country where English is the official language.

After I earned the Ph.D. degree and taught for three years, I successfully completed a College of Engineering summer course designed for post-Ph.D. faculty members seeking certification in Teaching Technical and Professional Writing primarily in courses enrolling upper-division and graduate students majoring in engineering, business, sciences, pre-law and social sciences, and education.

English-As-a-Second Language (ESL) is a separate course of studies. ESL courses are designed for students who are first tested and then required to take appropriate courses offered by the ESL Department before they are allowed to take required courses offered by the department in which they are interested, whether to enroll in courses or to complete a two-year associate degree, bachelor's degree, master's degree, or doctoral degree.

As an administrative director of a university writing program, I strongly recommended that undergraduate and graduate-level students demonstrate their proficiency in English via the ESL programs. Most academic departments require transcript evidence of proficiency in English. Graduate students are required to do all of their written assignments without help. Post-graduate employment opportunities are restricted if a job candidate is unable to read, write, and speak English with a high level of proficiency. A scientist who is worth his or her salt typically works hard to achieve the highest level of competency in writing research articles without resorting to "professional writing services."

I recently read an article in the last two years in ATLANTIC that posited that language arose because of the need to communicate how to do certain skills. The thesis is very old; this theory has been around a long time. Language arose, Chomsky says, because it arose. That position is not very helpful. I think language arose for some good reason, but I cannot tell you what that reason was. There are all kinds of theories that have almost silly names (ding dong, you he ho, and others that populated early theories of language origin.)

I have another ATLANTIC article that says the first word was "water" min its various forms.

I have never had a cause to higher one. However, researchers from some regions need to since they aren't conversant with English. But recently I submitted a paper to a journal in Romania and it compulsory to submit a copy of the paper in the same language, I used Google translator for that. Although, I'm still expecting feedback from the editor

It largely depends on a person's individual capabilities and the time they have available . If your budget allows, a professional editor can help enhance the clarity, tone, and precision of your writing. We'd love to help! www.JournalEdit.com.