Language help available for non-English speakers

By KATE DAILEY
Collegian Staff Writer

Writing a doctoral thesis is hard work. Now imagine studying overseas and having to write it in French, or maybe Japanese.

For many international students at Penn State, the prospect of undertaking such a large project in English is just as daunting.

"It's a big deal for me to write . . . the thesis paper," said Xin Lei (graduate-engineering), a native of China. "It's very difficult."

Thanks to technology, international students such as Lei can now get help over the World Wide Web.

Corrections On-line (www.correctme.com) was established in 1988 by Michael Carey, an Australian doctoral student in linguistics and an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher with a background in computer-assisted language learning.

"I have helped non-English-speaking background ... students with their theses and essays for several years," he said in an e-mail. "And I feel compassion for the disadvantages these students face when trying to write in a second language. My seven years experience as an EFL teacher has given me a unique ability to help these people, and going online is a very effective way to do it."

The site is available in English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese versions. Students requesting help send their documents via e-mail to the company. Two to three days later, the paper returns with corrected grammar and hyperlinks by each corrected section, which link students to explanations of the mistake.

"The changes we make to the work are largely grammatical," Carey said. "The student has already invested their own intellectual thought into the creation of the document. What we do as proofreaders is overcome their disadvantage as second-language writers."

But Michael Begnal, Penn State professor of English and comparative literature, said the lack of personal interaction in using a Web site is a drawback of the service.

"It's much more helpful when you have a human being there," Begnal said. "With a human being, you can ask a question about something that might not be on the screen. If you read a grammar textbook, it's often difficult to tell what . . . they're talking about. . . . With a person, you can go deeper into the explanation."

Alex Gehring (graduate-business) admits writing a thesis in English as opposed to his native German is not easy. "I had problems writing my thoughts down in English . . . you can't just look every word up in the dictionary," he said.

Gehring, however, was reluctant to seek help from an online service. Instead, he gave his papers to one of his roommates.

"I would try to look for friends or institutions at the university before using a commercial institution," he said.

Students who use Corrections On-Line are charged based on the skill level at which they write. When a paper is sent in, the editors correct three random pages and rate the student's competency in English based on the number of errors per page. Depending on the student's rating, he or she is charged anywhere from $3 to $7 per page. There is a minimum charge of $15, and postgraduate theses receive a 15-percent discount.