Proofreading revisited: Interrogating assumptions about postsecondary student users of proofreading

Lecturer, Language Tutor, and Student Perspectives on the Ethics of the Proofreading of Student Writing

“…Some lecturers also spoke of how they actively encouraged students to seek out their coursemates as proofreaders. These findings tally with the findings of previous researchers (Conrad, 2020;Salter-Dvorak, 2019;Turner, 2011Turner, , 2018, and so an in-house service that was similarly free of charge may discourage students from approaching external, unregulated proofreaders and may encourage lecturers to recommend approaching inhouse as well as informal proofreaders.…”

“…Harwood and his coresearchers (Harwood, 2018(Harwood, , 2019Harwood et al, 2009Harwood et al, , 2010Harwood et al, , 2012 have focused on understanding the proofreaders' perspective; but deeper exploration of students' and academics' perspectives is now needed, not least from a policymaking perspective, and the research reported here gathers the views of three parties-students, English language tutors, and disciplinary faculty-on the ethics of various types of proofreading interventions. I also wished to investigate whether L1/L2 status or undergraduate/ postgraduate status influenced students' attitudes to proofreading, continuing Conrad's (2020) investigation as to whether different student profiles are pertinent. Finally, the influence of discipline was investigated.…”

“…In contrast with the studies reviewed above that involve two or more stakeholder groups, next I review two studies that focus exclusively on students’ perspectives regarding proofreading. 3 Drawing upon questionnaires and interviews, Conrad’s (2020) Canadian study found that L1 as well as L2 writers make use of proofreading. L1 and L2 students reported similar motivations for seeking proofreading, predominantly (a) “to improve their writing skills” and/or (b) “to get higher grades” (p. 6).…”

“…The studies reviewed above are limited inasmuch as (a) most do not include the views and perspectives of all three stakeholder groups (cf. Conrad, 2020; Cottier, 2017; Harwood, 2018, 2019; Harwood et al, 2009, 2010, 2012; Kruger & Bevan-Dye, 2010, 2013; Salter-Dvorak, 2019) and (b) those that are primarily or wholly quantitative are unable to fully explore how or why participants feel the way they do about proofreading (cf. Kim & LaBianca, 2018; Kruger & Bevan-Dye, 2010, 2013; McNally & Kooyman, 2017).…”