This chapter examines the guidance for student proofreading provided by UK universities in three areas: institutional policies, study skills advice, and activities for teaching proofreading to students, with the aim of offering recommendations for good practice in supporting students in navigating proofreading. Data was collected about proofreading from the websites of 15 UK universities, representing a range of old and new institutions, rankings, and locations. Content analysis of institutional regulations revealed limited attention to defining proofreading, and an emphasis on limiting the role of and warning about third-party proofreaders. The amount of information varied, with some providing a lot of detail on the steps of the proofreading process and advice on using proofreaders, and others only issuing a brief warning statement. Study skills guidance was examined in the same 15 institutions, with some common elements regarding warnings and recommendations for students to proofread themselves, but generally differing in tone and focus. Noticeably, some of the study skills guidance directly contradicted the policy at the same institution, especially in active encouragement to use a third-party proofreader. As there was a lack of evidence of teaching proofreading available from the institutions, suggestions for teaching activities are made. The recommendations to improve practice comprise: using a model of exemplary academic integrity policies in the design of proofreading policies; ensuring consistency across policies and student guidance; providing advice on the use of online writing and checking tools; and developing teaching activities to enable student proofreading to become a less controversial and contested activity.
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Davis, Mary
Oxford Brookes Business School
Year of publication: 2024Date of RADAR deposit: 2024-12-20