This presentation considers the multi-faceted issues, practical and ethical that arise with the proliferation of expectations of proofreading and its role as a mediating practice in student writing for assessment. It also looks at the links between the demand for proofreading and the role of English in transnational higher education.
Research on proofreading in higher education has grown in recent years, and covers the multi-faceted issues that arise with the proliferation of expectations that students should seek proofreading. As well as the many practical issues: who should proofread the work, what gets/doesn't get changed, there are ethical issues around payment, as well as academic integrity issues. In this respect proofreading may be seen as on a cline with the equally fraught issue of 'essay-mills' where written assignments can be bought. While I recognise the need to attempt regulation, my focus is not on the 'police and punish' side of things but rather on the indexical meanings of proofreading, what it says about contemporary international higher education. Is the traditional importance of submitting 'all one's own work' under threat/undergoing change, but under-acknowledged change? What does the use of the term 'proofreading' mask? Does it maintain an evaluative culture for writing, what I've termed 'writtenness', that is outmoded, a relic of print culture and not appropriate for the digital age, while paradoxically digital communication facilitates its practice? Is the need for proofreading an index that English as the medium of international education is not working? In brief, proofreading is emblematic of the need for broader conversations around writtenness, the role of English in international higher education, and the neo-liberal ethos in which it operates.
Turner, J. (2018). On Writtenness: the cultural politics of academic writing. London: Bloomsbury
