There is huge variation in the standard of work a proofreader checks. Some scripts have been so thoroughly corrected before I see them that I am relieved to find an error or two. Even then, I have wondered if they were put there to test me – surely ‘stationery’ and ‘compliment’ are such classic easily-confused words that these are deliberate mistakes, just to make sure I’m concentrating?
But at other times I have looked at such badly written work that I am relieved to find a single sentence without an error. Typically this is in academic work written by non-English speakers. My job then is to work within guidelines set out by that student’s college or university, which spell out what I can and can’t do. If I go beyond that, then the student has not earned their degree, because I will have done some of the work they are getting credit for.
Most of these guidelines will say I can ‘point out’ errors but not ‘change words’. I take that to mean that I can write ‘poor grammar’ in the margin, but not state explicitly how it needs to be corrected. I will usually add an ‘s’ if it’s missing, or suggest they change ‘except’ to ‘accept’; but I won’t say how a badly structured sentence could be improved. I will point out that a date is missing in a reference, but if it is anything worse than that, I will refer them to their own university’s style guide.
Common words and phrases for what I can do include ‘identify’, ‘draw attention to’, ‘highlight’. Common words for what I mustn’t do include ‘rewrite’, ‘change’, ‘contribute’, ‘add’. If I stick to this, it is still the student – and not me – – that is doing the correcting. They can take ownership of the finished work, because they will have looked at what was wrong and put it right.
Sometimes the standard of writing is so poor that I can’t see how they will get from what is in front of me to a finished product. If they can’t use ‘a’ and ‘the’ properly, how are they going to know why a semi-colon would be better than a full-stop? Sadly that is down to the student – and their tutor – how did they get this far in the course without being able to write good English?
If it were a magazine article, or the instructions for assembling a trampoline, I would gladly work with them to produce a well-written, clear and unambiguous text. But if it is a dissertation on which their academic ability and knowledge of their subject is being judged, then I will stick to the guidelines, even if it means – as has happened – that they can’t submit it in time. It’s their degree, not mine.
Accuracy Works 