UniSIG: The ethics of 'proofreading' student writing at UK universities

We are honoured to welcome Nigel Harwood as our speaker in October. He is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Sheffield, UK. His research interests include academic writing, English for specific and academic purposes, and TESOL materials/textbook design. He has recently published a series of articles on the proofreading of student academic writing.

He writes: 'Various forms of "proofreading" of student writing take place in UK university contexts. I will report on research investigating where three university stakeholder groups stand on the ethics of proofreading. Content lecturers, English language tutors and students shared their views on the ethics of various lighter-touch and heavier-touch proofreader interventions. All three parties broadly approved of more minor interventions, such as correcting punctuation, amending word grammar and improving sentence structure. However, students were found to be more relaxed than lecturers and language tutors about the ethics of more substantial interventions at the level of content. Within each of the three groups there were outliers whose views on proofreading were wide apart, underscoring the difficulty of formulating proofreading policies which would attract consensus across the academy.'

After his talk, there will be about half an hour for questions and discussion.

All SENSE members are invited to attend this online event, which will take place on Friday 8 October from 16.00h - 17.00h Amsterdam time (CEST). Registration will close at 09.00h on 8 October and registered participants will be emailed the Zoom link to the meeting. If you haven't received the link by noon and it hasn't ended up in your spam file, please email me (Joy) and I'll resend the link to you personally. Also please contact me if you are interested in accumulating a PE point for attending this meeting.