Medusa

The Ethics Of Proofreading For Students

proofreading

Proofreading is not such a bad thing, in fact it is highly recommended if you want to create papers of a high quality. But, the use of proofreading services is a little difficult. There are many, including colleges and Universities that consider it to be cheating. Though they may consider it cheating, there are moral and ethical questions that should be considered before throwing the idea away completely.

If you are ill then it is unfair that you Fail

Though it is true that colleges and Universities will give you extra time if you are ill or have a family tragedy, it is only a short amount of time. Any more and they start to consider you a lost cause and either encourages you to drop out and apply again next year, or to buck up your ideas before you fail.

If you use a proofreader, then at least you can blow through your work as quickly as possible and still hand it in on time. Usually, you would have to complete your work and then go over it with a fine toothcomb to make sure it is perfect. This process can sometimes take longer than the actual writing process. By using a proofreader, you can save a lot of time by allowing someone else to do your proofreading for you (for example, professional proofreaders from Allcorrect.org). It is only fair that you bend the rules if bad luck has struck you.

Written English is Difficult and yet they Expect Perfection

People go to college and University to learn written English because it is a very difficult thing to learn, and yet you are expected to produce perfect text when you create your essay. You are supposed to create text that is free from error and that uses a higher standard of English. It is unfair to expect perfection because it is so difficult, unless of course you are actually studying English.

You are not Learning English in Any Way

You are taking a different qualification; you are not taking English literature or language, so why should you be expected to write it with perfect grammar? It is fair that they mark you down for errors in the meaning of the content if the error is blatant. For example, if you wrote about you being unable to “lean” instead of “learn.”

That is the sort of error that can be caught with a read through or two. But, punishing you for things such as dangling modifiers and comma errors is unfair unless they confuse the reader to a very high degree. You are not learning English lit or lang, so you should not be expected to create perfect text, ergo it is okay to use a proofreader to help you.

Why Lose Marks unfairly because of Grammatical Mistakes?

It is unfair that you lose marks because of grammatical errors. You should lose marks for getting the content wrong, or being too bias, or being confusing, or anything related to the content meaning, but not because you put a comma in the wrong place. It is often obvious what you mean, and there should be more leeway given. But, there is very little leeway given, and a few grammatical errors may mean you never see the higher grades. This is unfair, so you should use a proofreader to even the score.