"Finding Applicants Who Plagiarize "

Gardna
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:08:03 +0000

I agree. The line between proofreading/editing/actual writing is very vague, indeed.



It depends on the situation. If the essay was written by someone else, or if someone else changed entire paragraphs for the student, then I don’t see how that could be considered “proofreading”. One rule of thumb could be that the assistant should never write words on the paper. If they spot a typo, they can just circle it or use one of those proofreading marks that most of us learned in school and none of us actually use anymore. If a sentence is just poorly written (ie too passive, a run-on, etc.) then that can be jotted down separately or told verbally to the student. That seems like a good way to avoid accidentally (or not) writing an essay for the applicant while still giving them valuable help to put their best foot forward, so to speak.