Revisiting Proofreading in Higher Education: Toward an Institutional Response to Editors Canada's Guidelines for Ethical Editing of Student Texts

Anglosphere universities are a site of growing concern about students' use of professional English language editing and proofreading services for the correction of academic writing. Students' use of such services raises issues of ethics and academic integrity as well as fundamental questions about how value is allotted to the labour involved in producing written texts and providing writing instruction. In addition, the term proofreading is ambiguous, obscuring the extent to which proofreaders intervene in students' written texts. Although much attention has been focused on graduate students' use of proofreading services, there is growing recognition that some undergraduates receive proofreading as well. In response to these issues, Editors Canada (2018) has recently released new guidelines for ethical editing of student texts that, for the first time, delineate standards for professional editing of both undergraduate and graduate students' writing. These guidelines are effective in clarifying acceptable practices for editors, students, and university instructors, yet they apply only to students who seek proofreading from an Editors Canada affiliate. This essay summarizes key considerations in the proofreading debate with the aim of encouraging the development of clearer institutional and classroom policies on proofreading that will complement the Editors Canada guidelines and apply to all students.