calling all academics (especially those with UK experience)

[winterbadger]

A member of an editorial group I'm part of is working on an article for our society newsletter; the topic is the editing of theses. University students often contact members of our Glasgow group seeking editorial services for their theses, which has raised some interesting questions of professional and academic ethics. What my colleague is particularly interested in accumulating are examples of guidance provided to students by their universities about what is acceptable and what is not in terms of getting their work professionally edited.

So if you've been a student (or a university official) involved in such discussions, and you would care to share the guidance you received (or formulated), contact me at the usual address; I (and my colleague) will be very grateful!

Comments

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I guess you're wanting examples here?

I've not been given any formal guidelines of how wide my editing net may be cast. The university basically says 'don't plagerise' and seems to leave it at that. There's not even a particular writing style favoured.

I've got a verbal agreement with cmpriest to edit/look over mine once it's starting to come together. (As you may or may not know, she's about to publish her fourth book.) I've also got my mom and sister lined up to look through it. (The sister, redthought, may also translate it into Spanish, depending.)

I don't think that I'd bother having someone I don't know or isn't involved with my field look at it. Friends of mine are looking at it merely for style/grammar/too much familiarity problems. Any actual content changes will likely come from my supervisor and, though it's unlikely, some of my fellow phd students (we're too disparate in our interests at the moment to really help each other).

I can't see how an editorial service can substantially change the ideas/research work behind the paper. After all, unless you're getting a degree in English, your ability to use commas correctly is not your main work, it's simply icing on the proverbial cake.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

I can't remember my university saying anything, though I'm sure it's in the Red Book we had to sign for (which I'm sure is online).

I used to do a lot of editing for foreign students, mostly MBA and ESOL programs (a few PhDs), and it was always a case of, I edit for grammar not content. Most of the time I didn't know what they were talking about. :)