Proofreading Policy

“Will you proofread my paper?”

            Writing Center assistants and student workers hear the above question almost every day.  What is our response?  “We aren’t a proofreading service; we’re a tutoring service.”  However, our answer often puzzles students.  One student even asked, “But this is the writing center, isn’t it?”

Some “Whys” to Our Proofreading Response

“We are not a proofreading service.”

• Proofreading implies perfection—or nearly so.  In reality, student papers will not leave the center in perfect condition.  At best, we hope their papers will improve.
• Proofreading means that tutors find and correct a paper’s errors line-by-line.  However, tutors are not trying to find and correct errors in a paper.
• Proofreading suggests that tutors “fix” or “doctor” papers and that tutors work with papers instead of students.  These implications are not correct.
• Proofreading implies the tutor will fix any problem by marking corrections on the paper.  However, tutors do not write on papers.  Students control their papers and make the corrections they choose to make.

“We are a tutoring service.”

• We tutor students to become better writers.
• We find patterns of errors in students’ writing.
• We point out errors only when we can turn the error into a teaching moment.  We explain the whys of organization, content, grammar, and/or punctuation.
• We will not continue to point out the same errors throughout the paper; instead, when we see the error again, we may ask the student, “What problem do you see with this sentence?”  When the student sees the error, we ask the student probing questions to check for understanding: “What specifically is wrong here?” “Why is it incorrect?” “How can you fix the problem?”

After politely explaining to students that we are a tutoring service instead of a proofreading service, we will want to end by asking, “Now, how may I help you?”