Accessibility and Equity in Proofreading
Publication date: 15 Nov 2024
Although many higher education institutions have proofreading policies to manage expectations between staff and students, they vary substantively in their prescription.
The aim of this project was to survey the key elements of different proofreading policies and through discussions with students in focus groups, explore how disparities manifest.
Through their research, the project team have highlighted examples of good practice, collated innovative ideas and produced useful resources to help students improve and develop their own self review and proofreading practices.
Podcast
In this podcast Loughborough University's Professor Sandie Dann and IDOA co-chair Professor Mary Davis discuss academic integrity and generative AI.
Project Outputs
The team have published a report which sets out the context of the research, shares the methodology and presents an extensive series of top tips to help students develop the key skills necessary to proofread their own academic work.
Case studies
- Explore the experience of the University of Manchester Library’s Student Team who introduce their workshop ‘Proofreading: The Final Stage Before Submission’.
- Discover how peer-assisted learning activities have been supporting study skill development through work taking place at the University of Wales Trinity St David, and in Bath, Loughborough and Lund. These activities have included quizzes, round robins, feedforward mechanisms and the 'vandalization' of essay texts.
- Check out the approach to embedding equity in education by launching a new Life Sciences module with a large student cohort at the University of Southampton.
Resources created by students for students
Students involved in the focus groups supported the development of a broad range of hints and tips for reviewing and self-proofreading. These have been brought together in a poster that links to wider resources and a slide deck covering each of the 20 insights in more detail.
Poster: 20 Top-tips for Self-proofreading
Publication date: 12 Nov 2024
Slide Deck: Accessibility and Equity in Proofreading
Publication date: 12 Nov 2024
Project lead:
Loughborough University
Project partners:
Coventry University, University of Northampton, De Montfort University, University of Wolverhampton, Swansea University and Imperial College London
Other Collaborative Enhancement Projects
QAA supports a number of projects every year, covering a range of topics and interest areas. Each is led by a QAA Member, working in collaboration with other members institutions. You can find more information on all projects, and access resources and outputs, on our website.