Professional word-processing of A level project?

[Pebbles574]

Would be interested in people's views on this.

A student has to submit a written report for an A level subject - produced in Word, with lots of sections/ screen grabs, bibliography etc. Probably about 80 -100 pages.

The mark scheme clearly identifies that marks are given for written content and ideas/ report of progression of the project i.e. not explicitly for 'presentation'.

The student, who is not especially competent on Word, wants to send the final document to a third party who will properly format it into a professional looking report for about £20.
All the content would be provided and would remain unchanged - it would just be made to look 'tidier.'

Acceptable or not?

It's NOT exactly the same

Of course unis offer guidance - but that doesn't mean it's therefore ok for you then pay someone to do the proof reading, correcting errors, correct referencing etc.

But hey if your kid gets caught not my problem.

You posted for advice - take it.

I think you'll find that most academic institutions actively encourage peer review and proof-reading. If they (Manchester University in this case) believed it was unacceptable, they would be saying so, NOT advising their students how to go about it!

Check out the comments here: academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24346/is-it-considered-cheating-to-ask-a-friend-or-tutor-to-proofread-your-thesis-befo

We're not talking about essay writing/new content here, just tidying up!

Anyway, this has moved away from A levels now, into higher education. CraftyGin - thanks for your suggestion, yes, I might just check her perspective on it.

OK, so as I've already said down thread I've established that he couldn't do this unless he declared it, so it's not going to happen.

So, you would have been happy to get it 'improved' if it looked like your DC had done it themselves?

• That's the same as cheating, isn't it?

I dont see anything wrong with this if it all his own original content. Its no different than asking a teacher or parent to look over it, proof read it, running a spell check on it, or asking someone who knows how to format it to 'look' more professional. It definitely isn't cheating, you could even include their input in the credits/reference list if you have to declare any 'assistance'.

It is explicitly forbidden in the coursework element of my A Level specification. Check the exam board advice carefully.

But you’re not talking proofreading, you’re talking formatting.

I can’t get onto the Manchester link you posted, but take this one from Leicester. The service you posted upthread may well fall foul of the rules about labelling and adding material under point 5.

I am interested in the fact the rules say it would have to be declared, not that it outright prohibits it - if that is the case, why would he not want to do it if he has to declare it?

Also it is not usual in many places to have teams of admin to format documents for you. I do think knowing how to format a document in a decent manner (not necessarily perfect) is fairly essential these days. What if he ends up in a role where he has to do it himself? Or heaven forbid, ends up as one of those admin...?

People who have good jobs have teams with resources to do this. But they likely got the good job in the first place by starting at the bottom and proving their worth.

PinkPanther - that's not true in my area of experience. I agree that everyone should be able to knock out a decent word document, but there's a difference between that and a final document that might go out to clients or be published. I've found quite the opposite in fact - that those people who are best at the 'finishing' job tend to stay at that admin level, whereas the others move onto higher level jobs. It makes no sense to have someone who can be billed out to clients at £100-£200 an hour spending time doing the job that someone paid a tenth of that can do better!

Anyway it's obviously a grey area if different universities are advising different things. In my opinion the key issue is whether a service is substantially changing anything or just improving the visual layout and appearance of a body of text which has been provided.
If proofreading is wrong, then surely that would mean that students shouldn't be allowed to use computer spelling and grammar check software for assessed work?
They aren't allowed to in exams when laptops are used, but that's because marks are awarded for spelling and grammar.