Is it acceptable to have someone proofread your essay?

The purpose of a proofreading service is to put the final polish on your document after it has already been written, checked over, and finalised in terms of its content. Proofreading services should not be used unless you have reached this final stage in the writing process. This is because when you hire somebody to catch all the pesky unseen errors in your document, and then you add new content and start rearranging things, you are likely to add more inconsistencies or errors, which calls for further proofreading. This, of course, is not the most efficient way to perfect your written work.

With all that said, an important question still remains: Is it acceptable to ask someone to proofread your essay? After all, writing an academic essay is a task that only one person is assigned, and so bringing someone else into the process may initially seem dishonest. This dilemma is especially strong amongst people who have never used proofreading services before, especially students. Furthermore, once you’ve put all the hard work into researching and writing your essay, thesis, or dissertation, you may have a strong aversion to recruiting the help of somebody else at the very last stage, particularly when you feel you could clear this last hurdle alone.

It’s a legitimate question to ask whether it is acceptable or dishonest to have someone other than you proofread your essay. While the answer, from my point of view, is that it is most definitely acceptable and, furthermore, essential to have someone proofread your work (e.g. a friend or family member, or even a professional who provides a proofreading and editing service), it’s worth offering a brief rebuttal to the position held by someone who would suggest it is not acceptable. It seems very clear to me that there is nothing at all wrong with recruiting a second pair of eyes to make sure your written work is perfect, but some people – albeit a limited number of them – appear to believe it is.

The only reason why someone might argue that it is unacceptable to have someone proofread your essay is that they view it as a form of cheating. Someone who holds this position would suggest that, because some of the marks you receive for your essay are awarded for the general use of language, using the services of another person means that they – rather than you – are receiving those marks. Therefore, since you are submitting the work under your own name and not the name of the person who helped you with the final proofreading task, this represents a form of cheating, and is thus unacceptable.

This argument is compelling, but it does not stand on firm ground. Consider the fact that all of the leading Russel Group Universities in the United Kingdom, as well as most of the leading universities worldwide, explicitly state that the use of external proofreaders is perfectly acceptable. Although the proofreading policies of all universities and academic institutions emphasize the importance of declaring that a paid proofreader was involved, the policies themselves clearly indicate that it is acceptable, and that it is not a form of cheating or dishonesty, to have someone else help you in the proofreading process for your written work. These types of services can benefit the owner, as the service provider will hi-lite areas of concern and make the appropriate changes and inform the owner as to why they were made, which can prove to be invaluable for their next presentation.