Advice to Students: Ethical Challenges
For the academic language editor, there is a fine line between helping the student and doing things for the student; in particular, between what is right to do for and with them and what is not right to do for and with them. Formally editing the work of students that will be submitted for degree purposes is still a young discipline in South Africa. When I was a student in the 1980s and 1990s it was uncommon. Opinions still differ among language editors about what they may do and what they may not do, ethically.
From the university’s perspective the student must demonstrate a certain proficiency in doing research, writing it up, and presenting it. The student is also expected to this in English which is often not their home language. Students are not prepared sufficiently to do this during their school careers. They also do not learn how to research topics and express their opinions based on what they have read and not parroting what they have read. This is most probably also why it is so difficult for many students not to plagiarise when they do assignments and write articles, theses, and dissertations.
We come from a time where the individual achieving a task on their own was the hallmark of achievement. But that is not true anymore, and we tend to forget this when arguing about what an editor may or may not do from an ethical perspective. We have been living in an era for decades now where teams of people are making the greatest achievements. It is not anymore about being able to achieve as an individual, but about how well we can work together with other individuals in a team and add to the work of the other members of the team enabling the team to achieve much more than each individual could have done on their own.
I have been an academic editor for about four years now and have been approaching editing more from a team perspective. For me, the formal team consists of the student, their supervisor, and the editor; although, there may be other members who come and go, such as a senior student, other lecturers, and a resourceful librarian. The student needs to use these other members optimally while achieving the required proficiency referred to above. This required proficiency neither includes professional writing and publishing skills, nor librarian skills. The supervisor and editor must use their skills to empower the student by teaching the student certain required skills, but also by doing certain things for the student while teaching them about these things. The things that an editor can do for the student include the following:
- Correcting the structure and format of the student's document;
- Improving the logic and flow of the student's text;
- Helping the student to write plain English;
- Correcting and improving the student's style of writing and formatting;
- Correcting the student's spelling, grammar, and punctuation;
- Checking and correcting the student's references, including their formatting;
- Ensuring correlation between the student's citations and references; and
- Finding missing references.
These activities of the editor must always include the student by way of appropriate and guiding comments, leaving some matters for the student to correct themselves, e.g., revising a sentence to convey the intended message clearly and simply, and checking whether they have quoted a source correctly.
It is very satisfying for me to assist my student clients in this way. When my work is completed and students express their appreciation for my help, I am extremely grateful that I have been blessed with the opportunity and skills to do this kind of work during my twilight years.