Dissertation Marking Services?

[drwhofan]

Is it illegal or cheating or bad in any way to get a dissertation proofread by a service before it gets handed in?

I've been playing with the idea for mine and I don't know if it's cheating or not. I've already written the thing so I wouldn't be using one of those 'we write your essays so you don't have to' websites, I just don't want to mess up my entire final grade by handing in rubbish, and past a certain point I stop being able to see mistakes. At my uni, tutors are not allowed to look at wok before we hand it in.

Thanks xx

[drwhofan]

I should make it clear - I don't want to cheat. I definitely don't want to do ANYTHING that's going to risk my degree. Hence why I thought I should check first.

[dothawkes31]

If it were there would be a clear message to that effect in your dissertation gude you were given (probably in your 2nd year) . It sounds like a good idea, people worry about plagerism and failure to anotate and provide a bibliography more than whether they have correct spelling and grammar but i suppose if it is important to you to get it right why not?

I think your tutors can help up to a point as part of their role but they probably can't read the final draft.

[another-view]

If you are worried about tutors looking at "wok" then yes, I would advise you get it proofread.

[sophie_1003]

If it's just to correct spelling, grammar and to make sure it makes sense; can't you swap with another student on your course and proofread each others? As you say, after a certain point you don't see the mistakes but you would in someone elses work as would they in yours.

[joko]

proofreading is just spelling an grammar check really...they wont give any opinion on whether its a good essay or not

do you mean you want a ''critiqueing'' service?

personally as long as they are not rewriting it for you i dont see the problem in getting a professional opinion on it

[saxy_jag]

I would imagine you have a supervising tutor, right? Why not just check with him/her if it would be OK? That's what they're there for. They may even be able to recommend someone who could do it for you.

[sophie_1003]

saxyjag, the OP says that their tutors aren't allowed to look at it but otherwise would agree with what you've said!

[boxtops]

The personal tutors on my university programme encouraged students to submit a final draft to them, ahead of handing in the real thing. I don't understand why yours can't, presumably they have looked at parts of it as you went along in your research? I found that really helpful and reassuring. As you say, you get so close to a piece of work that you can't see errors and duplications so a second pair of eyes is really useful!

[bushbaby_de]

What's it about? Maybe one of us could proof-read it, given how we like criticising spelling and grammar!