I'm wary of most of these sites - even when they appear to be legitimate and disavow doing anything to encourage academic misconduct, the mere fact that any help they give is not explicit to academic tutors and assessors is a major cause for concern.     

Just came across another one, details of which were actually posted inside our VLE by a member of admin staff (in good faith I'm sure, though I'll be asking them to remove it immediately). This one says:

"Writing Advice for Students 
We specialise in proofreading all types of writing for international students.  We correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word order. We do not change any content or make the writing sound more 'intellectual' or 'scholarly'. We maintain your voice. If we did not do this, it would no longer be your writing.
Be confident and use our proofreading service!
Contact us through our website: www.wa4s.co.uk
or simply email:
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Special hourly student rates, and discounts for introducing your friends."

The website looks OK, with advice on writing and links to some sound resources, but in the  "Contact us" section, they say 

"Use this Contact Us form to make your enquiry.  We will not divulge your personal information to any person or organisation outside wa4s.
In your enquiry you should let us know whether you need writing advice, proofreading or both.  You should also tell us what degree you are studying, how many words you have to write, and when your hand-in date is.  We will then reply with an estimate of cost and tell you how to submit your paper. We look forward to hearing from you!"

Does anybody know anything about this organisation?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pauline Ridley
Vice-Chair, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education (ALDinHE) 
Visual Practices Co-ordinator, LearnHigher CETL 

Centre for Learning and Teaching 
Room 113, Mayfield House, Falmer Campus, University of Brighton Brighton BN1 9PH 
Telephone 01273-643406  Email [log in to unmask]  

CLT website: http://staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/clt 
Visual Practices http://staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/learnhigher 
ALDinHE http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 


-----Original Message-----
From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Angela McQuade
Sent: 26 January 2010 14:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Proofreading website

Dear all,

I would like to draw your attention to a website, 'Proofread my Essay', that
was created in November 09.  It is designed to 'help' students get the mark
they 'deserve' by proofreading and correcting their essays for the fee of £8
per thousand words.  It is being promoted on Facebook, with students invited
to become 'fans'.  The creator of the site is using Facebook to tell
students when he will be visiting various universities to promote his
service.  The 140 (so far) 'fans' on the Facebook site are from various of
universities although a sizeable number are from Nottingham Trent. 
According to the site there was a promotion there on 25th January.

In their FAQ section they state: "Our service focuses on making your work
attractively legible to the marker, to make them feel that your work is well
written and that you have spent the time reading over and improving it. This
should ultimately help you achieve the grade you deserve, but unfortunately
we cannot guarantee specific grades, as this would place us in direct 
conflict with your University's Code of Conduct."

The Learning Development Service at Queen's have brought it to the attention
of Academic Affairs.

Just wondering what others think of the service this site offers and the
ease with which students can get someone else to finish their work and pass
it off as entirely their own.

http://www.proofreadmyessay.co.uk/