Proofreading Guidelines

The CTS Volunteer Proofreading Program:

The CTS Volunteer Proofreading Program has been set up to assist international students who desire help in correcting English mistakes in their papers. The Dean of Student's office invited North Americans in the CTS community - students, spouses, staff, and friends-to volunteer to proofread papers of international students who need such assistance. As of January 2006, a student proofreading coordinator has been employed to assist in this process.


Proofreading:

  • What is included:

    Proofreading assistance is generally in the form of correcting mistakes in spelling, punctuation, word choice, and basic grammar/sentence structure.

  • What is not included:

    The author of each paper is solely responsible for the content of their paper. Proofreaders are not responsible for editing paragraph structure and/or for the organization of material within the paper. Further, proofreaders are not responsible for tutoring of general writing skills. Although proofreaders are sometimes willing to tutor students on an individual basis, such is beyond the normal scope of the proofreading program. Therefore, arrangements for tutoring must be made with the individual proofreaders themselves. Those individuals who agree to provide tutoring services to students may request compensation for such service. Otherwise, students who desire tutoring are encouraged to enroll in the ESL course taught at Calvin College.

Proofreading Process:

  1. Although international students may sign up for proofreading assistance at any time throughout the school year, students are encouraged to do so at orientation or in Sue Vander Laan's office (#SM108E) prior to the start of classes.
  2. Students submitting papers to be proofread should do so as a Word attachment to the following email address: proofreading@calvinseminary.edu. Include in each email the following information: your name, your CTS email address, the name of the professor who assigned the paper, the course name, and the date that the professor requires submission of the paper by.
  3. The proofreading coordinator will distribute the papers in the queue daily to the proofreading volunteers.
  4. Course papers will typically be proofread and returned to the student via email within 72 hours. However, this timeframe does not include the day that the paper is submitted to proofreading. Longer course papers (in excess of 10 pages), research papers, and theses usually require considerably more time. It is the student's responsibility to submit papers so as to allow sufficient time for proofreading. If the proofreading volunteer feels that he/she cannot proofread a paper due to the number of pages before the date of final submission to the professor and the program coordinator cannot secure an alternate volunteer, the student will be notified within 48 hours of initially submitting the paper for proofreading.
  5. The student is responsible for any plagiarism. If the proofreaders detect improper citing of sources that could raise the issue of plagiarism, they will remind the student of CTS's plagiarism policy.
  6. Upon completion, the proofreader will notify the proofreading coordinator via email and submit a form to the professor who assigned the paper reporting on what proofreading he/she has done.

Proofreading Coordinator:

The purpose of the proofreading coordinator is to distribute the papers submitted for proofreading to the program's volunteers, insure that the papers are proofread in a timely manner, and address any related questions and/or concerns which students may have. In addition, the coordinator also proofreads papers submitted as he or she has time. The proofreading coordinator for the 2007/2008 school year is Barry Stuart. His email address is bstuart1@calvinseminary.edu.