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Any written work a student produces (for classes, seminars, examination scripts, dissertations, essays, computer programmes and MPhil/PhD theses) must be solely his/her own work¹. Specifically, a student must not employ a "ghost writer" to write parts or all of the work, whether in draft or as a final version, on his/her behalf² .

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This guidance is for use when a student is considering whether to employ a third party such as a professional copy editing or proof reading company when producing work in draft or final version.

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It also applies when a student seeks editorial help from other, non-professional third parties, such as fellow-students or friends.

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It is not concerned with the regular and iterative interaction between student and tutor/supervisor(s) on draft versions of his/her work throughout the registration period. The student's tutor/supervisor is not regarded as a "third party" for this purpose.

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For research students, further guidance is included in the Supervisor's Handbook produced by the Teaching and Learning Centre.

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If a student contravenes this statement, this will be considered an assessment offence and investigated in accordance with the Regulations on assessment offences: plagiarism.

1.

If the student chooses to employ a third party, it is his/her responsibility to give them a copy of this statement. When submitting work the student must acknowledge what form of contribution they have made, by stating for example, 'this thesis/essay/dissertation was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by ABC Editing Ltd'.

2.

A third party cannot be used:

2.1

to change the text of the work so as to clarify and/or develop the ideas and arguments;

2.2

 to reduce the length of the work so that it falls within the specified word limit;

2.3

to provide help with referencing;

2.4

to correct information within the work;

2.5

to change the ideas and arguments put forward within the work; and/or

2.6

to translate the work into English.

3.

A third party can be used to offer advice on:

3.1

spelling and punctuation;

3.2

formatting and sorting footnotes and endnotes for consistency and order;

3.3

ensuring the work follows the conventions of grammar and syntax in written English;

3.4

shortening long sentences and editing long paragraphs;

3.5

changing passives and impersonal usages into actives;

3.6

improving the position of tables and illustrations and the clarity, grammar, spelling and punctuation of any text in or under tables and illustrations; and

3.7

ensuring consistency of page numbers, headers and footers.

4.

The third party shall give advice by means of tracked changes on an electronic copy or handwritten annotations on a paper copy or other similar devices. The student must take responsibility for choosing what advice to accept, and must him/herself make the changes to the master copy of the work.

 Notes
¹ Except where the School's regulations might permit it to include the work of others e.g., Regulations for Research Degrees (paragraph 31.1) permit a thesis to include the work of others and individual programme regulations for taught students permit group work.
² This does not preclude the use of a 'scribe' where verbatim dictation might be required for a student with a particular disability.