9.4. Proof-Reading the Report

Each year, we are asked about the possibility of early feedback on your reports.

Supervisors might have time to look at part of your report and offer feedback. Feedback might address whether you could cover issues in more detail, whether or not your writing style is easy to follow and in a formal style, and thoughts on areas where you could communicate ideas more clearly.

Whether a staff member can do this does depend on when you ask for this to be done. For example, if you approach your supervisor a week or two before hand in, they might have time.

If you would like to ask for your supervisor’s input, please contact your supervisor and ask if they can do this and on what timescale it could be possible. If you approach your supervisor in the last few days before the hand in date, it is likely that they won’t have time.

Please do not expect any supervisor to review your entire document or to look at multiple iterations as you add more detail. It is unlikely that they have the time. Reviewing an extract of your choosing should be sufficient to give you guidance you could apply elsewhere in your writing.

Further, we have to be mindful that your supervisor will also be one of your markers. We need to have a measure of distance so that what is handed in is your work and not work that has already been edited by one of the markers.

In terms of getting a view on how well you are communicating an issue to someone not familiar with your project, asking a family member or friend to look at part of your report might be useful.

If you are asking someone to read your work, keep in mind that they might find spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, areas of inconsistency. Anyone reading your report should not be asked to make detailed suggestions of changes to make - that starts to blur the line between what is your work and what is the work of others.

Generally, it is acceptable to get some feedback on your writing so that you can improve your work, but please remember that we need to see what you have produced and how you describe and discuss that work.

If you have any questions about this, speak to your supervisor or the module coordinator.