A former student of mine who has since moved to the UK to do a post-graduate course recently contacted me to ask advice about finding a proof reader for her academic writing. She had searched online and come across a few possible individuals/organizations but wanted to know my impression of each before committing. Although most of the sites looked pretty legit, i was surprised by the lack of qualifications many of the individuals had and by the prices that some were charging.

I found for example a gentleman at Private English Tutor Services in London going by the name of Kunaal Tailor who seems to have only a Bachelors Degree and entry level TESOL certificate. When i went on to read a little more about the services he provides i found this paragraph

"One of the main reasons students do not pass is not due to poor grammar or spelling, but bad referencing, poor grammar, poor research skills and lack of theoretical concepts. All combined together with unpresentable work will give you a bad grade. Using my proofreading service can ensure that you alleviate this issues"

http://www.private-english-tutor-london.com/blog.html

I'll leave those of you who managed to pass high school level English to find the rather obvious mistakes. This from a man who'll charge you £30 to proof read a 3000 word essay yet can't proof read his own blog posts!

There is always a lot of discussion around about the low quality and poorly qualified teachers that are attracted to work in parts of Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe but it seems that they exist in the West too. Are there any standards or qualifications at either UK or European level that i should suggest that my former student look for in a proof reader? I'd like to be able to give her some sound advice and keep her away from the charlatans out there.