What's your experience with getting your thesis proofread? Do you do it yourself? Ask a friend? Pay someone? If you are not a native speaker of English, is it considered ethical to pay a native speaker to proofread? What are your departments attitudes to this?

As a native speaker of English, I won't be getting my thesis proof-read by somebody else. When it's actually finished... I have, however, proof-read other theses. I think it's probably useful if you're not a native speaker of English. Some supervisors recommend getting a proof-reader in. I think it's ultimately the individual's choice, though.

Most students have their work proofread by colleagues, friends and family, and you can hire a professional copy-editor as long as your university regulations don't state anything to the contrary. When hiring a native speaking, it is important to ensure the proofreading or copy-editing does not become 'content editing' (which is cheating). I copy-edit now and then, and I have to be very clear that I won't content-edit.