Parents,
I’ve heard the Writing Centers at colleges provide limited tutoring to students. If your student struggles writing college papers, do you pay tutors or local editing services to help them? Thanks…
If anything is helpful, why not?
I have a kid who always struggled with her reading score. We have attempted to help, sending her several times to a speed reading classes. But they did not help. I have a certain opinion about both reading and writing, which is based strictly on my D’s set of skills. Based on her experiences, only being avid reader will help to improve the reading, by the same token, only tons of writing will improve writing. Despite D’s relatively low Reading scores, her highest was always writing / English. Yes, you quessed it right, she did not care much about reading, she preferred writing.
I do not know how tutors may help. If one does not like to write, then how one can improve the writing? However, you may try, and as a parent, I definitely would pay for attempt, which shows a desire to improve. which one is better - how you can tell without trying each of them? Just try and see which one is working for you. I hope that at least one will be helpful, I would not have high expectations though.
No, because I view an editor as a cheating short cut that obviates the benefit of learning disciplined thinking - it’s easy to have ideas you believe are good, but to express them convincingly in a logical progression puts them to the test. That is the purpose of higher education.
Because my d chose a university that requires 2-3 essays per week, she knew she had to learn to write, so she worked at it hard as hell. It is a skill that rarely comes naturally. She was very lucky to have found a philosophy teacher in high school who was willing to mentor her (not exactly a tutor) - he did not do the work for her, he taught her to think clearly and rigorously.
I would honestly go to the writing center first, they are usually of some benefit at most colleges (and if not, that should be directed to the administration in charge of those services). At my school, they go over essays with you, offer revision advice, help getting started with research, and more. Writing more and gaining experience will help.
In addition, many of my professors have been open to reviewing essays ahead of time for assignments to offer their own feedback and advice on writing. If your student pays due diligence and does not wait until the last minute, that could be a valuable resource.
The only way to get better at writing is to keep writing. As the student continues through college, they will get a better sense of what professors are looking for and how to express ideas more clearly. Additionally, TAs and older students can be helpful in this regard
Every college’s writing center is different. Some colleges have excellent writing centers with lots of resources and great support, and others have mediocre writing centers. I think a student’s first task should be to find out how helpful the writing center actually is on their campus before writing them off.
If the writing center is truly bad, it might help to hire a tutor to help the student learn to write. I don’t think hiring an editor is cheating per se, but it doesn’t tackle the problem at its core - which is to help the student stop struggling with writing.
Many writing centers will tell you they are not tutoring services. They’re not there to teach fundamentals. They also are not editors. Their job is to help you think about what you are writing in a critical manner. They will help brainstorm, make suggestions, and hopefully help you become a better writer. Many schools also have free or low-cost tutoring services that are separate from the writing center. Every school’s writing center will be different, and how helpful the service is may depend on the individual who helps you. D is a good writer, but has become a regular at the writing center because they’ve been able to help her become even better. They’ve really helped her focus and tighten up her papers.
Working with individual professors during office hours, as suggested above, is also a good approach.
My son has found the writing center useful. He’s a good writer, generally, but found differences between what was expected in different classes (PoliSci vs Psych vs Math). He has made limited use of the center, but has found it useful.
Students who use private tutoring/editing services on a college assignment can run into problems because the practice may well be perceived as violating the academic honesty rules of the college or university. Some editors cross the line and write the paper or provide such substantial rewriting that they ought to be credited as co-authors. In some cases, professors cannot judge the extent to which the student actually wrote the paper.
The campus writing center is the way to go. Tutors there are trained to help students develop as writers; the writing center is more than just a proofreading service. The sessions are also documented and the student can request that the tutor send a report to the professor.
Many professors will review student drafts prior to final submission if the student physically comes to office hours in a timely manner with draft in hand in advance of the deadline (don’t send an email attachment the day before the paper is due, asking for a review).
I know it’s too late for the students that are the subject of this thread, but if you are a HS Freshman reading this, you should know that if you feel you are not as good at writing as you would like to be, then the only way to improve is to do a lot of it. I’ve noticed that some students shy away from classes with more required writing, but they will never get ahead of the curve.
You need to start early in HS and take the classes with the good teachers and the high writing requirements in order to get better. And don’t stop. Writing was not the son’s strong point and he knew it, but what he did was to do more and more of it. He took every opportunity and then some and gradually, he became good.
He probably did 4X more writing than I ever did in HS. Every time I turned around there was a writing assignment due. On the bus coming back from sporting events the other students often had math or problem sets hanging fire, but for the boy it was writing. It pays off, because now the writing assignments come easily…or at least without the pain they used to.
I agree that writing center quality varies widely by college. My D1 attended a college where they invited students wrote well in the freshman seminar course first semester to take a special class 2nd semester to teach them to be writing center tutors (regular for credit English class, but by invitation only). Tutors could only work in the writing center after they had completed that class, so they had some training. The writing center also had rules about how far ahead of the due date an appointment had to be made (you couldn’t come in on the last day before something was due), and how many appointments you could have for the same assignment (I think the limit was 2 appointments). My D still took some guff from professors a couple of times who somehow through the center should miraculously bring a poor writing up to a very high quality level (when sometimes the student had never even come to the writing center after the prof had told them to, then lied about whether they had to the prof!). Working in the writing center turned out to be a real bonus on her resume when she graduated, employers really liked that, I think they took that as an indication that she would communicate well in writing.
At D2’s school, they just take students who did fairly well in the first semester writing class and ask if they want to work in the writing center, but give them no real training. And I think a few schools employee adult teachers for their writing centers, but maybe with more limited hours and appointment times than those that use student tutors.
That’s really interesting how it differs by college. At the school that I go to, it is actually split into the research center and the writing center. They actually have helpers that advise in each subject area. So for psychology critique you would use a different format than a international relations paper or a English essay. I always thought that was really neat, though I was able to get just as much help from the English specialist on my international relations paper because he happened to be a former worker for the intelligence agency, go figure
My university has a writing center and even though I’ve never gone, I’ve heard they’ll edit your paper. They also help students with structuring the paper and such. However, they don’t write it for you. (This is all secondhand knowledge, of course!) I don’t think that it’s cheating to use resources like that. If colleges provide it, it’s obviously not cheating. Lot’s of students need it.
I personally don’t have lots of trouble with writing, but I’ve always found it handy to have a grammar guide with me. I use the Harbrace Handbook and love it. Everything from basic grammar concepts to MLA, APA, and Chicago citations are covered. The extra resource is very helpful.
No. Then again, I’m a decent writer myself but still defer to eagle eyed DD for final edits on our annual Christmas letters 
If needed, I probably would… especially if there would be long term benefits. Writing is important in many fields.
Writing classes are usually small, so it’s important to think about the student-teacher dynamic. Student attitude and attendance can have a non-stated effect on this relationship. My sibling was failing a freshman writing class this semester and I could not understand what was happening. Sibling eventually confessed in pulling out a phone in the middle of class 