<p>I am a writer. I've heard of people who offer the service of editing college essays, and I wonder about this as a business opportunity.</p>
<p>I have concerns about the ethics of doing this. I know that some people simply ghost-write the essay for the student, but I can't see myself crossing that line. I do wonder about grey areas--i.e., preventing editing from shading over to composing. I am interested in how other people here feel about this. </p>
<p>If I did offer this service, I would try to enable the students to realize their own potential by helping them write the best essay of which they are capaple.</p>
<p>Is there really a market for this?</p>
<p>How is it different from tutoring for SATs?</p>
<p>Is this simply the case of spoiled kids with money getting the good stuff? (I could ease my conscience by taking on a number of pro bono cases.)</p>
<p>Incidentally, I am the parent of a high school senior--a good writer--who didn't even show me his essay.</p>
<p>There is a market for this in some communities. Not knowing your community, I can’t tell you if there is a market where you are.</p>
<p>Back in the last century I worked for a college placement company that offered various services including exam prep, college/university selection, help with essays, help with letters of recommendation, etc. It was a struggle for me to stay on the “good end” of the proofreading-ghost writing scale. There is a difference between proofreading an essay entirely written by the candidate, and discussing his/her approach to the topic in order to better develop the essay. There is a difference between discussing the approach and guiding the choice of the approach. There is a difference between guiding the choice of the approach, and telling them what to write. There is a difference between telling them what to write, and writing it yourself.</p>
<p>If you are going to go into this, you need to be very, very, very clear about what you will and won’t do. You will know when you are doing wrong because you won’t be able to sleep that night.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that you meet with the college advisor at your kid’s HS. Find out if there is a program for parent/community volunteers to work with students who need help getting through the application process. You could try working with those kids to see whether you really like this kind of work.</p>
<p>One thing that I was never able to try, but would like to have had the opportunity for, would be to work with small groups (say no more than six) of students on essay writing. I think that they would be able to support each other through the process, and would derive benefits from the writing-workshop experience that would help them with future writing projects - not just the college application essay.</p>
Well, for starters, on the SATs, it’s a good thing if every answer sheet comes in looking exactly the same.</p>
<p>I think it’s OK to provide editorial advice, but not to actually edit. It can be a fine line, but basically, it’s the difference between saying, “I hear what you’re trying to say in this sentence, but you could say it more clearly” and presenting the student with the rewritten sentence. In between is a gray area of increasing specificity about what needs fixing.</p>
<p>I appreciate OP’s desire to provide help within ethical bounds, but agree with happymom’s thoughtful response. I think it would be exceedingly difficult to stay on the “good end” of the proofreading/ghostwriting scale. If all one is doing is proofreading, I’m not sure why this couldn’t be done by a parent, GC, or english teacher. Anything more than proofreading, and I’m not sure where one draws the line. I’d also be concerned about my clients’ (and by that I mean the parents’) expectations, regardless of what disclaimers and ground rules you set out. Some people will likely expect a publishable essay for their money and not care so much about the ethics involved. Part of the problem, also, is that it is extremely hard to teach essay writing to a kid that just doesn’t get it, and even an otherwise “ethical” tutor might break down out of frustration and find it is easier just to “do it” (or parts of it) for the kid. Good luck!</p>
<p>My D’s HS offers English teachers as “essay writing coaches” for a small fee. I wonder how this is different (besides the fact that a private coach would cost more). Since I am a writer and my sister is a college English prof, we did the coaching “in-house.” However I did help a neighbor’s son through his essays – mostly with the kind of guidance suggested here (“this isn’t clear” “you need another example” this part doesn’t make sense"). She insisted on paying me as she needed an outside person to help them through this process. I would like to help kids too, especially since I know that so many don’t have parents who can provide guidance. I think that the suggestion to speak with the HS guidance counselors about this is a good place to start.</p>
<p>Years ago, we had absolutely NO experience with this process and needed guidance so we had hired a tutor/teacher to help with our DS1. But after a while, I thought she was dragging out the process…at our expense. (Her help was worthless.) For our next kid, we hired an old friend/tutor and it was again <em>horrible</em>. The end result was completely in the tutor’s voice, not at all my son. Ugh! That tutor’s ‘favorite words’ haunted me! For both of those two experiences, the process was much longer and much more painful than it needed to be. My kids did write their own essays, but with those obstacles slowed the process.</p>
<p>Finally we figured out how to help. it was sometimes frustrating. Sometimes freeing when he figured out the overall message, but eventually he did it. True he didn’t get started as easily as I would have liked. I oversaw the final and edited some, but it was all his idea, his word choice, and his voice.</p>
<p>My sense is that somehow the experience and the end result changes when someone pays for that service. Suddenly it’s a business. I’ve helped plenty of kids here on CC with their essays, but I wouldn’t charge anyone for that. At least not here. And i also fear that either the student and/or the editor feels an obligation to do more than “just” editing.</p>
<p>I also noticed you hoped to do more. “If I did offer this service, I would try to enable the students to realize their own potential by helping them write the best essay of which they are capaple.” While it is well-intentioned, your note makes me wonder if 1) you’d really know the student’s potential in a few sessions and 2) your role displaces the role a good teacher plays. </p>
<p>In conclusion, I think the best editor should be the student’s teacher who really knows that student’s best potential. And if you really want to help, do it without pay. That said, I’m sure there’s a huge business for your service.</p>
<p>As a writer myself who has both “adult” writer friends and non-writer school friends, I’ve edited several essays (for free, but my style involves detailed line-editing comments) and I have always had trusted eyes on my own essays. By “trusted,” I mean that I trust them to be good at critiquing; I trust many people as friends whom I would not trust to give me a useful critique.</p>
<p>And, incidentally, I found my teachers rather useless when it came to critiquing creative writing (which college essays SHOULD be, i.e. creative nonfiction).</p>
<p>I think it’s doable and, increasingly, I have fewer ethical qualms about it, especially if you charged a reasonable rate and advertised among a less-wealthy clientele.</p>
<p>I have years of editing experience and find it easy to edit without changing a person’s voice. I’ve edited kids’ essays on cc and always ask, “Do you want me to edit light or edit heavy?” By edit heavy I mean I’m completely truthful that it needs some real revision, but I don’t make them. ;)</p>
<p>Keilexandra, that’s def. a problem these days. it’s too bad you feel teachers are “rather useless”. Not all of them are useless, of course, but that seems to be the prevailing sentiment.</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay: I also have done some ‘heavy’ editing for kids here. it’s a process and I include those detailed, line-edited comments too.</p>
<p>The Common App requires students to sign a certification that all submissions are completely the students’ own work. At what point does the use of hired “editors,” “tutor’s favorite words,” “line editing comments,” and the like render this certification as done in bad faith? </p>
<p>The admissions director at Bowdoin, an SAT-optional school, is quoted as saying that he nevertheless values standardized tests because he questions the provenance of the application essays he receives.</p>
<p>Keil, I don’t think college essays SHOULD be any one thing in particular, though creative nonfiction certainly is one good option.</p>
<p>^^Don’t get me wrong, I love my English teachers and have learned a lot from them. But with regard to editing college essays, their help was not particularly useful.</p>
<p>I assert that college essays SHOULD be creative nonfiction because most colleges will ask for some sort of “personal essay.” What is a personal essay but a narrative about something personal and true (not necessarily about YOU, but something that matters to you)? And that is my definition of creative nonfiction.</p>
<p>If the application specifically asks for “an analytical essay,” then obviously the assertion is inapplicable. But students usually know how to write those better than they know how to answer an open-ended personal essay prompt.</p>
<p>^^^even writers, published writers have editors. </p>
<p>The message, voice, word choice should all be created by the author, but an editor can point out where words/phrases/sentences are confusing or out of order, unnecessary, or needs more. In fact, writers may be too close to notice.</p>
<p>^^Of course published writers have editors, but the point of college essays is to give the admissions committee an idea of what the student can do by herself. I see the value of having someone proofread, but I still can’t decide where you draw the line after that. I think it’s not an easy question, even when we’re talking about contributions made by parents, teachers, and fellow students; bringing outside professionals into the process brings further complications. Frankly, if I were an admissions officer (I am not) I’d be tempted to disregard the personal essays for the reasons cited by Bowdoin.</p>
<p>I wish colleges would be clearer about what sort of editing they do or don’t want. A few info sessions have advised getting someone else to at least proofread the essays. I get the sense from the way they talk about essays is that they read them for insight into the student’s personality more than as writing samples.</p>
<p>An acquaintance started up a business doing this. She focuses on people who are not native speakers of English who are trying to get into American graduate programs.</p>
<p>The problems will come when your idea of what is ethical differs from your customers’ ideas of what is ethical. Most people will not be happy to have you read the essay and give general guidance about what parts of the essay need tweaking and in what way. People who are paying money tend to expect something concrete in return. They will want you to provide more specific feedback- what word choice and sentence structure will work better, what would be a good way to begin or end the essay, how do you make a smoother transition from paragraph 2 to 3, etc. Before you know it, you could find yourself writing large parts of the essay- and the essay will no longer be in the voice of the student.</p>
I absolutely agree! On this very site I’ve seen hired counselors note that they do many (was it 17 or so?) edits of client essays, and one parent stated that a private school in their area had a committee of 10-12 teachers/staff to fine-tune college application essays. </p>
<p>And I suppose these clients and students sign that Common App statement without a second thought…</p>