<p>Just last night, a friend gave me her son’s application essay (due today!) and asked me to review it. I did, and made a few syntactical suggestions, as well as noting that there were a couple of places where he went off on tangents that added no value to the essay. She wasn’t entirely thrilled with my help though, because she felt that her son used too many ‘flowery’ phrases that seemed to be an attempt to show off his vocabulary and powers of description. I agreed, but noted that the essay was powerful and exhibited true feelings. I told her that that was commonly the way kids wrote, and yes, we could tighten up on his excessive flights of verbal fancy, but then it wouldn’t be his anymore. I also felt that application readers know authentic writing when they see it, and this was an example of that, even though it could be more polished. So, apparently I didn’t do my job as effectively as this parent wished, but I’m pretty sure I would have crossed the line into changing this kid’s intent and content.</p>
<p>In my opinion it is wise to solicit editing and proofreading assistance on any piece of writing, whether it is a business letter, a school assignment, or a novel. It’s part of the writing process. Others can see issues that the writer misses because he/she is “too close” to his/her own work; others can offer insight and help the writer make the writing the best it can be. I would never submit a piece of writing of any importance without having someone edit and proofread for me.</p>
<p>When my older son was in the 8th grade, he got a very serious-minded English teacher who really stressed the importance of writing a good 3 paragraph and 5 paragraph essay…with thesis statement and 3 supporting points, and a conclusion. </p>
<p>Up to that point, some teachers had been kind of laid back about this…so now it was time to “get serious.” Son had to quickly make up for lost time otherwise his grade would suffer.</p>
<p>I had to heavily proof-read and help him with edits…transitions, awkward sentencing, tense , syntax, etc, etc. My H felt that I was going “too far,” but I was teaching, not “doing” the work. Son was a quick learner and has become an excellent writer.</p>
<p>My kids were like you sixela, they wrote them on their own and didn’t want me to review them. I think their grammar (but not spelling) skills are better than mine anyway. </p>
<p>I think it’d be hard for most people to proofread the essay and just point out grammar and spelling mistakes yet not do some ‘editing’ at least in the form of asking “why did you write this part?”, “how about adding a sentence that says…?”, “this paragraph would be better located here”, “the intro and/or conclusion isn’t adequate.”, etc. Worse, sometimes the ideas for the essay come from the parents or worse than that, the theme, grammar, spelling, format, and editing could come from the parent or even worse, a professional consultant or teacher.</p>
<p>I think ideally the essays should be completely the kid’s own work, including the prooofreading but given the importance of the essay and the fact that it’s widespread that many parents proofread the essays, it puts more pressure on even more of the students to have their parents proofread the essays to ‘compete’.</p>
<p>I’m sure the college adcoms know all of this is happening and somehow adjust their perceptions when they can tell the essay was completely written by the student vs. the ones with a lot of ‘influence’ by others.</p>
<p>This is a subject near and dear to my heart. I did not like my son’s essay - I felt that it wasn’t his best writing, needed a rewrite of two to hang together better, did not show him in the best light, and was not of the same quality as the rest of his application (near perfect test scores, top academics, great ECs etc). He, was stressed and did not want to hear of anything less than 100% support. He had a couple people review it but did not make a single change though some were suggested. His college counselor reviewed it and thought it was fine, by the way, so there went my credibility. I saw no more of his essays, probably a good thing for our relationship. At least, I thought, anyone could see it was written by him and not a parent.</p>
<p>Acceptances are in and he got into some excellent schools, including one of his top choices. He and we are thrilled. However, he was rejected from his other top choice, and waitlisted at two others. Could a whip smart essay have made a difference? Perhaps so, but I believe the college adcoms got a more accurate picture of my child.</p>
<p>Garland, my daughter finds the whole story hillarious and it is one of her standard “bits.”</p>
<p>No need to feel badly.</p>
<p>I should add that I learned a good lesson also, which is to chill. If I am truthful with myself, I did not add any real value to my child’s college application process. He made good decisions, and though not everything was perfect, everything turned out fine.</p>
<p>These days,the schools with kids who tend to get accepted at the most selective colleges often have essay writing sessions in school with the essays being discussed and edited. So those essays are often finely crafted, heavily reworked pieces. I’ve seen too many negative remarks if a kid has misspellings or bad grammar or mistakes in the essays, and these remarks are from admissions folks, to advise anyone NOT to have his/her essays proofread by someone very, very good in this area. The exception would be for those kids clearly coming from a disadvantaged background. But if you come for XYZ Top High School where 25% of the kids get into the most selective schools in the country each year, you better darn well have that essay looking good. </p>
<p>It seems to me that the subject and presentation is what often catches the admission’s officer’s eyes as well as plain dumb luck. If a reader happens to be a running nut reads your essay on how you love to run, you could be in luck, Not so much if you are unlucky to be the 3rd essay in a row about running for a reader who isn’t big on the subject anyways. My son got kudos on an essay that his counselors and I felt was not acceptable. He was lucky enough to get readers who were interested in a highly technical essay that told nothing about himself, not something I or most people would advise to anyone submitting essays. My friend’s daughter was hurt beyond hurt (it still hurts her 15 years later) when she found out that an essay that sounded very much like hers was being panned at an info session at a school where she applied. And that essay was vetted by top private school counselors who are accustomed to apps going to such schools. My friend still is upset about what happened there. It was used as an example of someone trying to be clever. Also hurts if you are writing about the death of a loved one and you hear what a hackneyed subject that is. I won’t even touch an essay other than to correct sentence structure, grammar, spelling and things like that. My opinion on an essay is just that, and it seems like even those who are in the business can’t always predict either.</p>
<p>Poetgirl, I got called in for a conference when my son wrote some poem on suicide some years ago. I don’t guess that’s the sort of essay one should write for college either.</p>
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Very VERY important! That’s the first piece of advice I give to high school seniors - don’t let adults ruin the essay! And it isn’t just “calculated creative risks”, but also just using your own voice.</p>
<p>I have to agree with you Geekmom. After reading DD1’s essays, discussing topics, suggesting changes, I found I was getting too involved and backed off. Computers can spell check better than I can, and their HS did a pretty good job teaching them to write after all. I also think it is better that the essay is an authentic relflection of the kid rather than some over-wrought, daddy-edited work. All turned out well.</p>
<p>There was a sentence in my son’s EC essay that I thought could put him in a bad light and I told him why. My son thought it improved the humor of the story he was telling and left it in. He didn’t get into every college he applied to, but he did better than expected, so I think his instincts were fine. For another essay I told him what I thought needed expanding on. For a third essay he asked me if the essay still made sense after he realized he had to slash half of it. (It was better.)</p>
<p>I really liked his essays, they were much more conversational in style than most of the ones I’ve seen.</p>
<p>Cpt.-- Yes, the suicide essay is probably a real “no, no” for the college essay. :eek:</p>
<p>DD had a friend who wrote something comparing Hitler to Jesus and was told by the school advisors that it probably was not the best idea. She went ahead with it and did not have great success in the admissions process. Parents can definitely give guidance on things that might be offensive. Lots of teenagers like to take chances and walk the edge, but it isn’t always worth it.</p>
<p>My daughter’s high school gave assignments junior year in AP English that could be used for applications, so the teacher and other students all had a look at potential essays.</p>
<p>Lucky for me, my daughter’s essays were so different from anything I would even think of that there was no question about who did the writing. I did, however, proofread.</p>
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<p>Yep, I always said that I could pick my son’s essay out from a group of 100,000. Probably the only one in the country on that topic.</p>
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Well, the folks that employ college consultants who do lots of editing (one consultant actually wrote that they did a “gazillion” edits for their clients) or who are even just employed specifically for the essay surely think differently. An essay or college consultant who does nothing more than suggesting topics is already taking the ownership of that essay out of the applicant’s hands. Part of the student’s story is the choice of essay.</p>
<p>Like researching4emb, I am also a professional/writer editor. I used practically the same technique as she did with our son. Then, he asked my husband, an engineer, to read it to see how it seemed to him and to find those typos that we would miss because we had looked at it for so long.</p>
<p>I use the same technique with my friends who have returned to college later in life. Several of them ask me to help with essays, term papers, etc. We barter for the things they do well–making curtains, photography, scrapbooking.</p>