<p>S1 sent us one paper first year, after he had gotten a grade and comments back from the prof. He was so excited to have earned an A-. Have not seen any of his academic writing since, though he will ask us to comment on his resume or covering email occasionally.</p>
<p>S2 took Philosophy last quarter as part of his writing requirement, and we never saw any of those papers. I did see a couple of graded ones in the stuff we brought home, so I may look at them out of curiosity.</p>
<p>S sometimes sends us a paper to review, more as a sanity check, but the reality is that there is seldom time for anything more than a cursory skim-through. He is a very good writer and has not gotten anything less than an A- on a polisci paper or a B+ in Phil in college. I used to have to work with him on grammar rules, but IB whipped him into shape. My comments these days are limited to formatting, i.e., pointing out where heading font/size may be inconsistent and where he needs to go back and fill in details in footnotes. (He learned the hard way in IB what happens if he doesn’t footnote as he goes along. Now he’ll footnote as he goes and cite the page, but doesn’t do the full footnote until he’s done writing content.) I spent a lot of time teaching them how to edit when they were in MS and HS. </p>
<p>DH and I like reading S2’s papers – he has a contrarian viewpoint and it makes for interesting discussions.</p>
<p>We had a discussion about this with S before he started college. I’m sure it says somewhere in his student handbook what the rules are for academic honesty but we all agreed it was best for him to just show us his finished, already graded papers after they were returned to him from his profs. (if he wanted to). In high school we occasionally checked for typos but decided that for college, there could be no questioning of his integrity if papers have not been emailed back and forth to home.</p>
<p>After reading a few threads from kids with plagiarism and other “integrity” problems, I think it’s best to stay completely hands off in this area, at least for us.</p>
<p>My “kid” has been out of college 2 years now.</p>
<p>Reviewing papers he sent me was one of my great pleasures. Mostly it was to provide a set of “uneducated” eyes and read for clarity, since most of his papers were lab reports and Engineering and other science “papers”… and I am pretty much a science ignoramus.</p>
<p>But in early years he sent drafts of papers for humanities and social science courses. Again, to comment on clarity, redundancy… all the stuff that a second reader/editor can do. But seeing his writing - some of which was introspective - meant seeing his thinking. My kid is a quiet one, so this was a window into his mind and sometimes heart, and that is why it was a pleasure for me.</p>
<p>Eventually, he wanted opinions on cover letters and resumes.</p>
<p>As the rules regarding “plagiarism” have become more complex, I think those who remain totally hands off are playing it the safest. But I also think all good writers benefit from editorial review and suggestions. I think that can be done without crossing a line of it not being the student’s work… but I can see the grey area. And we do hear those ridiculous stories of parents actually doing the work (“<em>We</em> have a paper due next Tuesday.”)</p>
<p>There are college classes for which the only grades are several papers. My D is taking a course like this now. Thus, the papers take on the status of tests, IMO, and students need to do them on their own.</p>
<p>A couple times, my D sent me papers-in-progress. She is a much better writer than I. I am flattered that she wants my opinion. I see no problem with it, unless a student is DEPENDENT on the feedback in order to write a decent paper.</p>
<p>After all, she looked over her roommate’s papers on occasion (for typos, not for rewrites). That doesn’t violate any honors standards that I am aware of. The roommate did the research, the writing–all my kid did was read it over for inadvertent errors.</p>
<p>It is almost impossible to proofread your own work perfectly! You may, for instance, have typed ‘from’ when you mean ‘form’–and spell check isn’t going to see that. Your brain tells you it says ‘form’, because you know that is what you mean to say.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with a fresh set of eyes to review for those sorts of things? I think it is prudent, actually. And it means the student must have it done early enough to ASK for a proofread! Being done early enough to double-check your work is the mark of an organized student!</p>
<p>By the way–my D probably wrote 20+ papers this year. I proofread 2 of them. A few of the others she showed after they were graded. So I have no feeling like she’s dependent on me or anyone else to do fine work!</p>
<p>I have never proofed our son’s written work in middle school, high school, college or post college. As a result, though he is in a techie job he evidently has good writing skills. No, he did not always ace his pre-college written assignments but he did eventually learn good writing skills.</p>
<p>Nope- my helicopter doesn’t reach that far. Wish I could read some finished, graded papers though but that hasn’t happened yet and he’s a rising college senior.</p>
<p>SWdad–Why not, if mom/dad is a professional editor/writer/teacher, or just happens to be a better reader than anyone else the student might ask for a read?</p>
<p>I guess if you and your kids have issues with working together on an adult/professional level, that would be a problem, but for those of us who can, it isn’t.</p>
<p>And yes, as a teacher of college writing for many, many years, I always suggest a good reader for a fresh pair of eyes–a tutor, a classmate, or yeah, a family member if they have the expertise.</p>
<p>I would do the same as a professional writer (in fact, my D (college grad) and I often read/comment on each others’ professional work, as do my H and I.)</p>
<p>I do love reading my kids’ papers. It’s a window into their souls, whether they realize it or not. I’ve been saving their most interesting pieces since they were little kids, and it is neat to see how their thought processes and analytical skills have matured.</p>
<p>I have also done professional writing and editing, but I viewed my role when they were younger as a teacher so that they’d have the skills to edit and critique themselves. S1 wound up as a copy editor for his school’s online newspaper, so clearly some of it sank in. </p>
<p>DH used to ask me to proofread law review articles when he was in law school. (Not his work, but the pieces that came in and were accepted for publication.) I had a much sharper eye than he did back then.</p>
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