@Joe_Suarez, at this time, we are asking for senior users to volunteer because they have built a level of trust within College Confidential. That helps reassure students that the person who has offered to read their essay has some level of credibility in the CC community.
Thank you for your interest. We hope you remain here on CC and contribute to our forums as you work towards senior membership.
I want to say that Iāve already been working with two students. It is a great experience so far, and I do think I can be helpful. But also, it is more time consuming than I thought, if one is doing a conscientious job and putting thought into it. I am really enjoying it!
I notice that kids who post late at night/early morning might not get readers volunteering?
Another thought might be for the students to give some feedback as to how helpful they found their reader and the suggestions.
Readers can point students to the general forum if they want additional advice, and they donāt have to commit to working with students on all essays.
Iām happy to volunteer, but want to be upfront that I donāt do this for a living. Iāve been told that I write well by a number of people. Is that enough?
Someone asked about how they can approach reviewing a student essay. I suggested this as a basic approach:
The first suggestions might be based on your initial reading.
What worked for you in the essay?
Did you feel that you understood who the person was after you read it?
Whatās your impression after the first read?
What do you think is the main issue to work on?
Maybe you felt that a few paragraphs were disorganized and didnāt have a cohesive idea. Maybe a sentence would work better elsewhere in the essay. Maybe there was too much telling and not enough showing, so the essay needs more detail.
I wouldnāt focus too much on perfect grammar and punctuation. However, if there is missing punctuation that interferes with comprehension or makes it too hard to read something, such as run on sentences, then you can feel free to mention that.
Perfection isnāt the goal. We are offering them an extra pair of eyes and doing out best to offer a free service that if hopefully useful in some way.
Right, itās sort of first come first served. Unless dadofjerseygirl says he is unable to help any longer and wants someone to take over. We are getting more students signing up all the time, so Iām sure you will get your turn.