Editing Your College Child's Essay

[Anonymous]

I edit for a living but for my kids I did nothing but type. They were admitted to their colleges of choice.

[Anonymous]

I worked with my son to edit, making suggestions and recommendations. It was an iterative process. I never touched the keyboard because I might’ve been tempted to do more.

[Anonymous]

Do you mean like actually make the changes for them? If your kid needs that level of assistance college will be a struggle. I would edit the way a teacher does, by making comments on the paper and letting the student decide on the changes.

[Anonymous]

When you tour colleges, most admissions people suggest that someone read over the application essays for grammar and proofreading. One admissions officer had the interesting idea that you have someone who doesn't know you well (or at all) read the essays and give comments, since that would be more like an admissions office reading them.

My kids' senior year English classes have also devoted time at the beginning of the year for college essay writing and critiquing as part of the class curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To 9:26 . College guidance reviewed the essays. I was just making the point that we as parents were not involved in the review.

My kids are at MCPS. Teachers/guidance counselors are not involved at all. If we did not read it, no one would have. I wonder what OPS situation is. Is she wondering if she should read in additional to school support or should it just be her child's without a second set of eyes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only parent who does not do this?

Why wouldn't you edit (not write, but edit) the application essay? Even published writers have editors.

+1000

+ a million

[Anonymous]

Through MS and into HS we edited our DC's English essays.

In the beginning, we did a lot. By sophomore year we were only doing a little and we might have looked a one paper during junior year.

For DC's college essay, they did most of the changes but we pointed out the lines that we though could use the most work.

Our experience was that parts of the essay were really well written and then the transition would be mush.

Once the subject and flow of the essay was set, we had DC ask lots of people to read it and help polish.

We certainly put our two cents into the polishing but it is likely we only pointed out about 3 things each.

DC also got similar input to the polishing stage from two teachers, 3 grandparents, one sibling and 4 friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to schools Pre-K to 12 that encouraged parents not to review homework, not even for editing. The philosophy was teachers could help them better if they knew the work was solely the work of the student. I was thankful for that philosophy. Following in that same mode, DD submitted both college essays without letting me see them even though I offered to review. I was very nervous; however, she is a good and confident writer. Admitted to Harvard and Yale this year.

Was this public school? I don't feel like my kids are getting any such feedback from their teachers. They are in ES and MS and I make them rewrite and edit their papers with my guidance so they can LEARN.

[Anonymous]

If your parents are barely literate does that hurt your chances of admission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will probably help my rising senior brainstorm ideas. I'm hoping his English teacher assigns the essay early in the school year and I would prefer that he get feedback that way. (He is not applying to top schools).

No matter when the teachers assign it, it will be too late. My kid was done by the time these actually got assigned.

He submitted an early draft (since he had to do something) and got some crappy feedback (by crappy I mean the feedback was not high quality and didn't give him what he would need to improve - it was not good editing work on her part). There were no further rounds in class. I would not count on this.

All good writing is edited. If you don't want to be the person to do this for your kid, make sure your kid gets input from somewhere.

The Harvard/Yale story is nice, but the statement: "I stepped back and my kid was AMAZING!" => "You step back and your kid will be AMAZING too" is not true.

What is true is the following "I stepped back and my kid was AMAZING!!!! and I NEED TO TELL YOU!!!!" - that one is true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your parents are barely literate does that hurt your chances of admission?

not if the feedback is from elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter went to schools Pre-K to 12 that encouraged parents not to review homework, not even for editing. The philosophy was teachers could help them better if they knew the work was solely the work of the student. I was thankful for that philosophy. Following in that same mode, DD submitted both college essays without letting me see them even though I offered to review. I was very nervous; however, she is a good and confident writer. Admitted to Harvard and Yale this year.

Was this public school? I don't feel like my kids are getting any such feedback from their teachers. They are in ES and MS and I make them rewrite and edit their papers with my guidance so they can LEARN.

I can't speak for Ms. Harvard's school, but my kid's public school did not provide any quality feedback from the teachers.

[Anonymous]

I proofread, but did not edit. Editing can really easily become rewriting, and then where is the line where the essay becomes more the parent's work than the child's?

Kids were accepted at a number of top 25 schools each.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your parents are barely literate does that hurt your chances of admission?

Yes, but the essay would likely be the least of your worries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your parents are barely literate does that hurt your chances of admission?

Yes, but the essay would likely be the least of your worries.

Actually it could make a winning essay topic.