DD refused to edit her essay..
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Anonymous
THIS. WTF to all the people saying profs won't proofread. I taught writing at the grad school level in a specific field of writing. I would absolutely proofread and any good prof will, too. That's is part of the writing process. |
Anonymous
Writing centers might (I don’t know — never worked in or with one), but PP is right. Profs don’ t proofread essays. Some of us will read or skim drafts, but more for substance and/or whether the student is on the right track (doing what the assignment is asking them to do). |
Anonymous
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You can't let this go, OP. This IS something worth persuading/bribing/threatening your daughter over. I can promise you that admissions officers read essays - it's fine if there are stylistic errors and awkward parts, actually. It has to be your child's voice, and not someone else's, and they are perfectly aware that children don't have much experience writing about themselves. They've very good at identifying editing from other people  But she has to work on CONTENT. What did she learn from her experiences? They're looking for maturity and perspective on whatever she did. That's very different from writing style. It's about whether her thoughts are interesting. Ultimately, they can tell who is smart and who isn't.
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Anonymous
You can suggest that she use the tools available at school and get her college advisor to take a look. You can point out a serious flaw in the writing and see if she bites, but at the end of the day, this is her work and her life. Maybe the essay will change her trajectory, maybe it won’t. You can’t and shouldn’t smooth this road out for her beyond some constructive conversations. |
Anonymous
This. |
Anonymous
What you had was a workshop process. You wrote drafts, and your professor commented on them, you wrote a new draft the was one step beyond the previous, probably adding another layer of detail/analysis/research. You probably started with a thesis, got that reviewed, then an outline, then a draft, then a polished draft, then a final. I do this every day in my work, guiding mostly younger people (but many older people) to write strategy documents, proposals, etc at my organization. I use the same process myself and seek others to help with my writing. That is not proofreading. My husband is an editor. He doesn’t do what I do with writers - he simply fixes their mistakes and lack of clarity, leaving their intended style and meaning intact, whether he likes it or not. Often when he pushes back on a writer saying if they changed xyz it would be much better they get annoyed and refuse, just like OP’s daughter. It isn’t rational, it’s about autonomy and control and feeling competent. |
Anonymous
Maybe things have changed since I was in school, but isn’t feedback reflected in the grade the student receives? If all the feedback comes before submission, they’re going to ace every assignment. |
Anonymous
NO. Good writing teachers know that proofreading a student’s essay is counterproductive because it stops the student from learning how to do it herself. It’s called dry cleaning and is frowned upon. Rather, it is better to find a few examples of errors, explain why they are errors, and then tell the student to edit her paper looking for similar mistakes and correct them on her own. |
Anonymous
So much ignorance about how to teach writing on this thread. Yes, feedback on writing is important. But not PROOFREADING. That is the student’s job. |
Anonymous
Good writing centers do not proofread. Rather they teach the students how to proofread themselves. |
Anonymous
| Tell your daughter that everyone needs an editor. Woodward and Bernstein had editors. Is she better than them? |
Anonymous
Proofreading means searching for AND correcting errors. If you did that, you were not a good teacher. If students can just go to the writing center and have them dry clean the essay, they won’t learn how to proofread for themselves. Feedback is important. Pointing out some errors is important. But finding and correcting every single issue is counterproductive. Rather, writing professors should teach students how to recognize errors and how to correct them themselves. For example, when I was a writing instructor, I would point out patterns of errors. I would point out the same error two to three times in comment bubbles, explain why it was an issue, and perhaps offer a different option of how to say it once. The other times, I would point out the error, and refer back to my first comment bubble with a specific reference to the comment number. Then I would write a global comment with all of the patterns listed and tell them to proofread their essay closely for these issues. In some cases, I might, in addition, yellow highlight other times they made these errors,, but without explaining the reason, thus forcing them to look at the global list of errors and try to figure out what they had done wrong. No way would I proof and correct every issue. That is poor teaching because it means the student does not learn how to proof on their own. |
Anonymous
| I would just tell her that it is critical that another pair of eyes look at it. Is she worried that they are going to throw out the idea and she has to start again? I personally wouldn't let her apply anywhere or pay for it until she did. |
Anonymous
You an cut the apron strings. Natural consequences. If the essay sucks and it's the difference in admission or not, she'll find out. |
Anonymous
No, but parents do proofread kids essays. As long as the essay is her idea and it’s things like “you used resilient twice in that sentence try to think of a synonym” or “I think the first paragraph might come across a bit flippant maybe tone that down” it’s fine. Obviously actually writing or rewriting it is not ok but it doesn’t sound like that’s what op was suggesting. On the other hand I definitely don’t think op should make a big deal if her daughter doesn’t want the input. |