Editing Your College Child's Essay

[Anonymous]

I am a college professor and help with college essays (mostly my friends’ kids. Mine are still in ES). I certainly do not write them, but help formulate ideas, proofread, make suggestions on better wording, etc. It is perfectly ethical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ last two posters, you are exactly the idiots I was writing about.

Every single student accepted and attending college deserves to be there. Its not your decision or judgment who does or does not deserve anything. I just can't be bothered with such a bovine crowd.

Really? If you belibve this then just state in your application that I received substantive help in writing this essay? What? You don't want to mention that? What's there to hide, since it's perfectly o.k. You know full well you're trying to get away with something.

I will state as a fact my kid would not let me help with the essay because he said at his school that would be considered an honor code violation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ last two posters, you are exactly the idiots I was writing about.

Every single student accepted and attending college deserves to be there. Its not your decision or judgment who does or does not deserve anything. I just can't be bothered with such a bovine crowd.

Really? If you belibve this then just state in your application that I received substantive help in writing this essay? What? You don't want to mention that? What's there to hide, since it's perfectly o.k. You know full well you're trying to get away with something.

I will state as a fact my kid would not let me help with the essay because he said at his school that would be considered an honor code violation.

+1 People who get others to do their work and claim it as their own are cheaters. You can name call all you want and call us “bovine” but clearly your parents didn’t teach your right from wrong.

[Anonymous]

"I will state as a fact my kid would not let me help with the essay because he said at his school that would be considered an honor code violation."

The problem is that some types of "help" actually would be honor code violations and other types of "help" might strike your DC as violations but wouldn't be considered violations by the honor code committee at all.

Our DC was IN CHARGE of writing his essay. He came up with the idea. He wrote the rough draft. He had final say on every word.

But in between coming up with the idea and writing the rough draft, we talked with him about the idea for at least 8 hours on a college visit car ride.

After he wrote the rough draft, we talked another 6 hours about 3 specific sections covering almost 50% of the essay. He ended up throwing out all 3 of his sections and going with our directions but again, every word came out of his head and into the computer.

After the second draft with the improved sections, he had 10 or so people iteratively mark it up. He chose which suggestions to include and which to ditch.

He was responsible for saying, It is done. Overall, I think any of his HS English teachers would have been thrilled with the effort he put into his essay.

But there are at least 3 sentences and parts of a few others that he "remembered/selected" during those long car ride discussions.

He would argue that they were his but they came out of his parents mouths first. Is that an honor code violation? It's not like he had a computer and took notes....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I will state as a fact my kid would not let me help with the essay because he said at his school that would be considered an honor code violation."

The problem is that some types of "help" actually would be honor code violations and other types of "help" might strike your DC as violations but wouldn't be considered violations by the honor code committee at all.

Our DC was IN CHARGE of writing his essay. He came up with the idea. He wrote the rough draft. He had final say on every word.

But in between coming up with the idea and writing the rough draft, we talked with him about the idea for at least 8 hours on a college visit car ride.

After he wrote the rough draft, we talked another 6 hours about 3 specific sections covering almost 50% of the essay. He ended up throwing out all 3 of his sections and going with our directions but again, every word came out of his head and into the computer.

After the second draft with the improved sections, he had 10 or so people iteratively mark it up. He chose which suggestions to include and which to ditch.

He was responsible for saying, It is done. Overall, I think any of his HS English teachers would have been thrilled with the effort he put into his essay.

But there are at least 3 sentences and parts of a few others that he "remembered/selected" during those long car ride discussions.

He would argue that they were his but they came out of his parents mouths first. Is that an honor code violation? It's not like he had a computer and took notes....

+100

One of the best essays my DS wrote had an opening that was an idea/suggestion from my husband. My husband did not write it...simply gave him the idea. This is NOT cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"I will state as a fact my kid would not let me help with the essay because he said at his school that would be considered an honor code violation."

The problem is that some types of "help" actually would be honor code violations and other types of "help" might strike your DC as violations but wouldn't be considered violations by the honor code committee at all.

Our DC was IN CHARGE of writing his essay. He came up with the idea. He wrote the rough draft. He had final say on every word.

But in between coming up with the idea and writing the rough draft, we talked with him about the idea for at least 8 hours on a college visit car ride.

After he wrote the rough draft, we talked another 6 hours about 3 specific sections covering almost 50% of the essay. He ended up throwing out all 3 of his sections and going with our directions but again, every word came out of his head and into the computer.

After the second draft with the improved sections, he had 10 or so people iteratively mark it up. He chose which suggestions to include and which to ditch.

He was responsible for saying, It is done. Overall, I think any of his HS English teachers would have been thrilled with the effort he put into his essay.

But there are at least 3 sentences and parts of a few others that he "remembered/selected" during those long car ride discussions.

He would argue that they were his but they came out of his parents mouths first. Is that an honor code violation? It's not like he had a computer and took notes....

+100

One of the best essays my DS wrote had an opening that was an idea/suggestion from my husband. My husband did not write it...simply gave him the idea. This is NOT cheating.

There are some on this thread who are talking about heavy editing and others who are talking about having a writing professional or sibling write the essay for the applicant. The latter is clearly cheating.

[Anonymous]

Editing an essay, whether it’s done by a parent, a “professional,” or anyone else, constitutes cheating. It is totally unethical. And admissions offices are all well versed in the scam. They can readily spot an edited essay. If your child’s essay has been edited and he/she gets rejected, don’t be surprised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Editing an essay, whether it’s done by a parent, a “professional,” or anyone else, constitutes cheating. It is totally unethical. And admissions offices are all well versed in the scam. They can readily spot an edited essay. If your child’s essay has been edited and he/she gets rejected, don’t be surprised.

PP, your post is ludicrous. "Editing an essay … constitutes cheating." You need to develop a better understanding of what cheating is and what editing actually constitutes. Until you've done that there really is nothing more for you to contribute. Admissions Officers expect that essays will be edited for clarity, grammar, punctuation and spelling. If you submit an essay without subjecting it to editing by someone else then that is a dumb thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Editing an essay, whether it’s done by a parent, a “professional,” or anyone else, constitutes cheating. It is totally unethical. And admissions offices are all well versed in the scam. They can readily spot an edited essay. If your child’s essay has been edited and he/she gets rejected, don’t be surprised.

PP, your post is ludicrous. "Editing an essay … constitutes cheating." You need to develop a better understanding of what cheating is and what editing actually constitutes. Until you've done that there really is nothing more for you to contribute. Admissions Officers expect that essays will be edited for clarity, grammar, punctuation and spelling. If you submit an essay without subjecting it to editing by someone else then that is a dumb thing to do.

Source? Find me a college admissions website that says they expect essays to be edited by a someone other than the student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Editing an essay, whether it’s done by a parent, a “professional,” or anyone else, constitutes cheating. It is totally unethical. And admissions offices are all well versed in the scam. They can readily spot an edited essay. If your child’s essay has been edited and he/she gets rejected, don’t be surprised.

PP, your post is ludicrous. "Editing an essay … constitutes cheating." You need to develop a better understanding of what cheating is and what editing actually constitutes. Until you've done that there really is nothing more for you to contribute. Admissions Officers expect that essays will be edited for clarity, grammar, punctuation and spelling. If you submit an essay without subjecting it to editing by someone else then that is a dumb thing to do.

To the second PP, I agree. I know many kids whose essays were "edited" and they got into most/all schools to which they applied. I also know that my son's college counselor, who is also a part time admissions reader, holds a workshop at his school where the kids submit their essays to him and other readers, who "edit" their essays. So to the first PP, you obviously have no clue what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ last two posters, you are exactly the idiots I was writing about.

Every single student accepted and attending college deserves to be there. Its not your decision or judgment who does or does not deserve anything. I just can't be bothered with such a bovine crowd.

Really? If you belibve this then just state in your application that I received substantive help in writing this essay? What? You don't want to mention that? What's there to hide, since it's perfectly o.k. You know full well you're trying to get away with something.

I will state as a fact my kid would not let me help with the essay because he said at his school that would be considered an honor code violation.

+1 People who get others to do their work and claim it as their own are cheaters. You can name call all you want and call us “bovine” but clearly your parents didn’t teach your right from wrong.

The valedictorian at my kid's high school gave a valedictory speech at graduation that was clearly plagiarized. It was quite sad, really. All the kids knew he was a cheater and their theory is that inevitably he will get found out and it will be held against him. Then the shit will hit the fan. But it was just so weird to listen to this kid giving a speech which he clearly found online, quoting Buckminster Fuller. Also really obvious he had no idea who that was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Editing an essay, whether it’s done by a parent, a “professional,” or anyone else, constitutes cheating. It is totally unethical. And admissions offices are all well versed in the scam. They can readily spot an edited essay. If your child’s essay has been edited and he/she gets rejected, don’t be surprised.

PP, your post is ludicrous. "Editing an essay … constitutes cheating." You need to develop a better understanding of what cheating is and what editing actually constitutes. Until you've done that there really is nothing more for you to contribute. Admissions Officers expect that essays will be edited for clarity, grammar, punctuation and spelling. If you submit an essay without subjecting it to editing by someone else then that is a dumb thing to do.

To the second PP, I agree. I know many kids whose essays were "edited" and they got into most/all schools to which they applied. I also know that my son's college counselor, who is also a part time admissions reader, holds a workshop at his school where the kids submit their essays to him and other readers, who "edit" their essays. So to the first PP, you obviously have no clue what you are talking about.

If your son's college counselor is an admissions reader and doing private college counseling, that tells you she's got problems with ethics so quoting her doesn't help much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Editing an essay, whether it’s done by a parent, a “professional,” or anyone else, constitutes cheating. It is totally unethical. And admissions offices are all well versed in the scam. They can readily spot an edited essay. If your child’s essay has been edited and he/she gets rejected, don’t be surprised.

PP, your post is ludicrous. "Editing an essay … constitutes cheating." You need to develop a better understanding of what cheating is and what editing actually constitutes. Until you've done that there really is nothing more for you to contribute. Admissions Officers expect that essays will be edited for clarity, grammar, punctuation and spelling. If you submit an essay without subjecting it to editing by someone else then that is a dumb thing to do.

To the second PP, I agree. I know many kids whose essays were "edited" and they got into most/all schools to which they applied. I also know that my son's college counselor, who is also a part time admissions reader, holds a workshop at his school where the kids submit their essays to him and other readers, who "edit" their essays. So to the first PP, you obviously have no clue what you are talking about.

If your son's college counselor is an admissions reader and doing private college counseling, that tells you she's got problems with ethics so quoting her doesn't help much.

+1. There are some really seedy and dishonest people here. It's the student's essay, and the essay is supposed to come from the student alone. Both of my kids went to ivy league schools. They wrote their essays without any help. Your kids shouldn't cheat either.

[Anonymous]

Many high schools tell juniors to draft their essay over the summer, and then provide a brief consult (edit session) with an English teacher in the fall. Do you consider this (transparent guidance) cheating also?

[Anonymous]

It is not like the essay is the only selection criteria...if you don't have the other boxes checked you are likely not going anyway.