Proofreading for college-aged kid?

alh
Sun, 13 Jul 2014 14:12:56 +0000

We have always given help when requested. I “taught” my kids to write since we homeschooled prior to high school, but they surpassed my abilities to instruct pretty early on. In high school, we read and commented on papers. Since there really wasn’t adequate writing instruction, and our kids were worried about being prepared for college level writing, my husband gave them a lot of help and had them do rewrites. The kids sought out this help. Any paper they turned in always got an A, regardless of how wretched it was. They understood these As were pretty meaningless and that they would need to learn to write well for their intended careers. I was only asked for proofreading type help.

Husband and I discussed how we were going to handle this in college and hadn’t really come to a conclusion when it quickly became apparent that our kids had found classmates/dorm mates from similar households and they worked cooperatively to proof and critique each others’ work. Sometimes I was sent college papers after the fact for my enthusiastic admiration, but never for advice. It was a relief to us not to have to look at college papers, because we were pretty worn out, but we would certainly have continued to do so if they had asked us.

Occasionally one of my kids still sends me something to read to see if it makes sense to someone not an expert in the field. And for my admiration. : )

ETA: My husband routinely reads the work of others and makes suggestions. He has an older mentor who has been evaluating his writing for 35 years. I have found myself asked to read early drafts of the books of several friends. (Very tricky!) I don’t see why we wouldn’t do for our kids what we do for our friends? Writing is a process, right? Always room to grow and improve?