Q: As a high school English teacher, I am frequently asked to proofread and make rewriting suggestions for students’ college-application essays.
I decline on the grounds that admissions officers assume that these essays accurately represent the students’ work.
Other teachers argue that our students lose the editing advantage many students receive.
Is it ethical for me to read student essays?
– Name Withheld
A: The all-the-kids-are-doing-it defense? Unpersuasive. A teacher may read student essays but not write them. You should eschew anything as hands-on as editing or proofreading and instead find ways to guide students toward producing first-rate work that is their own.
This is a more conservative stance than that of at least one person who will judge the finished product.
Jeffrey Brenzel, dean of undergraduate admissions at Yale, says, “I would think it foolish of a student not to have an essay proofed for spelling, grammar and syntax by someone competent to do so.”
As to your concern – and mine – that such direct involvement by the teacher can mislead a college about a student’s language skills and undermine the student’s integrity and sense of accomplishment, Brenzel replies: “We are not looking to take the measure of writing ability, genius or cleverness. We simply want to know something about personal outlook and perspective – how a student sees things or what a student has learned from his or her experiences.”
Admissions offices are wise to use these essays as a way to learn more about applicants but disingenuous to suggest that they are uninfluenced by the quality of the writing. How could they not be?
Your challenge is to help your students without distorting their voices or misrepresenting their abilities.
One technique recommended by College Summit, a nonprofit organization that helps public-school systems increase college enrollment, is to ask students probing questions about their essays – Why did you spend your summer vacation in that shark tank? Is there a word in standard English that is clearer than “aieeee”? – but not proffer answers.
That is, help a student identify a problem, but let the student solve it.
Send questions and comments for Randy Cohen to Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111, or ethicist@nytimes.com.
