College Essay, Round 2

     Yesterday, I had my second session consulting a high school senior's college essay. Fortunately, she came in with a well-written essay she was fairly confident about. At the beginning of the session, she told me she was most concerned with making the essay seem like it is at the college level. She mentioned vocabulary and organization. She also said her teacher gave her an "A" grade on the essay, but she still had some concerns about how it would be received by colleges. I thought this was quite interesting, as many students (especially high schoolers) place extreme emphasis on getting a good grade, and once that grade is received, they are satisfied.
     Overall, the session went extremely well. I did not know what to expect, because during the first session, my student had several doubts about what kind of work she would be able to produce. We went paragraph by paragraph, focusing mainly on ironing out her ideas. During one crucial part of her paper, she called herself an m&m in a bag of skittles and I asked her to explain. When she did (her essay was about sports and her personal growth as she began to play even though she was not the greatest player), she talked about cultural stereotypes and how she rebelled against them. Essentially, she was better at talking about what she actually wanted to say instead of writing about it. This showed me how important talking about one's writing really is. By the end of the session, I had written several comments on the student's paper - I pointed to a few errors, I asked questions, and I drew arrows (showing the student how the reader might follow her paper, versus how she expects him or her to). She seemed to feel motivated to make corrections and changes to her paper, especially as she feels the pressure from approaching due dates. By the end of the consultation, she was asking all the questions and even brought out another essay for me to quickly read before the hour was over.