Clarification on homework help?
Should we go ahead and edit entire essays that students submit to Spanishdict to the point that we are actually rewriting them?
The reason I am asking is that occasionally my students would turn in an essay that was perfect and contained grammatical structures or expressions that we had never covered in class. Clearly this was not the student's own work; if I were to ask a student in this situation to explain why he used X grammatical structure instead of XX grammatical structure, he would have no idea.
Many teachers assign essays with an eye to giving the students an opportunity to practice with the structures and expressions that have been studied in class. The teacher understands that the final product will nolt be a polished work of literary perfection, but rather a "best effort". The teacher can then use the errors of each specific student to help that individual work on areas that need improvement.
Should we we edit student essays to the point at which we are actually rewriting them?
5 Answers
Based on your explanation and also with my own experiences helping students and my own children, I would say the answer has to be a big "no". 
I think this is a great disservice to any student. My father was an English major in college. He would constantly critique my essays and projects. He would never rewrite them, but would give advice and suggestions. So when I was in the fourth grade, after my father would proofread and make some suggestions, I was ultimately handing in the work of a nine year old, not that of a college English major.
I have continued the tradition with my own children and it has seemed to work well. Through the years, their writing skills have improved, but I had to always keep in mind that this was their work. Sure, I could have rewritten a paper that would have "wowed" my kid's grade school teachers, but that would have never benefited them, with the exception of a temporary grade.
I know it is tempting to rewrite anything that is poorly written, but I don't think it is beneficial in the long run. 
No, I don't think we should. If the student has made an honest effort I think we should correct the outright errors, but we shouldn't suggest idiomatic phrases instead of what the student writes. The more advanced members should probably also take into account the student's level and not use constructions that are much beyond that.
Frankly, I don't have the attention span to check more than a paragraph or two, unless it's really well written. And if it is really well written it's probably beyond my ability to correct, anyway.
No, I don't think we should (in my case to help those learning English) but it is a global problem now. The internet makes it possible to find most things. The art of making mistakes as part of the learning process is being lost. Universities are "fighhting" this problem. It is made worse when complete essays on a particualr subject can be found on the internet and submitted as the student's own work. A fact of the world of modern communications I am afraid.
I think NO and that is coming from a high school student.
My opinion, it isn't fair that teachers have to teach all this stuff and then students do not listen, and end up on sites like this trying to get someone to do their work for them. It's rather pathetic if you ask me.
I think:
LET THEM do their OWN WORK. Do not edit. If you edit, they will be learning nothing and figure they do not need to learn what the teacher is teaching because they can come back and someone will do their work YET AGAIN
agreeing with Kevin:
No, I don't think we should. If the student has made an honest effort I think we should correct the outright errors, but we shouldn't suggest idiomatic phrases instead of what the student writes. The more advanced members should probably also take into account the student's level and not use constructions that are much beyond that.
Frankly, I don't have the attention span to check more than a paragraph or two, unless it's really well written. And if it is really well written it's probably beyond my ability to correct, anyway.
I don't think so but it seems we go round about homework help at the beginning of every semester or at least every year.I think the response will depend on how jaded a particular individual is in this regard.
When I first came on board I was answering ridiculously simple questions because I was at that learning level.
So no I don't think so but everyone will do what they will.
