Where is the line between helping a rising senior with a college essay and editing it until it no longer sounds like them?
My 17-year-old has started an essay draft. There are bits I don't understand and bits I'd definitely phrase differently, but he gets annoyed when I even look at the document. How are other parents helping without becoming the unpaid editor nobody asked for?
With my 16-year-old's writing, I ask what kind of reader they want before opening anything. Confused reader, typo finder, or just someone to say it's finished? If they choose confused reader, I leave questions instead of replacement sentences.
I'd keep the comments out of the shared document at first. My teen sees a page full of comments as a page full of things they did wrong. Two things you genuinely want to know more about might be easier to hear.