Enough Rope

I am, as I always am at this stage, a little worried about my classes. It's not undue worry, and it's not unexpected worry, but it's there. It's anticipation, excitement, concern all rolled up into one ball that will be released beginning Friday.

Their first papers are due that day, and some of them only had a paragraph (or less) written by Wednesday. This is not necessarily a problem. In fact, I'm a bit of an oddity among composition teachers I know in that I don't require an outline, then an annotated bibliography, then a draft, then everything along with a final draft in a portfolio, with each step being graded. I offer most of these steps along the way in some form, but I know that students write in very different ways. Drafting an outline is not guaranteed to be helpful, and I hate busywork in college classes. Annotated bibliographies were the bane of my existence as an undergrad, and yet they're useful for some people to organize. Instead of requiring these elements for a grade, I build in a day on which my students share with the class what information they've found so far and where they seem to be going with it. It's an informal sharing, but one that allows students

A) to find out if anyone is working on a similar project and thereby collaborate on resources
B) to practice some oral communication
C) to have a soft due date that pushes them more gently towards completion

I also build in a day on which students do group revisions, partnering up to read another person's paper aloud to that person, trading papers to look very specifically at punctuation, at evidence, at theses, at spelling, etc. Their grades will not suffer automatically if they don't have much done for that day, but it definitely benefits anyone who brings as much as possible.

For the first paper, students (freshmen especially) don't always realize the benefits. They know that their papers are not due until Friday, that there is plenty of time, that perhaps instead they'll concentrate on a biology exam. They're still thinking in high school terms, that the stick is more powerful than the carrot, to react to negative pressure instead of proactively pursuing positive feedback.

Every time I do this, I end up being pleasantly surprised by a few papers that turn out wonderfully despite having been written the night before. It's silly, but if they can make that work, I don't begrudge them. Every time I do this, I'm a little bit saddened by papers that have decent ideas but really needed another few drafts to become good. I've warned them, but it won't be real until they see their grades in about a week. As usual, some will take it in stride. Some will change their work ethic about college as a whole, which is my favorite reaction. Some will wonder why grading got so "unfair" between high school and college, which is my least favorite reaction. Most will reflect on how they went about the paper, and that's part of the lesson, too.