The Struggle

Struggle - Interestingly enough, I've struggled with writing this post.

Freshman are an fun as well as difficult to teach. Their views are very absolute - there is right and wrong. I view that part of my job is to help them start to understand that there is a middle ground that should be considered.

Unfortunately, one of the hardest parts of my job is to help develop their writing. I know what I am looking for in papers, I'm just not sure how to convey this information. Many of their papers include a paragraph about a topic, stating information they have learned and concluding with a one sentence conclusion. What they really need is a paragraph introducing a section of the paper, and a paragraph of analysis.

As I'm grading their first papers, I'm struggling with how to provide constructive comments. Determining their grade is easy, writing comments is hard.

Thankfully, I have a writing center who I will sent the kids to for re-writing their papers.

I'm a tough grader. Part of the reason that I am so tough is that I know that the kids have a chance to re-write their papers to inprove their grades. My thought is that since this is the first college writing class they take, this is where they learn what is required. The other reason I am tough is because they are going to continue to experience tough professors for the rest of their college career. They are going to go on to careers where bosses will require them to write well. If I let them pass with so they can get a good grade, I'm not helping them.