"The works that have been addressed in this course seem to connect in one way or another."
This is the brilliant opening line in a draft of what is supposed to be a three- to five-page paper, although the alleged draft is only one paragraph long. The title of the paper is "Title," a singularly inauspicious beginning. The draft's five sentences are models of muddled syntax and wordy constructions (such as "the ability to be able to"). On the plus side, most of the words are spelled correctly.
In my responses to student drafts, I'd like to achieve a sort of parity of effort here: more feedback for students who are clearly doing their best work, less for those who are clearly not trying. Assuming that the student spent no more than three minutes composing this draft, how much time should I devote to responding? Or have I already done too much?
1 comment:
Although I am confident that I never inflicted upon you the same errors as this poor, misguided soul, I did once accidently turn in a final version of a history paper entitled "Insert Witty Title Here."
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