When you read the first line of a student paper and notice that it spells the word you in two different ways in the same sentence (you and u), and then you look back in your files and notice that you marked that sentence on the draft and offered some very specific advice about how to revise, what do you do?
I had to step away from the papers for a few minutes this morning and think about other things. I had read two stellar papers right at the start, which pumped up my expectations for the rest of the class, and then I went straight for the paper that shows no signs of having been revised from its initial drafty form. Suddenly I'm feeling deflated.
Yes, we've reached Moment of Truth time in all my classes: the honeymoon period has been over for at least a week, and now I'm reading papers that sometimes fill me with hope for the human race and sometimes make me want to crawl into a dark cave and never come out. I prefer to focus on the first type of paper but I have to find a helpful way to respond to the second kind, beyond "Go back and read what I wrote on your draft." (Or maybe that should be "ur draft.")
I've been fortunate so far in that I've never seen much text-speak in student papers, and it wouldn't be a fatal error if the rest of the paper had some merit, but if sloppiness in spelling is accompanied by sloppiness in reasoning, that's a double whammy. But how do I communicate with a student who refuses to read what I write on his papers?
Maybe the grade will get his attention. Today's Moment of Truth: let your gpa fall too low and you won't be permitted to play your sport. (Or should that be "ur sport"?)
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