Thursday, April 29, 2010

Two pages is one page and a line, right!

We are early in our school year, down here in Ecuador, and first weeks are always fun. For my students who have not had me before, there is always a breaking in period as they get used to how I do things, and they test me to see if I am really serious about what I do.

The perfect example was the first research essay my Sophomores had to do. The rules were for a paper of at least two pages, plus a list of references, printed out, 10-12 point type, double spaced. The  students nodded, went away, and brought back their work. Most of the papers were less then two pages, often of 16 point type or larger, while even those slushy offerings were padded with meaningless, but pretty pictures.

I have a simple way of dealing with these offerings. I simply scrawl "Does not meet minimum requirements of this assignment"" in big letters at the top and return it ungraded. I let them know that they currently have a grade of zero, but if they rework it and turn it in within five days I will give them another chance. They will lose points for being late with the assignment, though.

By the third such essay, they will be writing fools!