FInal Thoughts

I am about done grading and wanted to post some thoughts I've been having too. I agree with everything Dr. Rogers posted about the second literature review. More time and some way of requiring them to work with sources seems important.

I also have many papers with only a few sources, not cited well, and all one-sided. I've written the same comment on at least 4 papers from each class, that they have written an argument paper and not a literature review and that they need to find what the other sides are saying.

I have lots of little changes that I want to make about how I handle the class and how to get them thinking about things, but the big change I want to make is to avoid the dumbfounding lack of workshop attendance at the end of the semester. Many of the big problems I have with the second Lit. Review could have been addressed if they had brought papers to the last workshop day. So, I think I'm going to include the workshop points into the paper.

My initial thought is that 40% of each paper grade will come from workshop points with the rest coming from the final draft of the paper. My hope is that this will help them realize how important the workshops are to the success of the paper and how important the editing and re-writing phase is to improve the writing.

I also think that having a list of pre-approved topics is needed and will look at Weber Writes for ideas over the summer.