I just finished reading the rough drafts of my English 191 students' rhetorical analysis papers. I know the papers are rough drafts, but honestly can't my students at least run spelling check before they give me their papers? I dutifully circle or underline every grammar and spelling error; I will look at these rough drafts again when I grade the final drafts. And I will deduct points for laziness i.e. not bothering to fix the errors I pointed out. So annoying!
Someday a software program may be developed which can read papers for all proofreading errors. (Spell check and grammar check are not good enough to count). Even if that happens, I will still read my students' papers. I do not think technology can replace the human touch, the factor which separates human beings from machines.
I had conferences with my students last week. They appreciated the human being who cared enough to make a bunch of red ink marks on their papers. The conversation helped them understand that they had an audience. They realized they needed to clarify their writing. Most of them said that no one had ever read every single word that they wrote before. I wanted to make them realize that their writing counts. It matters what they put on the paper. They can contribute new ideas and give insight to issues. Technology cannot provide this kind of concern for their progress as writers.
I am not just a proofreader; I am a teacher, the human factor, who cares.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I understand what you say about "dutifully circl[ing} every grammar and spelling error." Sometimes, what I do instead is underline several errors of the same time, explain what those are, and tell students that they need to find the same errors later in the draft. I also, of course, tell them that if they don't "get" my explanation, they are welcome to chat with me about it so that they're able to apply the rule they're missing when they edit.
ReplyDelete"of the same type." Sheesh. That's what I get for writing right before I'm about to head out the door. I wish this darn program would let me edit -- or that I would learn to read the comments in the preview mode since I would see stuff like time/type.
ReplyDeleteSo much for ironies on a Friday a.m.