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Help please! How do you write your papers?

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  • #1

    Help please! How do you write your papers?

    I've been grading some papers recently and it's been a painful experience. I'm hoping that you guys might be able to help me understand what's going on.

    They were given the assignment originally that had a list of questions or points they needed to address... To expand on that, especially since they needed to incorporate empirical findings, I provided the grading criteria. It listed the main things (from original assignment) along with how many points each section would be worth. In addition there were other points within the section to help out a little more. There were tips throughout.

    Reading the papers, it seems like they didn't even use it or the original assignment even because there are entire sections not addressed. Then I can't even be lenient with the grading because there's nothing there. A few papers started out okay and then it seemed like they got to 3 pages (the minimum) and thought they needed to finish it off regardless of whether they had included everything. The result has been many papers that are around or even below 50%. I've had one A, (who took me up on my offer to look over before it was due), one B, 2 low Cs, and the rest Fs so far, but I've only graded about 12 or 13 of them.


    They're taking me forever to grade because I've been putting lots of comments, so there's no confusion about what's wrong because I don't just want to give them an awful grade without also letting them know how they can avoid it next time. I'm also planning on making a list to give them with what mistakes to avoid next time based on what many of them did for this paper.


    Any ideas what the hell their problem is? Why aren't they using what I gave them?

    How do you all write your papers normally? Do you do it differently if you get more specific criteria? How do you make sure you don't leave anythign out?
    [COLOR=#4b0082][B][SIZE=4][FONT=trebuchet ms]“If you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right.”
    -Henry Ford[/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]
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  • #2
    Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

    Not sure what to tell you Sig ... the stuff we usually deal with all have very explicit answers or clearly right/wrong answers either mathematically or logically/algorithmically so it is far easier to grade.

    However, if they haven't done what you have asked for, then don't feel bad that you can't give them any credit for it. To bring up their morale, you can set a rule such that they get to drop one of their lowest grades. In the end, if they learn how to write things well, then I think it's more important than how they started off initially.
    this post = teh win.

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    • #3
      Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

      Technical writing is probably one the most important and for some more difficult skills to learn. I'd say they're probably not thorough because they either don't know any better or think being thorough is not important and as long as they cover the main sections they're OK. Perhaps you could provide them with an outline for the first few writing assignments. As Sip said if they can learn to write well at the end of the class, then it's success. Problem is that's not your job to teach them technical writing. You'd think by now they'd know. At the end of the day, a bad grade will force them to be less lazy and see the paper to the end, rather than loose their focus past some point.

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      • #4
        Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

        Yeah, you'd think they'd know. They're juniors and seniors and it's an upper division class (400-level).


        I know the technical stuff takes time and I'm being easier on that part. I'm giving them examples of how to reword awkward and ambiguous statements. Showing them the proper way to cite although they're supposed to have the APA style manual and they could just ask easily look up the basics online.

        This isn't math, but there's logic involved and it's still science. I mean either the research supports or doesn't. There's not a lot of gray with this particular assignment.
        What I'm finding disturbing is that they cannot read the research at all. I know their stats and methods training is not very good here compared to what I had as an undergrad, but they're just concluding things the researchers didn't. Some are ever drawing conclusions on things the study never even measured. That obviously wrong. They were free to get outside sources, but there were 4 relevant articles that were discussed in lecture. They should have notes on what they were about, what the results were, and what they were able to conclude. They shouldn't be getting this stuff wrong. I'm not even taking off that much for misinterpretation although I will be warning them that I won't be as forgving next time.

        I'm angry that they haven't learned how to write yet, but I cannot say I'm surprised. I know other profs and teachers are able to lower their requirements, inflate grades, etc, but I can't do it. I have to be able to live with myself. Problem with this class is that I'm not the prof, but the TA. I grade all the papers, but it's ultimately my advisors call. I've expressed my frustrations to him and he seemed pretty understanding. He's been supportive so far, we're gonna wait to see the whole distribution before deciding how to proceed, but he accepted my offer to have a rewrite be one of the options we consider. I'd rather have to take the time (although I do not have any to spare) to grade them again, than to adjust the distribution.

        What I'm trying to figure out is what I can do to prevent them from having to learn this harder way that they can't get by with this crap. I think it's going to have to be fear in the future years; I'll tell them ahead of time what happened last semester (or year) and that they will get a failing paper grade if they don't address A, B, C,... Maybe I can save a good and bad example for next time too.

        I can see how they can just go with the flow of the paper as they start writing if they dont have an outline and miss something, but you would think they'd care enough to read it check to see if they included everything. They missed things that were a 5th of their grades (dropped them a full letter grade).
        [COLOR=#4b0082][B][SIZE=4][FONT=trebuchet ms]“If you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right.”
        -Henry Ford[/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]

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        • #5
          Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

          Give out a small questionair. Tell them that if the paper does not answer, or at least touch upon, the questions on it, then they will most probably get less than B or C or whatever. Seems like you might need to hold their hands and help them assess their papers using a formal and rigorous framework.

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          • #6
            Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

            The grading criteria had points they needed to cover...
            I finished grading them this morning and there were actually a several As (12%) and around the same number of Bs. So, it was doable. I think many of them just didn't realize exactly what grading criteria are.

            Amazing huh?
            [COLOR=#4b0082][B][SIZE=4][FONT=trebuchet ms]“If you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right.”
            -Henry Ford[/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]

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            • #7
              Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

              I gave a question on an exam last year ... out of 35 students in the class, I got about 37 different answers to it! Man that was a BIATCH to grade. It was a long complicated question too so I had to work through every single one of those answers.
              this post = teh win.

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              • #8
                Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

                Ugh... That sucks. I feel for you.

                By the time I got through half of these, I had already had to read and reread the assigned lit enough times (to check their strange interpretations) that I could recognize "quotes." The time I spent benefited the rest of the grading at least.

                I hate grading major lit reviews on topics of their choices. I end up having to find and read too many of the referenced articles. Pain in the @ss.
                [COLOR=#4b0082][B][SIZE=4][FONT=trebuchet ms]“If you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right.”
                -Henry Ford[/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]

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                • #9
                  Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

                  The worst part for me is when after grading 1/2 of them, you realize you were too hard on the first few since your grading has been getting more lax with every test (lowering of the standards) .. then you have to go back and give some extra points to the first few you graded.

                  By the end, you then just tend to throw points out if the sentences are fully formed with punctuation and capitalization
                  this post = teh win.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Help please! How do you write your papers?

                    Yep, I know what you mean. Except by the end I'm igoring the grammar and punctuation, and giving points for "hmm... I think somewhere in there there was a comment on X."

                    Call me paranoid, but since I have to cross out some grades to adjust, I make sure I use a very unique color of "bullet-proof" (permanent fraud proof) ink.
                    My friend had a student copy several assignments from other students and then use similar color pens to add check marks to them. He took them to her and said he did them, but they weren't in the gradebook (webct).


                    [COLOR=#4b0082][B][SIZE=4][FONT=trebuchet ms]“If you think you can, or you can’t, you’re right.”
                    -Henry Ford[/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]

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