First Read

I gave a quick first read to the papers that were turned in last Tuesday. While I still need to work them over with comments (and there's a good chance I won't have them all ready to turn back next class), I can report that I was really pleased. Good work! Every paper had solid strengths and some were very good indeed.

I wonder how people think about posting their finished papers in the Student Logs section so we can all read and comment on each other's work? There is a lot there for everyone to learn from.

I think seeing examples of each other's work will help any lingering uncertainty about matters like organization, constructing an argument, analysis, writing a more speculative paper than usual and so on that students may still have. I also think many intellectual qualms can be soothed by getting feedback from peers as well as the teacher. I'm pretty sure many students did better than they thought they did and having a good assessment of writing and thinking strengths will help make the next round of papers be even better.

Are you game?