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#11
09-21-2007, 03:40 PM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
[ QUOTE ]
Pseudo hijack: I have found the best way to avoid some of the grading variance is to go talk to your professor/TA with a draft of your paper. They can read it over and tell you what they think you should change. I have had pretty good experiences, never really bombing a first paper (at least not yet). [/ QUOTE ] You would be surprised how much instructors like this. If students come to me with a draft it means: 1)they have finished a draft in time to actually revise it 2)they care enough about the class to come to office hours (I'm usually sitting there alone) 3)they are going to incorporate the feedback I give them into the paper If a student comes to me for help with a paper, I don't know if he/she has ever received below a B. But this might be because it is the good students coming in for help to begin with.... 
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#12
09-21-2007, 04:19 PM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] Pseudo hijack: I have found the best way to avoid some of the grading variance is to go talk to your professor/TA with a draft of your paper. They can read it over and tell you what they think you should change. I have had pretty good experiences, never really bombing a first paper (at least not yet). [/ QUOTE ] You would be surprised how much instructors like this. If students come to me with a draft it means: 1)they have finished a draft in time to actually revise it 2)they care enough about the class to come to office hours (I'm usually sitting there alone) 3)they are going to incorporate the feedback I give them into the paper If a student comes to me for help with a paper, I don't know if he/she has ever received below a B. But this might be because it is the good students coming in for help to begin with.... [/ QUOTE ] lol i wrote B papers all year for my anthroplogy prof first year, but got an A in the class cuz I went to all of his office hours (once a week) with questions on my rough drafts, solidifying concepts in class, etc. He loved me. I didn't participate much in class though.
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#13
09-21-2007, 08:29 PM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Pseudo hijack: I have found the best way to avoid some of the grading variance is to go talk to your professor/TA with a draft of your paper. They can read it over and tell you what they think you should change. I have had pretty good experiences, never really bombing a first paper (at least not yet). [/ QUOTE ] You would be surprised how much instructors like this. If students come to me with a draft it means: 1)they have finished a draft in time to actually revise it 2)they care enough about the class to come to office hours (I'm usually sitting there alone) 3)they are going to incorporate the feedback I give them into the paper If a student comes to me for help with a paper, I don't know if he/she has ever received below a B. But this might be because it is the good students coming in for help to begin with.... [/ QUOTE ] lol i wrote B papers all year for my anthroplogy prof first year, but got an A in the class cuz I went to all of his office hours (once a week) with questions on my rough drafts, solidifying concepts in class, etc. He loved me. I didn't participate much in class though. [/ QUOTE ] Meh, office hours seems like pushing it time commitment wise for me. Im engineering, and its a lot harder to sway professors in technical courses.
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#14
09-22-2007, 02:14 AM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
when you write the first paper for a class and you end up getting a grade that you're not happy with, for example you get a B when you wanted the A, should you:
1. talk to the RA (who graded the paper) or the teacher (who didn't grade it) or both to discuss this? 2. how should you start the conversation? "Can you tell me what I should've done to get the A?" , "What did I do wrong?" or "How can I improve next time?" Basically I want them to know that I WANT the A. So how I approach this? Is it worth it to talk to them about this?> Thanks
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#15
09-22-2007, 03:02 AM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
your comments on the following ways to improve one's writing?
a) read many well written essays and books b) freely write on any topic on regular basis (every week or so?) c) read "how to write" type books any recommendations/feedbacks would be appreciated
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#16
09-22-2007, 04:22 AM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
[ QUOTE ]
your comments on the following ways to improve one's writing? a) read many well written essays and books b) freely write on any topic on regular basis (every week or so?) c) read "how to write" type books any recommendations/feedbacks would be appreciated [/ QUOTE ] You write as much as possible (literally about anything) and ask for people's opinions who are better at it than you, or in the case of a class you ask the teacher. Message boards are actually a great place to start if you are in a thread with any decent conversation. I don't put much effort into it here, but I post at other boards that generally care a whole lot more about the quality of posts and that has helped a lot.
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#17
09-22-2007, 08:12 AM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
[ QUOTE ]
when you write the first paper for a class and you end up getting a grade that you're not happy with, for example you get a B when you wanted the A, should you: 1. talk to the RA (who graded the paper) or the teacher (who didn't grade it) or both to discuss this? 2. how should you start the conversation? "Can you tell me what I should've done to get the A?" , "What did I do wrong?" or "How can I improve next time?" Basically I want them to know that I WANT the A. So how I approach this? Is it worth it to talk to them about this?> Thanks [/ QUOTE ] In my experience the best way to go about this is to go the RA/TA who graded the paper. Tell him/her that you appreciated the feedback she/he gave you and you would like to talk about how your writing and the paper can be improved. In other words, go see the instructor and say you want to improve your *writing* or you want to improve your *paper*; don't show up asking what you can do for an A. The distinction may be minor, but I am more interested in helping students if they want to improve their writing and not their grade. If you do the revisions and they don't bump your grade--that sucks, but it would likely be unusual. And if that happens, next time take a draft of the paper in before it is due to get feedback in advance. Also, sometimes there are no quick fixes for an A. I'll have students with a B paper who ask what they can do for an A, and I'll tell them to re-write two thirds of the paper.
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#18
09-22-2007, 09:41 PM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] when you write the first paper for a class and you end up getting a grade that you're not happy with, for example you get a B when you wanted the A, should you: 1. talk to the RA (who graded the paper) or the teacher (who didn't grade it) or both to discuss this? 2. how should you start the conversation? "Can you tell me what I should've done to get the A?" , "What did I do wrong?" or "How can I improve next time?" Basically I want them to know that I WANT the A. So how I approach this? Is it worth it to talk to them about this?> Thanks [/ QUOTE ] In my experience the best way to go about this is to go the RA/TA who graded the paper. Tell him/her that you appreciated the feedback she/he gave you and you would like to talk about how your writing and the paper can be improved. In other words, go see the instructor and say you want to improve your *writing* or you want to improve your *paper*; don't show up asking what you can do for an A. The distinction may be minor, but I am more interested in helping students if they want to improve their writing and not their grade. If you do the revisions and they don't bump your grade--that sucks, but it would likely be unusual. And if that happens, next time take a draft of the paper in before it is due to get feedback in advance. Also, sometimes there are no quick fixes for an A. I'll have students with a B paper who ask what they can do for an A, and I'll tell them to re-write two thirds of the paper. [/ QUOTE ] It is much, much easier to ask for feedback before turning in the paper, rather than getting a B then going into the teacher. Also, I agree that asking what to do for a specific grade is terrible. The only time I brought a paper to a prof after it was graded was when I had already asked for his comments. I made the changes, changed nothing else, and he still gave me a C-. I brught the final version, as well as the graded version in, and my grade was bumped to a B+ or A- (dont remember which). Seriously, talking to profs before papers are due is the nutsssssssssss
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#19
09-23-2007, 03:40 AM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
how should you approach the professor/TA with your rough draft? Are they really going to be willing to read your entire paper? If not, is there a way you can get them to read most of it?
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#20
09-23-2007, 01:58 PM
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Re: Ask me anything about college writing
[ QUOTE ]
how should you approach the professor/TA with your rough draft? Are they really going to be willing to read your entire paper? If not, is there a way you can get them to read most of it? [/ QUOTE ] Go to office hours/ask them after class when a good time to discuss a draft is. Depends how long the paper is, probably wont read it all but most if it anyway.
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