I share your frustration and blame some of my colleagues as much as the students. When I get that question from students, I ask them to consider what would be an appropriate length. I also remind them that if the paper is poorly written, I'd rather read a shorter than a longer paper. I usually say something like this, for example: "You probably can't do this paper topic justice in less than 3 pages... but if you spend more than 7 pages on it, you're not writing 'efficiently'". Of course some colleagues assign 20-page papers... an assignment that I think I would have difficulty doing outside of my field of expertise. I also remind students for blue-book exams (and papers), that I would personally rather have them leave things blank. That takes me the least amount of time to grade and I get to golf sooner ;-) After a bit of an "aw, c'mon" response, I further explore the perspective of why they are doing what they're doing in college. I remind them that they shouldn't be trying to guess 'what I want' (like what button they need to push to get the "pellet"), but rather focus on 'what they want to give me' to "impress" me or at least to show me their competence. I believe that if we keep responding to the questions in ways that "reinforce" the question itself, the students will keep asking (who can blame them?). I see the issue as a need for us to re-educate them in terms of perspective. The perspective change seems subtle, but I've seemed to have some success with getting students thinking about their behaviors in more positive and proactive ways. I'm trying to get a small paper together describing some other "re-education" techniques I use in the classroom with which I believe I've had some success; and which result in more student success.
BTW, I had a colleague at another institution who would count the number of lines "short" a paper happened to be (for example if it was 6 lines short of a 7-page requirement) and subtract that percentage from the student's grade to begin with. Talk about petty! And boy, did that ever reinforce some weird behaviors in my students. Although I'll tell you one thing... some of the students absolutely loved that kind of mechanical grading because of the fact that little thinking was required. Cheers, -S Dennis Goff wrote: > I share the pet peeve about the "How long should this paper be?" question. The > question suggests that students are not thinking about writing a paper to make an > argument or tell a story, but rather to complete an assignment. My "peeve" is with > both the student and others who have been teaching them to write. It seems that my > students have *always* been told that a paper of less then X pages will not receive > a good grade so they are accustomed to writing to fill the length requirement. When > this question comes up it does give me a chance to talk about how to determine an > appropriate length for their papers and the need for them to judge when they have > made the argument to their own satisfaction. That kind of discussion before they > start writing does help to reduce the transition problems and distracting asides > that have already been mentioned. It also helps them to see how to start and finish > the introduction to a research paper or review. > > Dennis > > Dennis M. Goff > Professor of Psychology > Randolph-Macon Woman's College > 2500 Rivermont Ave > Lynchburg VA, 24503 > > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul C. Smith [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 10:59 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences > Subject: Re: Writing Pet Peeves > > Robin Abrahams wrote: > > > You've hit it with the "insufficient attention to the meaning of words" > thing, I think. It's a profound problem with a lot of them. > > > > This weekend I saw our school production of "Anything Goes," and noticed > immediately that the students had the same problem as actors that they do as > writers. > They simply weren't listening to what was coming out of their > mouths, they weren't hearing the words they were speaking. Just as they do > not read the words they > are writing. > > I think that many of the "writing errors" we see stem from > misconceptions about the task. These misconceptions include those about the > purposes of the elements of a research paper, those about what is signalled > to the reader by citation/quotation practices (MANY students believe that > merely citing a source entitles them to use the exact words of that source), > and those about writing itself (the "insufficient attention to meaning" > thing, for example). > > About every other semester I get papers from students who seem to have a > "paint a picture with words" model of writing. The papers don't actually > make any points, but rather talk around a topic, with lots of vague > comments. Those are the hardest papers to write feedback for, as there's > really nothing to organize or support. My feedback essentially amounts to > "start over, but have something to say this time". > I also get quite a few papers that suggest that the student believes > that her job as a psychology major is to learn to repeat the "conventional > wisdom". These tend to be papers about "body image" ("In today's society, > the media tells women they should look like Barbie dolls...") and/or self > esteem. I suspect that these papers come from the students who brag at > graduation that they really already knew what they needed to know about > psychology before they started the program. Hmm. > > I also have a "pet peeve" that comes before the writing issues: the > inevitable "how many pages long does it have to be?" question. I'm reminded > of Abe Lincoln's response to "How long should a man's legs be?": "Long > enough to reach the ground". I want a good paper, and I don't really care > how long it is. I honestly don't think I've ever counted the pages of a > completed paper, or given any indication that I do so, but students _always_ > ask how long it has to be. > > Paul Smith > Alverno College > Milwaukee > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Steven M. Specht, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Department of Psychology Utica College Utica, NY 13502 (315) 792-3171 "unanswered questions are less dangerous than unquestioned answers" --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
