I may be greedy, but I want both. If a student has not learned to spell or write a coherent sentence, I expect the student to acquire that skill while writing papers in my class. There are resources on campus where students who need help with these skills can seek remedial help. If a student can not communicate clearly what he or she is thinking, I have no way of evaluating the quality of the student's thoughts. The component in my grading rubric in which I evaluate the clarity of writing and writing mechanics (spelling, punctuation) includes enough points to make a one-grade difference in the overall grade.
Claudia Stanny Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Associate Professor General Track Coordinator Department of Psychology University of West Florida Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751 Phone: (850) 474 - 3163 FAX: (850) 857 - 6060 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm -----Original Message----- From: Joan Warmbold [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 10:13 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: Re: student's question I'm confused here folks. Do we want good thinking or good spelling? The latter should have been learned in grade school but, as we all know, for many was not. So I refuse to grade a student on how well they were or were not taught by former teachers but, instead, on how well they are willing to think through an idea presented in my class. And please consider--do you "grade" your friends on the quality of their ideas or on how grammatically correct their thoughts are presented? Joan [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Associate Professor of Oakton Community College) --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
