Re: The Main Problem

Houston Wood (hwood@hawaii.edu)
Thu, 26 Oct 1995 20:30:38 -0500

That adult writers get their writing RESPONDED to in evaluative ways is a
better formulation of what I was trying to say: These responses are much
more multivocal and complex than letter grades! I'm all for responding to
student writing, even telling them when it "fails" and they must try
again. This is quite different from giving all writing one of five
letters in an established hierarchical form.

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On Thu, 26 Oct 1995 STINE@lu.lincoln.edu wrote:

>
> I think the only way I'd agree with Houston (and Elbow) that writing is only
> graded in school is if grading is defined quite narrowly--a "B+, good job"
> kind of definition. But all my working adult students come to class
> highly motivated precisely _because_ their writing gets graded, in the
> sense that their proposal gets accepted or rejected, their memo gets the
> response intended, their staff understand and follow a new policy description,
> etc.
>
> (Sorry to use that whole line for just an "etc.", an expression I never
> type without remembering my teacher who first suggested that it stands for
> "Every Thought Collapsed")
> --Linda Stine
>