Respect

The weekend's almost gone and I just finished setting the grades for my ten o'clock 1101 class in stone. They're locked in now, ready for the essays to be passed back tomorrow. I'll refrain from saying anything about them for now so as not to pre-empt anything I might want to say tomorrow morning. All I'll say is that I'm pleased with them overall. They're actually among the best batches of essays I've ever graded...but there's still a lot of work to do. That won't please anyone, but it's part of the gig. It's what we all signed up for.

I'm about halfway through grading the essays for my noon 1101 class and they'll get passed back on Wednesday for sure. I'll just be relieved when these are all done and things can get back to normal for me for a little while. Essays tend to take over my life after I've taken them in.

Of course, while you students will continue to fight the good fight--I realize that it's never-ending and that you feel that some profs don't realize their course isn't the only one you're taking (I used to feel the same way, and I'm not so sure I was wrong)--my office hours have only just begun. It's gonna be pretty busy at my space in the Arts Bldg. (AA 3032) for the next few weeks. My office hours will get stretched from a few hours a week to an almost endless number, and that's okay. It's gruelling, but it also means that you, the student, want to know how to improve on your work. In the end, that's the best any of us can hope for. The more students there are at my office, the happier I am, even though it means I'll be more tired. I'm not a martyr, but then again you have to be one to some extent in order to be a teacher at all. Or a good one anyway.

I'll have more to say on all of this once I pass back the second batch of essays on Wednesdays. After that, it's all fair game and there are no more secrets between me and you when it comes to your writing style--the good, the bad, and the ugly.

For what it's worth (and I know I'll say this tomorrow and on Wednesday), I know it's not easy getting a grade that's less than you think you deserve. Been there and done that myself. Sometimes I took it well and sometimes I didn't. But I always, always did everything I could to a) make it better and b) do better on the next one. Good writers aren't born. They're made. And I've never met a student who couldn't be made into a better writer. Heck, I'm still becoming a better writer myself every day. If you stop trying, you're dying, metaphorically speaking. This is only the beginning. In three months time, you'll be glad for whatever you happened to have gotten from me this time--in terms of either grades, commentary, or one-on-one consultation.

Writing is all about being not only a better communicator, but potentially a better human being. But that's a topic for another day. I just think that the better you are at expressing your thoughts, the more people respect you. And we could all use a little more o' that. Especially the kind that comes from the self.

Till soon,
GC