On Reviewing

For a quick twenty points in the EdTech class, I opted to comment on a (hopefully) staged student research paper.  I like reviewing writing.  The essence of teaching, I think, is to assist people in realizing that they are capable of more, and to guide them on the path to achieving a higher percentage of their utmost potential.  Busting out the old red sharpie is not a tool to achieve this, really, but rather gives an opportunity for a student/teacher gut check to see how the journey is progressing. 

In working on this assignment, I found that hypothetical grading is difficult.  I don't know what the assignment was, I don't know what the rubric looks like, or if this is a first draft, or eleventh hour, three extensions in, it-is-what-it-is final.  I choose to treat is as an early enough draft that there is still time to revise some key structural elements, but not so late as to need to hold back on things like spelling and comma splices.  I also have made a commitment to not write in red pen.  Ever.  I used my Wacom tablet to simulate handwritten comments, because, as a student, I always felt that seeing my teachers' and professors' bad handwriting softened the blow of comments like "And your point is..." , "Not part of the assignment." , and my favorite:  "WRONG! STOP! NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO DO WITH THE READER'S SCHEMA, DAMMIT!" It also seemed more in the spirit of the class to use a fancy gadget.  As I was writing these in, I realized that I should spend as much time working on improving my handwriting as I spend money on design tablets

 That last comment came courtesy of Tom Trusky, one of my Book Arts and Poetry professors, who truly exemplified "tough love" when it came to my writing.  I literally bear scars from a time when he wrote a scathing review of a saddle-binding that I had done.  I was so upset that I tried to tear the book in half along the spine, and the very upholstery thread that he had taken issue with sliced right into my knuckle.  It still creaks when a storm is coming.  I'm a better bookbinder and writer because of him, and the world is the worse without him.

Pax and Petra,
Ben