Yesterday, Maricruz’s first paper was due. I was a bit worried because last week, when her first best effort was due, she only had one page done. I sent her an email last Wednesday suggesting that she writes one paragraph a day so that I could give her feedback leading up to the final draft, but she didn’t follow the suggestion, so I didn’t see anything until today.
Fortunately, she does not have a lot of mechanical errors, and she has a good sense of how to create a logical flow and structure. Overall, I did not see any major problems of that type. I do worry that if she was being asked to write a longer, more complex analytical paper, it would be much harder for her to take a last minute approach and still have good quality work. I get the sense that she is a very slow writer and likes to really think before putting anything down, and I want to encourage her to address this simply by starting papers earlier. There is nothing wrong with writing slowly, as long as you give yourself enough of time.
Also, I think really trying to think of new strategies and exercises I can use for in-class writing. My standard exercise, which is to give the student a general topic and ask them to write a thesis off the top of their head, is very difficult for Maricruz. She says it is difficult to think so quickly and to make things up as she goes. I am going to try to find some other exercises that still challenge her but that are more productive, as the current ones don’t seem to be a very good use of time. I am hoping by the end of the semester, we will be able to return to these exercises and that they will come much more easily to her.