Since my mother is a college professor, I’ve heard her say plenty about what I should expect when I walk into the classroom. One of the main things is that most of the students simply don’t want to be there. It’s probably not their dream to go to college, and it’s certainly not their dream to have to learn writing skills. Usually they’re there because parents have made it the only option, or because it’s a required course on the road to some degree that they’re actually interested in. So it’s up to me to make the class as pain-free (for everyone, including myself) as possible, and if that means making cracks at my own expense to keep them laughing (a laughing student is an awake student) then so be it.

Another point I think it’s important for a teacher to be aware of is the fact that we will spend more time grading an assignment than most students will spend writing it. Pretty disheartening, I know, but it puts things into perspective, and it reminds us not to spend hours “helping” a student who clearly just doesn’t care. If it’s obvious that a concerted effort has been applied to a paper, then I am more than willing to put just as much effort into my review of it. But if I feel that something has been written 10 minutes prior to submission time, then I’m not going to feel bad if I don’t go over it with a fine-tooth comb.

Students coming into FYC need to know that it’s time to work, and that the work needs to be taken seriously. They also need to know that we’re not here to torture them, but rather to help them grow in their writing abilities as much as they will allow us to do so. No teacher enjoys reading shoddy writing, any more than a student enjoys producing it, but if that’s what is given us, they cannot expect to walk out of the class with an A. Further, they need to learn to look beyond the numerical grade and actually think about the comments on their work’s feedback. It’s there to be used as a guide. Do us a favor and make our time worthwhile.

As for a Plan B if students don’t come to class with this knowledge . . . what is there to do? We can’t force them to enjoy writing classes. We can’t sit with them while they proofread their work before submitting it. But I think in-class exercises in which they bring to class some of the feedback they’ve received and then write a paragraph response analyzing it might be useful in getting them to see the benefit of reading the graders’ comments. At least then the teacher will know that they’ve looked at it. And we can always live for the few students who actually want to be there and put in the effort, and who, at the end of the semester, have clearly improved.