I ran across this article today about a professional term paper author.
http://www.thesmartset.com/article/article10100801.aspx
There is a lot to chew on in this article, but here’s the point that gets me (as a former English teacher).
I know why students don’t understand thesis statements, argumentative writing, or proper citations.
It’s because students have never read term papers.
Back when I took classes at MU in composition instruction, I remember my teacher saying that we couldn’t expect a student to write a quality paper if they didn’t see a quality model. And the only way we could come up with a quality model is to write it ourselves for them.
If you are requiring your student to write a term paper for your class (a noble assignment, but one that is utilized less and less), are you willing to provide them a model of good writing? If not, why not? If they have never read a term paper (other than their own feeble attempts), what will make them succeed at writing one for you?
How have you been able to make sure that students can see models of what they are supposed to be writing?
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