Revision Policy |
Please click here to read directions on submitting revisions.
You will have the opportunity to revise the first three papers this semester (you will submit your fourth paper at the end of the semester, so there's not time to revise it). For two of our papers, you will have a scheduled evaluation conference with me. On the paper's due date, you will submit your completed paper, and then in the next week, I will meet individually with each student to discuss the evaluation of your work; these conferences will take the place of class meetings for that week. Since I find students revise more effectively after face-to-face conferences, rather than in response to written comments alone, I will not write extensive comments on these papers, but rather indicate areas of strength and weakness, and discuss with you how to address those. You should plan, therefore, to take comprehensive notes during our conference, and to begin your revisions immediately, with our discussion still fresh in your mind.
After we've discussed your paper's strengths and weaknesses, and talked about your plans for revision, I will pencil in a grade on the paper. You will then revise the paper and resubmit it within one to two weeks of receiving your paper back. The grade you receive on the revision will replace the evaluation conference grade. Students are not required to revise papers this semester, but I strongly encourage you to do so.
You should keep in mind, though, that revision of a paper is literally a re-envisioning, and you have not revised a paper when you simply go through and correct a few typos and add a sentence or two. A fully revised paper may be completely restructured, may have deleted or added material from the original draft, and indeed, may be refocused in a new direction. If you simply correct errors and add a little new information here or there, you can expect that your grade will not improve. I never penalize a student by lowering a grade for a revision, however; if the paper does not improve significantly, it may receive the original grade. Finally, students who do not submit a paper on the due date will not be permitted to write one and turn it in at the time the revision is due.
This page copyright 2000-2007 by Lisa Hammond | last update 20 October 2005