Re: proofreading policy

[COBLENTZ@DT3.DT.UH.EDU]

Richard,

I agree with you about proofreading.  In fact, the whole thing has become so
inverted in my mind that I've concluded that by telling students we won't
proofread, we insist that proofreading is the most valuable stage of 
writing.  We seem to be saying that it's the one place they must struggle
through on their own, the one place where their *authentic* voices emerge,
the one place that the value of the writing as their own must be left
sacrosanct.  We seem to be conspiring in grades for writing deriving mostly
from correctness.  ANd we seem to be saying at the same time that it's
beneath us, the experts, to fiddle at this level.

As a result of this analysis,  I changed our policy.  We will now have an 
editing conference at any stage of a paper, even the invention stage, if
that's what the writer wants.  Of course, we tell them it's silly in terms 
of the final paper, but if it's a real question that bothering them, there's
no particular reason not to work on it.  Also of course, we don't proofread for
them;  we work with on problem they are worrying about or that we discover together
until they seem to be able to find and correct in that particular piece of writing.

Guess what.  We haven't been flooded by students seeking only proofreading.

Linda COblentz
UH-Downtown