Tutorials
and Writing
Michael Taber
St. Mary’s College of
Maryland
Tutorials
At least some of
our papers will be run as paired tutorials. You will be scheduled in pairs to
read your paper to me and to the other student. We will discuss your paper with
you, interrupting you more than once. Then the other student will read their
paper in the same way. So that we may follow along as you read, ensure that the
other student has access to your paper. Realize that it is your paper which
will be graded, not your reading of it or your answering any questions which I
or the other student may bring up. The purpose of having you read the paper to
me is that I can give you most comments directly and suggest ways to improve
your future work. This is much easier for me to do and much more helpful to you
than having you read my comments in dried ink on a dead piece of paper. Because
I will have to schedule many tutorial sessions, I am canceling class for the
days during which the tutorials will be held.
Writing
Since writing is
central to the course, both in reading others' and in creating your own,
respect for writing will manifest itself even at the level of writing
mechanics. You will be expected to take stylistic and mechanical concerns most
seriously in your three papers. As a motivational aid to this end, you will be
allowed two grammatical, spelling, or punctuation mistakes per page (partial
pages counting as full), after which you will lose one point for each mistake.
For example, if you have a 24-point paper of five pages, and you have made
thirteen mechanical errors, then you will receive a 21 for the paper. N.B.:
the same mistake (not just similar) repeated will count as one mistake. You
will be allowed to submit a revised version with the mechanical errors
corrected, and in these cases you will be assigned the
average of your original and revised grade.
You might consider spending a bit of time
at my writing site. Few would fail to benefit.
Send
me mail: mstaber at smcm dot edu
Go to Michael Taber's home page.
Go to the SMCM home page.