I have often faced the problem of seeming inability to formulate a thesis
statement in expository writing: I have had students who were prone to mix
metaphors in descriptive writing but never one who was at a loss using them.
With thesis statements, things got to a point that, in some schools and
colleges, students who had to write a term paper to pass a course had first
to submit a thesis statement and later, a detailed outline.  Both had to be
approved before the paper could be written.  Students hated the extra
requirements but it enabled more students to pass.  Only once did I waver
from that practice: a five-week intensive summer course in American Lit. 
I told the students that the time frame was too short for my regular course 
of assignment but gave the full directions and warned them that the thesis
statement had to come first and I had to approve it and an outline was
required for the finished paper but I would not require it in advance as 
I was supposed to because I did not want to delay their writing a single
day.

One student completely ignored the specific guidelines and turned in the
worst paper I have ever received and, therefore, failed the course.  She
was defiant, explaining that she was staying with her father during the
summer and had no access to any references except for one encyclopedia.  
I pointed that the University library was only a few hundred yards away; 
her retort was that her father did not like to wait for her so she had not
asked.  She went postal when she received an F for the course: the paper 
was 25-33% of the grade and told me that she could not graduate with her
class without passing American Lit and I had no right to keep her from
graduating.  Somehow I lost all sympathy and told her to follow directions
the next time she took American Lit or she would earn another F.  In
teaching American Lit on three occasions I encountered only that one who did
not follow directions--except for the very few who refused to write a term
paper.

As you might guess, the above happenings were before the PC came on line. 

N. Scott Catledge
*******************************************

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/