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/