I require two drafts of all papers, with the due dates at least two weeks apart.
I use to read the first draft and comment heavily.  I then noticed I was wasting
my time on the vast majority of students.  Being young and foolish (it seems to
be a perpetual state), I kept trying to find a way to improve their writing.
Here is what I do now.

The paper assignments are short:  one, two, or three pages.  If they know how to
write, that is enough to demonstrate it and/or brush up on their skills.  If
they do not know how to write, that is enough to detect it and yet short enough
that they actually will attempt to correct all identified errors.

To reflect the importance of writing, the first draft is the subject of one
whole class meeting.  They bring two copies:  one for me to grade swiftly and
one for other students to read and edit.  By "grade swiftly" I mean just that:
I determine if it is a good faith effort at a final draft in less than 60
seconds and award a 100% or 0% on the first draft.  That cliff grading plus the
fear of embarrassment in front of peers who are in no way bound to silence about
bad writing they read seems to produce far more adequate quality first drafts.

Why two copies of the first draft?  I collect and randomly distribute the first
drafts to other students in the class.  Then, each student reads without comment
two papers by other students.  Next, each student reads and edits heavily a
third paper.

This way each student is aware of four papers, two of them understood in depth.
The task of proof reading and reading for content the paper of another student
teaches the reader how to do that to their own paper.  Most students state that
their second draft and their writing abilities genuinely benefited from the
editor's comments:  something I very rarely heard when I was the editor.

Two weeks later the second draft is due, which I read and comment upon in
detail.  These are returned no later than one week before the end of the
semester.

I change the writing assignment every semester, yet it stays the same.

I require the students to attend a live performance of a play put on by the UNO
Dramatic Arts Department.  My law students analyze the play for a tort and a
contract.  My economics students analyze the play for profit maximization
activities, especially the principal-agent problem.  Since the plays change
every semester the assignment changes every semester and there is very little
risk of plagiarism.  Since the task stays the same every semester the older
students get to mentor and commissariat with the younger students.

Almost without exception the students think this is a real dumb assignment prior
to attending the play and prior to reading the other students' papers.  Almost
without exception the students think it is a great assignment after turning in
their second drafts.

What I read today is of far better quality that what I use to read when I
offered previews.  The quality improves in all dimensions:  from spelling to
analysis.

I still get 2 to 6 requests every semester to perform previews.  I routinely
decline and explain in detail how the student editing works.  They are never
convinced before the editing, and if by luck of the draw they got someone in the
top half of the class to review their paper, they are convinced after the
student editing.

Only once was a student wholly unhappy.  This student requested the preview not
because of a grade concern, an "A" was almost a certainty at that point.  The
student requested the preview because of a personal commitment to quality
writing.  Luck was not with him, the best in the class, as he drew the worst in
the class.  Given his commitment to quality writing, however, I doubt he would
have been happy with the second best in the class editing his paper.

Michael

Michael J. O'Hara, J.D., Ph.D.
Finance, Banking, and Law Department
College of Business Administration
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Omaha  NE  68182
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