Last semester I tried to finally make the hard switch to contract grading, motivated by a number of reasons. My motivations were good, and my policies had been gradually trending that way anyway, but (as I have explained before) the experiment didn’t go well, with a much higher fail rate than I’m used to seeingContinue reading “What I Miss From Last Semester’s Contract Grading Experiment”
Monthly Archives: February 2021
Finishing A Dead Draft
Anne Lamott famously gave us the concept of “shitty first drafts” as the key to “good second drafts and terrific third drafts,” and even that seems overly optimistic for many writers—my process for long fiction takes at least four drafts. But if we are being generous with ourselves, as Anne Lamott argues, we embrace theContinue reading “Finishing A Dead Draft”
Drafting as Rehearsal
Writers often express pain at cutting or changing things in revision. It’s very easy to get attached to your work. It’s personal, it’s private, and it probably took you a lot of work to write it. We get attached to the things we made. This is sometimes called the “Ikea effect.” Our labor is preciousContinue reading “Drafting as Rehearsal”
Dr. Cox's Desk 