Dots

On the Desk:

• 9 final exams
• 8 in-class essays on a short story
• 3 3-page papers presenting a poem to a high school class (I was so discouraged by the quality of the the first papers on short fiction, that I decided the class simply was not capable of writing a unified literary analysis, especially of a poem. I instead set up the assignment so that students looked at about six aspects of a poem without the need for any unity beyond the subject matter of one poem: rhyme, symbol, diction, etc.. Part of my goal was to avoid placing stressed-out students at risk for plagiarizing. I failed. I'm also wracked with guilt that I may have dummed-down the assignment.)
• 2 oral presentations
• 2 2.5-page papers writing to a hostile audience
• 27 8-page research papers

Incoming:

• 22 4-page papers explaining a concept
• 62 final exams
• 40 3-page papers proposing a solution
• 2 Rock Star gigs, including a two-hour workshop on a topic yet to be fully determined

What I've learned:

• Length requirements make little difference to the amount of writing a student will do. For years, I've used a proposal assignment. Some semesters it's 5-6 pages, some 4-5, some 2-3. In any case, students will fail to meet the length requirement by at least 3/4 of a page.