Students do it too...

[sleigh]

Not follow guidelines, that is. When a writer fails to follow submission guidelines, they're automatically rejected, usually without reading their story.

I told the students in my two Intro To Literature classes this semester that their final papers must be submitted in hard copy. That was to avoid the problem of being sent attachments in formats I can't read, or of getting garbled attachments, or of being sent the paper in plain text in the body of the e-mail rather than in correct format, or of the inevitable student who claims "I e-mailed you the paper; didn't you get it?" And also, frankly, because I'm not going to read the papers online, so the student is passing off to me the expense of printing out the paper, and that's just flat-out rude (and costly, if all forty-odd students do the same).

So what did I have in my e-mail inbox this morning? You guessed it. Now, the question is whether I should accept them or not. Right now it's only two, so I'm inclined to take them, but I can guarantee I won't be in a good mood when I'm grading them...

Bleh. Read the guidelines!

EDITED TO ADD: Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of you are right -- see, I can learn from peer input. :-) Consider it done.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Well, in real life, not following the guidelines usually ends up one of two ways:

1. You get rejected out of hand--learning that you are not special and you need to do things the proper way the first time; or

2. You have to go personally and fix the thing you messed up--learning that everyone makes mistakes and if you are willing to go through the trouble of personally attending to it, you may get a reprieve.

Both are valuable lessons. So I would say... don't just accept them!

But I'm mean that way. :D

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't accept them. At most, I'd let the students know, either by return e-mail or in person, that the assignment will not be considered turned in until they hand it to you in hardcopy.

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

No! Don't take them!!!!

Make them snail mail them to you. Priority mail, 3.95, no problem.

[braider.livejournal.com]

Do not accept them. Email the students to tell them they must be turned in in hard copy. Since you've got the papers, they count as being on-time (assuming they hand in matching hard copy).

This does, however, make it easier for you to google any passages you think might be stolen.... ;-)

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

Softy! I'd email them giving them a certain number of hours to correct their drastic oversite.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

In a situation similar to this, I allowed an emailed paper to confirm that the paper had been done by deadline, but insisted on a hard copy to be in my hands before I graded the paper. (What I explained to the student was that since I had 30 or so papers to grade anyway, I had no problem saving theirs for last...as long as it was in my hands by the time I was ready to grade it.)

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Joining the chorus of "make them give you paper, like you asked."

In the Real World, if you fail to follow directions, it can result in bad things. Better they learn that in this relatively benign situation.

[davidbcoe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm another one who thinks you're being a marshmallow. (That's what Nancy and I call it when she's too easy on her students.) I can see not docking them on the grade (though I could also see treating the hard copies as late when they finally come in) but at least make them do it the right way.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

We have a consensus. Make them submit hard copy. It will prepare them for the real world.

My Journalism 101 professor deducted a full grade point for every spelling error or typo in the articles we submitted, to teach us that Accuracy Counts.

Yeah, this was 20 years ago. It's obvious that journalistic standards are no longer enforced in journalism, at least not in the U.S.

WoW!

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

There's journalistic standards here? I never knew!

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

I agree and all that. But the other thing is this. Once I decided not to marshmallow with students, these problems for the most part stopped. Your reputation develops and you don't have to deal with it as much. Now plagiarism. . . . a whole other kettle of wormy fishy crap.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

EDITED TO ADD: Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of you are right -- see, I can learn from peer input. :-) Consider it done.

-->Aren't you glad to know your blog readers are a bunch of hardasses? ;-)