For five days I worked on an essay. The topic was one in which I have expertise and it “should” have been an easy essay to write.  In fact, I was able to complete the first draft in less than an hour; an incredibly fast pace for me.  But the manuscript did not hold together.

I started cutting and revising and cutting and revising until I was up to 232 words from what was originally a 600+ word draft from which more than 700 words had already been cut. As I cut yet another block of unworkable text, I decided it was time to abandon the essay to the dead manuscripts folder on my laptop.  I pretend that I can return to these essays later, but I know that I never will.

I have abandoned many essays over the years; something that is not so easy for students to do when they have deadlines to submit their work.  Because a student facing a deadline cannot realistically walk away from a manuscript with which they are struggling, they can be forced to choose between submitting inadequate work or failing an assignment. But is such a choice really necessary?

In my classes, I grade assignments as “Pass / Not Yet.”  If students do not successfully complete a manuscript, they are given the option of revising it.  Three assumptions underlie this grading practice.   First, the student is expected to have completed the assignment prior to the due date.  If they don’t submit something, there is nothing to revise.  Students fail assignments they don’t complete.

The second assumption is that, when learning new skills, we are not always successful the first time we try to accomplish them.  Therefore, a dedicated student might “fail” during their initial attempt.  Such “failure” is part of the learning process.

The third assumption is that students progress during the semester.  Their initial work is not going to be their best work.   I want their final grade to be based on their ability as they leave the course.

Several years ago, my college required that faculty evaluations must be completed no later than the tenth week of a fifteen week semester.  “How can we be evaluated on material we have not taught yet?” faculty members rightly complained before the procedure was changed.  The same goes for students.  Is it fair to give them “final grades” that cannot be improved before we have finished teaching course concepts?

By allowing students essentially unlimited revisions, I challenge them to be their best.  Knowing that they have a safety net, they can also take risks to improve.

The essay I abandoned was adequate.  But I don’t want to be seen as someone who is satisfied with less than his best.  In the same way I don’t want to settle for adequate, I don’t want to force students to accept less than their best.  If a student chooses not to work up to their potential, that is a choice they are free to make.  But I do not want the structure of my course—something that I control—to force them into inadequacy.

–Steven L. Berg, PhD