Professional Ponderings

Yesterday I had the pleasure of helping students edit their compare/contrast essays before they printed the final draft and turned them in. After two I was sick and tired of reading “There are a lot of similarities and differences in “The Iditarod Trail” and Balto.” The formulaic approaches left me thirsting for something of substance. Many students wrote very little, thinking that as long as they followed the formula they described the differences. The repetition of “In “The Iditarod Trail” X happened. This also happened in Balto.” made me scream. Just because the students followed the formula did not mean that they could write. It just meant that they could repeat what someone said, since most of the essays were duplicates of each-other.

I understand the need for students to learn how to write a comparison/contrast paper, but there has to be a better way to teach it.