I am currently twiddling my thumbs (metaphorically speaking, of course. Said appendages are actually being more gainfully employed as spacebar operators) in my final office hour of the year. The exams have been copied and my makeup final has been booked into a room for next Monday. I�m running out of things to do other than grade papers, and even those are half done.

I�m currently wrestling with the problem of a student who can�t write in the most egregious way. English is not her first language, so she is already struggling. She�s got some great ideas, but she writes so poorly that I can�t tell if her failure to organize them and to follow them through is a result of not thinking clearly or just not being able to communicate on paper. She�s pretty shy and quiet in class, so I don�t have much to help me there. I�m not sure what to do about her grade. On the one hand, I think she�s genuinely trying. She�s definitely coming into this class with a serious educational disadvantage and she has a brain that she�s trying to use. I don�t want to discourage her (she�s only a first year). But on the other hand, if she�s never been held accountable for this kind of thing before, I�m not doing her any favors by allowing this kind of work to slide. If I were regular faculty, I would allow her a chance to rewrite the paper and would help her to figure out how to pull it together. But I�m technically off the job next week and am not certain, after that, if I even have the ability to change her grade if I want to. I�m not sure how to handle this. And I must say, listening to a trio of �singers� (scare quotes are absolutely necessary, trust me) belting through the score to Urinetown down the hall is not helping me come to a decision.

One of my colleagues just came in to complain about a similar problem with one of her students, so it�s nice to know I�m not alone. She also brought me a doughnut. Yum. I�m all for collegiality. And now, I suppose, it�s time to get out the red pen (also metaphorically speaking � I use blue and green) once more.

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