Hello everyone:

I recently received an email from a student whose rough draft I had gone over. I gave him feedback using the rubric that I will be using to grade his final document.

He argued with me.

Now, please understand that it takes time for me to go through a student’s document a line at a time and give him suggestions on how to get a better grade. Do you know how many times one of my professors did that for me? Never as an undergrad or as a master’s student. Not once, until I got to my dissertation, which was 13 years after I started college.

But this kid argued.

He wanted to do the assignment his own way because he thought it “looked better.” Well, maybe it would, in his opinion, but I am the boss in the class. (And my boss gave me the rubric for the course that my boss designed…..he’s the chair of the department, so I do things his way.)

When he gets out of the service and gets into the real world of business, his boss will be the boss. His boss may or may not care how he writes a document but it is my goal for this person to be as prepared for the real world as possible. That is also my boss’ goal.

So don’t argue, just do it.

Best,

Dr. Sheri