I've never understood when students turn in work that doesn't meet the word count or length requirements, especially on the papers after the first turned in for grade.
If you've played a sport - or studied a martial art - consider this analogy. In basket ball or football coaches routinely ask their players to run sprints, where (in Bb for example) they run from baseline to touch the free-throw line, then return and touch the baseline and then run to touch the mid-court line, return to baseline, sprint to far court free throw line, back to baseline then run full court and back. This completes one cycle. Different teams may have different names for the drill, but the drill is repeated multiple times in a practice. [update: most common name according to students - suicides]. Football will use the grid lines on the field and go 10 yrds and back, then 20 yrds, etc.
These drills develop agility, build endurance and foster team dynamics. But players don't enjoy them.
What would a coach do, if asking players to run 5 cycles, a player runs just 1 or 2, then says, "Well coach. You get the point. I think I've shown I understand the drill. I like to be concise."?
Or imagine if you study martial arts, like: wrestling, kung-fu, karate, aikedo or the like. When the coach/teacher (and in Asian martial arts the coach is addressed as "teacher" - Sensei means teacher in Japanese, Lao Sher means teacher in Chinese - these cultures respect teachers as much as Americans respect coaches) - when a new move is taught the coach/ teacher will ask the student/ athlete to repeat the move multiple times - or for a set period of time - say 5 minutes. This builds muscle memory and as well ties verbal and visual instruction to physical movement - which creates neural pathways that make permanent the memory and facilitate recall.
What would a martial arts instructor do if the student/athlete did one repetition and said, "That's enough. I get it. I won't do any more"?
Having participated in formal athletics - and been a scholarship athlete in a martial art - I am hard pressed to remember an example of a student questioning a coaches request for repetitive action, though martial arts instructors are famous for stepping in and working on the move in question with students - which when studying a pugilistic sport, may amount to a butt whipping.
Why is there reluctance to meet minimal length requirements? Colleagues I worked with at KU would simply fail or not grade a paper that failed to meet any minimal requirement. This seems logical.
How can we address rhetoric and grammar, and be fair to all students, if most follow directions and take the necessary risks involved with engagement with the assignment - but some take far fewer risks, and disclose much less information?
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