What if you were an English teacher who kept running into the same problems in your students' writing? For example, your kids have difficulty writing cogent introductions for their formal five-paragraph essays. But the matter is complicated, because the nature of the problem seems to vary. Some kids are capable of writing an excellent thesis, but they have trouble previewing the foundation of the argument. Others bounce right past the thesis, and although they preview the main parts of their argument, the focus of their essay is vague. And still others are caught up in writing "cute" and "original" introductions, but they can't tame their thoughts enough to stay on task in a formal writing assignment.
Wouldn't it be great if you could evaluate the essays on your computer desktop and hit a two-keystroke command on your keyboard for the girl who lacks a thesis? That command would cause a standard note about thesis statements to appear instantly, right there in your corrections. The note would explain the importance of the thesis, a matter you've no doubt addressed already in class. It would remind her of the essential characteristics of a thesis, and it would include an invitation to come to you for help.
The next boy, who doesn't have trouble with a thesis, but fails to provide a preview of the basic arguments, gets a note appropriate to his needs too. But it only takes a two-keystroke command for that student as well, with a similar invitation to ask you for help.
And then there's the young lady who has a pretty good introduction, but drifts into using second person "you" in her second paragraph. You made a special point to discuss this matter before your classes started writing, and you clarified third person perspective all right, but this girl simply "blanked" on it after she got into her work a little way. She just needs to watch for that detail. Wouldn't it be great to have an instant note for that pupil as well?
How would you ever find a method to deal that efficiently with such matters, and allow yourself more time to tend to their individual expression and logic problems, and perhaps even to co-author with them farther along in their work?
You would go to Wohlsi's store at teacherspayteachers. com, download his free preview to make certain your software works with his Macros, and purchase his new product. Then you'd be making those exact sorts of corrections that quickly tomorrow:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dealing-with-Writing-I-Macros
Wohlsi's a retired English teacher and coach who would like to offer a few reflections:
