If I could classify my students with a few words, it would probably be “lazily efficient.”  

My students always try to accomplish their assignments, homework, and class activities as quickly as possible, and this might be a projection of my efficiency, but nonetheless they tend to finish their work so quickly that they neglect to dive in and really answer their questions or discuss their topics to the full extent. Writing is not a super efficient process, it’s slow, and tiresome, and sometimes it never really feels finished. My students struggle with writing because of this very reason- they like to check their homework off their to-do list as quickly as they can, and “good writing” isn’t something that can be accomplished in a short amount of time.  

On top of their tendency to rush through their writing, forgetting to slow down and really take each assignment and project at a slow and successful pace, many of my students have absolutely zero confidence in their abilities as writers. Many of them have told me directly that they consider themselves to be “shitty” writers. Even today while I held conferences with students, 2 of the 6 that I met with told me that they considered themselves to be “bad at writing.” 

I truly think their strive towards efficiency, or “getting their homework out of the way,” combined with a general lack of confidence in their writing abilities, causes my class to struggle with writing. And this is disappointing, because many of my students have excellent writing skills, and I think that if they all took a little more time to proofread their work and double check their writing with the prompts and rubric, they could be more successful.  

So, as their instructor, I’ve been telling them to spend more time on their writing. But this is faulty, because I hadn’t really showed them what this means until recently. When I tell my students to spend more time on their writing, I want them to see writing as a slow and social process, one that involves peer reading, multiple rounds of revisions and edits, and triple-checking their rubrics to ensure success. They haven’t been particularly fond of these notions, but I can already see differences in the writing and their grades when they do put the extra time into their work. Writing can take a considerable amount of time, and unfortunately my students don’t enjoy lengthy work, but their writing process is starting to improve.