It’s similar to the old myth that paragraphs need to be 3-5 sentences. I had a grammar professor in college disprove that edict by showing us essentially any page of dialog in a novel. Paragraphs can be one word if they are a complete thought.

Wow.

Thanks.

I’ve tried a number of things t overcome it, since the simple fact they can do it on anything like like doesn’t seem enough.

As Marie comments, getting the learners to understand the standards we’re marking to would be an excellent start. I’ve tried several things to try and aid that, from examples of good completed projects, to simple language explanations of the handed-down-from-on-high “standards”.

Mixed success but I’ll keep at it. Would be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully helped students get to grips with assessment criteria.

A Major Work

Poems are hard to read
Pictures are hard to see
Music is hard to hear
And people are hard to love

But whether from brute need
Or divine energy
At last mind eye and ear
and the great sloth heart will move.

~ William Meredith (1919-2007 )
http://tinyurl.com/2tavyg

“Meredith began to suffer from expressive aphasia after a stroke in 1983. This means that he has lost the ability to express himself at will. As the poet Michael Collier explains in his foreword to Meredith’s most recent publication, Effort at Speech: “Trapped, as it were, inside his body, which has profoundly betrayed him, for the past decade and a half Meredith has remained occupied with the poet’s struggle—the struggle to speak.’”
http://tinyurl.com/25p59b

On another note, what about using good rubrics to reinforce quality versus quantity…or at least, provide students with the criteria for assessment! Too often, I think we assume that our students understand our expectations for projects/assignments. Rubrics can not only serve as an assessment tool, but a teaching tool, as well.

There is something wonderfully focused about a blog posting. As you noted, the object is to let the content determine the length; padding and circumlocution become immediately obvious and detract from the power of the writing.

My students asked to do a PowerPoint project, and I set a number of slides – not as a minimum, but as a maximum to keep this from turning into another endless, rambling presentation. Then I asked each member of the class to complete a reflection page. Question 1 was: name 3 specific things that you did well. One student responded: the beginning, the middle, the end. We’re still working on our analysis and communication skills!

I like your idea of a 1 slide project. It will be interesting to see how they define themselves.

diane