A concept I emphasize to my freshmen is knowing your audience. This is especially true with knowing my students.
I just—as in minutes ago—read a paper by a particularly competent writer. In fact, I saved his paper for the bottom of my stack so that I won't feel depressed when I go to bed tonight. This student wants to please me and wants to do well in our class, but he's definitely a freshman—he runs to our 12:50 class with his contact case in his hand because he woke up minutes before we're scheduled to meet. It's been apparent that his social life is infringing on his academic priorities, and it has become more apparent now that I've read his third paper.
This is the note I wrote for him at the bottom of his last page:
This paper is not double spaced. I'd rather your paper run short than have you think I'm too dumb to notice.
Frankly, I'm disappointed. It's clear you know how to conduct research and incorporate it into your own ideas, but your paper lacks development and seems thrown together. I sincerely hope you put more effort into your next paper because you're a talented writer who just isn't meeting his potential.
I'm curious to see how he does on the next one.
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