Once again, you must not infringe upon the English department's territory. Your colleague will be glad to know that you, too, are concerned about students' writing. Focus your attention on sentence length. Students must learn that you will not tolerate short sentences. After all, college is not grade school, and the ability to generate sentences of 64 to 100 words is the mark of a potential scholar.
Grant proposals prepared by committees are good sources of inspirational example.
If you can avoid returning papers to students, do so . Obviously this last, and most important principle, if followed rigorously, will do more to frustrate improvement in students' writing than any of the previous rules. The students will never know whether their words have been read by even one reader. And it is the process and not merely the result that is important. The March issue included examples of objectives in the cognitive domain.