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Scheduling individual appointments with students to discuss their major assignments both before and after they are due.
"I make a point of meeting with each student several weeks before a project or paper is due to discuss how students might approach the task," says a professor of civil engineering. "I also schedule individual appointments after I have read their reports to give students more detailed feedback than is possible in written comments."
These appointments are valuable in several respects: the professor gets an opportunity to know students personally; students get individual attention regarding their work; appointments at the beginning of the term seem to break the ice and students are more inclined to attend office hours on their own to discuss the work.
A professor of political science also discusses outlines of papers with students before they begin writing. "These discussions give me a good feel for the students' reasoning and sense of organization. Frequently students will revise their outlines in light of our discussion."
Meeting with students at each phase of their writing process (selecting a topic, outline, problem statement, first draft) can strengthen substantially their final product and gives them the kind of tutorial which can greatly benefit their subsequent writing.
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