If only more writing students took a moment to look over their work

I saw yet another post saying, "Revision is your friend" as key writing advice, and I couldn't agree more.

I just don't know how to motivate student writers to actually revise (as opposed to spellcheck and adjust a font). Online college writing courses are a challenge in many ways, but the lack of revision is what stands out as the problem that never seems to budge.

The first step in revision is quite simple: take a minute or two to reread what you THOUGHT you typed prior to hitting send. The world moves fast but slowing down enough to at least read through a 100-word discussion post, just for instance, is a time-investment that can really pay off.

Me, a whiner? Heaven forbid! But failing to even glance over something written for an online course is quite common. One explanation might be that writing is such an onerous and hated task that the student simply wants to complete the assignment and send it off ASAP, thus lessening the pain.

This is related to the failure of many students to even right click on an underlined word or phrase that Microsoft Word has flagged as misspelled or otherwise not correct. How much more help can software offer? How much easier can it be? Perhaps some AI additions will simply correct the errors for them?

A friend who taught a college writing class some years ago wanted to emphasize accuracy as the very least readers should expect from the writing they see, so he built a system of grading where ONE error resulted in one letter grade reduction. The university eventually asked him to not do that, as the complaints were just so overwhelming. 

His response was to simply stop teaching at that school.

Was he too harsh? I will simply note that even ONE error on a cover letter accompanying a job application is likely enough to get that application tossed, depending on the reader and the job. During my many years as an English department chair at a couple schools, I appreciated the ease of this "first cut" when dozens of applications would arrive for one teaching job.

If a prospective English teacher could not manage an error-free cover letter, I felt quite justified in placing that application in the "round file," so to speak.

University writing courses ask that mechanics NOT be more than 10-15 percent of a student's grade on any assignment, and I have tried to follow that. But the damage a typo can do when it occurs in the first line of an essay is considerable.

After all, if the writer can't be bothered to run spell check or even read over that essay before sending, how much can we trust the information, description and analysis in the argument itself?

So I continue to urge students to slow down and re-read their writing. To go into a restroom and read their prose aloud. To ask a friend to give their writing a quick look. Anything to increase the odds that the essay is at least "correct."

After that, we can get into logic and compelling evidence and strong syntax and diction choices.