Meeting a number of deadlines is a fact of life for college students, and missing one can make some feel like it’s time to give up.

Be it the demands of work, family, other courses, or a lack of good time awareness and time management, students may miss deadlines or turn in less than their best work in order to beat the clock.

Instructors who require writing in their classes may want to consider adopting–or adapting–two polices on deadlines now being used in many composition classes.

Last Fall, a new policy was added to the English composition core curriculum that grants students who use the Writing and Reading Center a two-day extension to the deadline for formal projects. The policy, developed by Co-Writing Directors Janet Lively and Megan Ward, is designed to encourage students to 1. seek help on their papers, 2. improve their writing, and 3. remain engaged–both in completing their projects, and completing the course.

Students in my composition classes said they value the new policy for several reasons; the most common being that it helps them cope with deadline anxiety, juggle multiple tasks, and deal with the unexpected. Others have said that the policy helped them to make use of the Writing and Reading Center, and to appreciate the utility of peer review.

From my perspective as an instructor, I appreciate the policy because it mostly frees me from having to judge when an extension is warranted; with the policy in place, I need only to remind students that they do have an option if they will be needing more time.

Another new policy designed to keep students in the class and working hard is to grant points both for having a rough draft, and for peer review. Students who couldn’t make the deadline for the rough draft can still earn points for coming to class and reviewing drafts. These points are considered part of their Coursework and Drafts grade, which accounts for 15 percent of the final grade. I am happy to report improved attendance and participation on those days; fewer students are “abandoning” the process at the rough draft stage, mainly because there is an incentive for continued participation in the “social learning” of the composition classroom.

Michael Anderson, M.A.
Communications Instructor