Correctness

I work in the writing center as a writing assistant, and one of the most common concerns we see in the center are students worrying about correctness. In the writing process, I feel like the very last step should be worrying about grammar and aesthetics. However, this is a very hard value for many students to accept--even by a student who understands this. Often, students receive papers back from teachers so heavily marked up with grammatical and aesthetical corrections you can't even see what the original paper had said. It is rarer to see teachers comment on content, depth, and meaning. Of course correctness is very important and cannot be overlooked, especially in academic papers, but it should not be the primary concern when writing. In Rules of Thumb, a Guide for Writers, part one covers: commonly confused words, spelling, capitalization, run-ons, fragments, grammar, style, syntax, morphemes, and verbs. Nothing is mentioned about substance, strength, or significance. I feel that stress should be placed on these qualities and by doing so, we can help shape more quality writers.