Sometimes, college writing comes down to glitter glue, Sharpies, and smiles.

Our last day of classes is Monday, followed immediately by final exams. My freshman writing students still have a final revision and a final reflection due, but they seemed surprisingly relaxed today. They have all given informal presentations in both informal and formal settings, and turned in solid drafts. For my part, I’ve already returned their drafts with detailed comments, and an hour ago my last scheduled student conference ended. “Seminar in Thinking and Writing” asks students to make the shift from the kind of self-expressive personal essays that their English teachers asked them to write in high school, to research papers with a debatable, original thesis, following college-level conventions of organization, layout and format. The students who’ve stuck it out this far all know what they need to do, and I am confident they can get it done.