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In Class Writing

I'm thinking of changing the way I do writing assignments next year.
The amount of time it takes to grade assignments and do Internet
searches for those that have been plagiarized is staggering. At the
same time, I have a few students who absolutely cannot write on
demand... they just freeze up. I have others who cannot write an essay
in the time allotted to each period.

Then again, maybe they will learn something about writing, stress and
getting the job done if they are forced to write... it just isn't what
I had in mind in teaching. To me, on demand writing is cold, sterile
and rife with formulaic writing. Of course, I could just do sophomore
classes as in-class writing only. Everything they write is WASL
formula anyways.

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