Likewise, I could have anticipated the need to explain the purpose of dialogue within the story and the importance of making sure that dialogue sounds natural and that the student should use dialogue to develop the story. I have always believed that one of the most important skills taught at this level is the ability to write clearly and to learn how to organize essays through the use of outlines first. I should have stressed the importance of using...

sing the introduction to set up a transition into the main theme and to tie details and dialogue to its gradual development instead of simply requesting "more detail" and including comments along the lines of "needs more dialogue." With the new prompts in conjunction with my marginal comments, I am confident that this student's essay will improve on the next draft and that my future students will achieve the same improvement with fewer drafts and revisions.