No, I do not accept resubmissions. Students turn in a paper one time and receive their grades for that assignment. The “one and done” policy makes life better for students, Editors, and me.
We do new assignments every two weeks, which can take up to an hour a day of homework to complete. Students who are trying to work on two assignments at the same time are not likely to do either well; one or the other is going to get shortchanged. Since each new assignment adds new skills, the current assignment likely will also not be done well as the student works to rectify the issues with the previous skills. Resubmissions become a vicious cycle that torments students and their Editors.
Parents appreciate the peace that results from not constantly having to edit two papers per writing session per student. I have some parents who are Editors for two, three, or even four students in one year. Can you imagine editing twice as many papers every two weeks for each kid? I can, and it gives me cold chills. 😱 My three kids took my classes for years. I did not let them off the hook by letting them resubmit. That was self-preservation on my part. 😉
Resubmissions would also double my grading time for each student who resubmits a paper. It is already challenging to grade and post comments for so many papers every two weeks. Since I spend an average of 30 minutes per student on grading each assignment and posting comments to Thinkwave, that would increase my workload to a total of an hour for each resubmitted paper. I consider that amount of time excessive and unnecessary.
Most importantly, for many students, just knowing that an assignment can be resubmitted leads to work that is not carefully completed the first time. That is just human nature. When students know that the paper will be graded only once, they are more motivated to produce good work.
I rarely have a student who doesn’t do a good or even excellent job. Most of my students earn an A or B on their papers, even the students who have struggled with writing in the past. That is because they are gradually building and practicing new skills, adding to the skills they already have. Only students who procrastinate have problems with the “one and done” policy. They are also the ones who need it the most.