If You Care About It, Do It in Class

By James M. Lang, The Chronicle of Higher Education (from December 16, 2025)

When I was a new instructor, I had a simple three-part plan for teaching writing: My students would read great books before class, learn about them in class, and then write their essays at home. Theoretically, that plan could work if a lot of stars aligned — if the students were super invested in learning to write, if they could apply the techniques I presented, and if they began writing shortly after class instead of waiting two weeks and completing the essay a day before it was due.

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