Simple Battles

As a teacher, I often wonder why, after the many years of training I know my students have, I fight the same battles regarding their writing. These battles specifically are the capitalization of "I", the difference between "its" and "it's", and the "there", "their", and "they're" debacle. I know these students have been given the training on these simple examples, so who can tell me why? I wrote my Master thesis on motivationg students to write through blogging, I have set rules, so what gives?

Should I just blame texting? Or, Myspace? I think not. I'm trying to give my students an understanding that writing should be a representation of their best abilities. I think many of my students understand that they should jump through the hoops for their teachers, but beyond the classroom walls is often a different story. It must not be cool to write carefully.

I should say that many students do put forth their best efforts regularly. The smaller percentage I'm writing about know better, but just don't put in the time.

Here is an excerpt from Permission to Forget by Lee Jenkins.

I work on.