Papers, End of Term

The term is coming to an end. Review sessions on Monday, and then exams. Which means that term essays are due for the regular sections of my American literature classes today.

I didn't give my students any direction regarding titles for these papers. In fact, I didn't even tell them that a title was necessary. But many of them decided that their paper needs a title, and I'm always struck by the titles that students give their work, perhaps especially when I haven't given them any guidance. What, I wonder, do they think is a appropriate title for this thing that they've written?

Today, titles include (as they often do when students don't have direction regarding their titles) the mundane: "Term Three Essay" or "English Essay." And the obvious: "Essay on 'Self-Reliance'" or "Ralph Waldo Emerson and his 'Self-Reliance.'"

But the ones I really like are the ones that suggest the writer has made a breakthrough. "Final Essay about Emerson," for instance, leaves me thinking that the writer has finally gotten it all figured out. This title seems to say, "Scholars of the world, oh, you who spend your lives studying the Transcendentalists, pay attention: nothing more need be written after this final essay about Emerson."

Or "True Meaning of Emersonian Genius," a title which makes me really anxious to read the essay. Emerson calls it "the last fact behind which analysis cannot go," but perhaps, I think for a second, this essay holds the key to getting behind that last fact.

And I often smile for a moment at the misspellings. Later, of course, I get out my red pen. But when a student writes about "Ralph Wando Emerson," I chuckle just a little on the inside. I know it's probably irreverent to laugh, both to the student's work and to old RWE, but really, I can't help myself.

Just for a moment. And then the red pen.