Conferences. Really. It's true that conferences mean that I might have to get up at 5 am to read and comment on drafts and I'll still be talking with a student at 7 that evening, but conferences are the best part of my job. I get to talk to people about ideas--and I get paid for that!
In spite of the work they require, and the exhaustion that sets in after talking and listening for hours and hours, conferences are are exciting because they allow us to glimpse those great ideas that are behind an essay--and that, no matter how much it's revised, an essay only partially captures. Conferences are all about potential.
Even though we talk about how to capture those fleeting ideas in writing, in the conference that frustration is held at bay for a while. Likewise, the fact that I eventually have to grade each essay (something I hate) can be pushed aside as we focus on thinking and developing thoughts.
It also seems that conferences model the exchange of ideas that is, I believe, the best reason for the existence of universities--knowledge being created as individuals listen to each other and build their ideas.
Looking forward to having my conference tomorrow. Although I've never anything quite like it, I think the concept provides substantial help to students.
ReplyDeleteI remember in the early days of high school we had 'rough drafts' that were taken up for grades, but as time went on they were not mandatory and as a result many students quit doing them; or at least not putting much effort into them.
The conference draft is really a highly evolved and advanced rendition of the rough draft because not only does it allow for the preliminary work to be evaluated by both professor and peer, it allows for one on one confrontation on what both parties wish to achieve- a successful paper and a prolific writer.