Robert Fromberg
Editor-in-Chief, HFMA
For years I taught writing classes at a university--adults going for their degrees in the evening. For each paper I received, I typed comments that I returned to the student. The comments had a formula. I started by saying what worked well in the paper, with examples. Then I said what needed improvement, with examples.
Regularly, I received an odd reaction to these comments. Students would approach me with the comments in hand and say something like, "You didn't really mean this, did you?"
"Mean what?"
"These nice things you said about my paper. You're putting me on, right?"
