As students are approaching midterm season, it is important to face the fact that we might not be really grasping every bit of information our professors have to offer.
Have you ever taken a course, had a test returned to you, and were unable to to read the comments? Have you ever written an essay and been left with scribbles of your professors comments rendering themselves useless because they were completely illegible?
This is a common problem. Although having a scribble of comments on your paper could be amusing, or entertaining to show your friends, this is something that should raise more concern than it does.
How are students meant to learn and correct their mistakes if the comments aren’t accessible to them?
Yes–students can go to the professor after class and ask what each comment says; but, in reality, this is not only embarrassing, but takes up unnecessary time.
Students are required to write legibly, and are often marked down for poor penmanship. If the teacher needs to be able to read a students work, then common courtesy would be that the neatness is returned. And yes, something as trivial as handwriting seems irrelevant in the grand scheme of things— but there are instances where a student may have really needed feedback, and is now missing out on valuable information.
Maybe a formal “penmanship test” is a bit of a stretch, an exaggeration if you will, but nonetheless, the idea is still important. If a professor expects or requires clean and precise handwriting (or even for papers to be typed) from their students, the favor should be reciprocated.