Homework Partners

by Son Hwa-jo'ng

If I were you I would choose Hyo-jin over Yun-deok as my partner in Mr. MacStein's class, because Hyo-jin is more careful than Yun-deok. Hyo-jin always gives serious attention to the editing of her partner's first draft. Once when she was my partner, for example, she read my paragraph all the way to the end, without stopping. And then, she wrote the topic sentence and the outline. After that, she read the whole paragaph five times and then checked each item on the evaluation checklist. She returned my composition to me with a paper filled with comments after she repeated the check three times. I submitted my final draft after revising the first draft following the comments. I got a good score and Mr. MacStein told me that he was happy my good partner helped me. In contrast, Yun-deok doesn't show concern for details in the editing. For instance, when she was my partner, she read my composition only one time and checked four things--indentation, margin, topic sentence and closing sentence. After that, I got my first draft back without any comments. I didn't revise much because I didn't know what to revise. I got a low grade on the final draft and Mr. MacStein recommended I change my poor partner. Considering these cases, if you chose Hyo-jin as your partner in English class, you wouldn't have to worry about your grade because she is more careful than Yun-deok.