Today's challenge is to overlook someone's shortcomings. I am a TA for a writing class for non-English majors and I graded short paragraphs for two hours today. I am an English major with an editing minor, and when I grade I often laugh at the "silly" mistakes I see. Because it is not a class for students studying English, I grade fairly and I understand their mistakes, but to myself I am often judgmental and a tad cynical of the errors. Occasionally I get frustrated by grammatical errors that for me are second nature to avoid.
Today, while I was grading I tried to be more understanding. I tried to overlook the grammatical errors. I tried to focus on the meaning that was being conveyed rather than how it was being conveyed. Doing this, I felt much more positive. I felt like I understood the students better and could even relate to them better because I wasn't focusing on their faults.
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