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Chronicle critics question whether the course should exist.

Chronicle critics volunteer that they lack expertise in the teaching of writing.

According to Bauerlein: Research in writing should “make students better business communicators, more efficient readers and writers, more productive workers.”

Third, as a consequence, read charitably.

Short, directed feedback, perhaps with editing just a page or so (and not the whole paper) can be even more valuable because it focuses students' attention. You can find some tips to responding to student writing in Writing Beyond Writing Classes: Resources for University of Denver Faculty, especially pages 18-34, also available in print from the Writing Program.

Having a terminology can be efficient in looking things up in reference books (such as The Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers, of which I'm a co-author and wrote a 100-page section for second language learners, by the way) or in solidifying an emerging structure.

Is this "fair" to native writers? We can debate the ins and outs. But this approach strikes me as pragmatic, ethical, and realistic. If we want to insist that an A is ever and always an A, for all students, then we probably should just massively ramp our admissions criteria and screening for international students, dropping the number admitted to 1 or 2% of the student body perhaps. However, I think there would be enormous costs of doing so, and I don't simply mean the loss of tuition income.