Ester, Wow, you said a block full and you are right. You hold your students to high expectations and you articulate those expectations in a variety of ways. You did hit one of my "issues" ( I have a few:)) and that is the excuse "I tried to do the work" . I have actually said "I tried in my first marriage and it still failed", probably not one of my finest moments. You want their best work as they need to have pride in their work. I have stopped calling grading "grading" . I now call it evaluation and giving feedback and the idea is feedback means you have to react to it. Just like in the real world. Stay tune. . . . Dr. Kelly Wilkinson