The other day I was at a seminar that was sponsored by the publishing company that makes the textbooks that I use at my school.  During the seminar, we had some speakers tell us how to better prepare our students to read and write.  It was a reasonably good seminar.

Something struck me as funny as I was sitting through the writing workshop.  The presenter mentioned that we should teach our students how to differentiate their writing voice depending on the type of writing that they're doing.  The example she gave was that kids shouldn't write "The End" at the end of an essay on penguins.

What struck me as funny was imaging finishing one of my papers in college with: "The End."  I think that if I were still in college, I would end a paper with "The End" just to get a rise out of the professor.  (Especially my teacher of "School and Society" who fancied herself to be professional grammatician.)

Here is my challenge to the students of today: At the conclusion of one of your essays or theme papers, write "The End."  See what happens.