The essays in this volume were written by the twenty-four young women enrolled in my junior composition class this semester [Spring 1996] at Ewha University. The class met only once a week, from 10:00 a.m. to noon, every Friday--thus, the title chosen by the students for this collection of what they consider to be some of their best work: Deadline on Friday Morning.
        The first group of essays included in this collection were written in response to the first class assignment which asked each student to describe a person and illustrate how that person influenced her life in a positive way. This turned out to be the favorite assignment of many students and produced essays filled with both vivid descriptions and memorable stories of beloved relatives, impressive authors, heroic strangers, best friends, and first loves. In the second group of essays, students express their thoughts about a wide range of issues related to the traditional and changing gender roles in Korea and beyond. These essays, especially, provide a great deal of insight into how these young Korean women view their roles, and future roles, in their quickly-changing society. In the remaining essays, the students take time to reflect on the writing process itself and on themselves as writers. They describe their difficulties, their disappointments, and finally, their successes. They re-emphasize the truth that writing well in any language--and especially in a foreign language--is quite simply hard work. At the same time, however, they make it clear that writing can also be an exciting, a rewarding, and an enlightening experience. In fact, it can even be fun!
        This volume has much to offer any reader--stories, opinions, advice, and perhaps most importantly, short glimpses into the lives and thoughts of these twenty-four young women. For other students faced with the difficult task of learning to express themselves in a foreign language, these essays offer encouragement and examples of what can be accomplished with persistence and determination. Finally, I hope these essays will remind other language teachers of what our students are capable of producing when they are given the chance to think and talk and write about topics relevant to their own lives, to re-evaluate their work on their own and with the help of interested readers' constructive criticism, and to revise and rewrite until they discover what one student puts much better than I possibly could:

        Friday was really a deadline! Writing is . . . hard work! But frankly I waited [for] the day I received my former writing. To find faults in my writing is one of the most interesting things in this class as well as the most useful. I appreciated the opportunity of correcting my errors. Through it I felt my writing improving and gaining better structure and grammar. I learned writing is a course completed through correcting. And in writing again, I could express my opinion more exactly. Even what I didn't know before gets clear. Sometimes, what I thought I knew is actually what I didn't know. In writing, I come to know.  (Cho Hye Sun)