Why do students write only indicative sentences? Why not use the subjunctive, the hypothetical, the conditional? It seems that they don't know how to do with the uncertainty and fragility of yet weak ideas. They almost always present them as already proved facts, pretending that they are true and nothing but true. What they should learn is to ask questions which have no easy answers, questions whose answers arrive at them only after a slow and patient dialogue with the text they're reading.
