What to do? Faced with a student (considered to be a very good one) who has to write a paper to proceed in the program. The first iteration was not good. Several on the committee gave suggestions and the person was to redo the paper. It came back only marginally improved. Rather than rewrite it the person took the changes as being editorial in nature rather than substantive. Another person and I went over it again emphasizing to the person how it failed to meet our expectations and they were to redo it. Now got another version which again is basically only a minor improvement over the last version. This person has to pass this in order to proceed with the program. If they were to fail this they would be out. I do not know if I can hold my nose and pass the person or what.