teaching with writing
Commenting
on Student
Writing
Pamela Flash, Associate Director, Center
for Writing
Effective
Responses…
- are made
when and where they count. Students may regard comments written on preliminary
drafts as information that will improve their writing, and comments
written on final drafts as justifications for the grade.
- involve
questions, reactions, and suggestions rather than corrections, judgments,
and mandates.
- provide
students with a limited number of specific responses and suggestions
for revision
Responding
to works-in-progress:
Before
you begin:
- Organize
peer response workshops for first drafts.
- Announce
what you will/will not be commenting on (this should keep you from feeling
obliged to comment on everything).
- Require
revision memos that allow
students opportunities to articulate progress and specific queries.
Once you've
sat down with your stack:
- Review
the assignment's objectives. They should guide your comments.
- Decide
how many drafts you will look at in one sitting.
- Read a
few drafts to get you started.
- Comment
in pencil.
- Take frequent
breaks.
In the
margins, write specific comments and ask specific questions:
- "Wow,
this really surprised me…"
- "This
causes me to question…"
- "Have
you read what Sartre has to say about this?"
- "How
do you intend us to understand 'self-violence' here?"
In the
end-comment:
- Consider
using a response rubric.
- Consider
voicing one positive comment
- "This
is a strong draft in which you…"
- "I
was interested to read…"
- Identify
one or two primary concerns.
- Articulate
one
or two specific suggestions.
- Note patterns
of obscuring errors.
- Suggest
resources.
Responding
to final drafts:
Before
you begin:
- Consider
asking students to complete reflective memos or cover
letters on which they reflect on the draft's strengths and weaknesses,
what they'd change were they to rewrite it, and specific questions or reflections
on the process used to write it.
Once you've
sat down with your stack:
- Use a
grading rubric
that contains the criteria announced on the assignment.
- Decide
how many drafts you will look at in one sitting.
- Read a
few drafts to get you started.
- Write
final comments in which you make one comment of praise and, where relevant,
one or two specific critiques, and perhaps a suggestion about future
assignments.
Example:
[Note to
student]: I can really see and appreciate your compassion for the plight
of the small farmer in Dakota County. This essay's tone is consistently
sympathetic. However, your essay doesn't develop an analysis of the reasons
why large farms are becoming more and more prevalent: What national and
local factors have influenced this trend? Has there been any individual
or collective resistance to this decline? From whose perspective might
you glean some of the positive elements of this change? Probing some of
these complexities in order to contextualize the local situation would
have strengthened this article substantially. For the next assignment,
you might try a variety of invention techniques in order to consider your
topic from several different angles. Investigating the viewpoints of the
corporate farmer (in text, pp. 256-90) might also allow you to address
more than one side of the issue.
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