RESPONDING TO STUDENT WRITING

Here are several options for responding to student writing. Three of these are discussed below:
· commenting on student work,
· creating rubrics,
· using peer review.

How do I respond to student writing?
The prospect of responding to student writing might overwhelm us as instructors because we feel obligated to correct every conceivable error in every paper. This approach overwhelms our students as well and often denies us an opportunity to continue teaching writing through the evaluation process. The following links will help you make the most of the time you spend commenting on student writing, benefiting you by increasing your efficiency and benefiting your students by directing them toward areas in which they can experience the greatest growth as writers.

· Emphasizing the drafting process
· Becoming a coach
· Focusing comments
· Determining grades
· Working with the Writing Center
· Sample materials

Emphasizing the Drafting Process
Students and instructors alike tend to view a piece of writing as the final version, particularly if it will receive a grade. When commenting on an early draft it might be natural to emphasize changes that will produce more effective future drafts. But even when evaluating a so-called final draft, we can direct our comments toward future writing situations.

Becoming a Coach
A coach recognizes that there are more and less effective ways to accomplish a task, but instead of simply docking a student who chooses a less effective approach, a coach will guide that student toward a better alternative.
A good coach challenges students to improve on their strengths and to grow beyond their weaknesses.

Focusing Instructor Comments
With the previously discussed perspectives in mind, visit the following links for practical suggestions on using comments as teaching opportunities.

· Using two types of comments
· Avoiding the editor role
· Focusing on goals
· Recognizing stages in the process
· Acknowledging revisions
· Starting and staying positive

Using Two Types of Comments
In general, there are two main comment types that we can use in combination to direct our students toward more effective writing. The links below provide discussion of each comment type.

· Marginal comments
· End comments

Marginal Comments
As the label implies, marginal comments are those that are written in the margins and between the lines throughout the paper. Their primary purpose is to point out specific examples of effective and ineffective writing decisions emphasized in general by our overall evaluation.

End Comments
End comments are written in paragraph form and are used to direct students toward effective writing by highlighting one or two major areas on which they should focus their attention in future writing situations. The following components are suggested for end comments that will both encourage and direct students:

· Descriptive statement
· Positive statement
· Suggestions for improvement
· Closing comment

Positive Statement
Our evaluation of students’ writing is best received when we call attention to strengths as well as weaknesses. A simple way to incorporate both praise and criticism is through the sandwich approach, in which criticism—the meat of our evaluation—is served between two positive statements..

Suggestions for Improvement
The bulk of our end comments, the constructive criticism portion helps students identify areas in which they can improve their writing. Remember that while we’re assessing a particular piece of writing, our main goal is to create better writers.

Closing Comment
In closing, offer students a comment on the strengths demonstrated in this particular piece of writing that will prepare them for future writing situations.

Avoiding the Editor Role
One way to send the message that we’re more concerned with improving papers than writers is to become editors as we evaluate our students’ work. Many of us remember receiving graded assignments that were completely covered in red ink. These marks were as often corrections as they were constructive comments, and they might have left us with little sense of how to grow as writers. We do want our students to have a command of mechanics, but we need to ask if this is should be the primary concern for each writer. A student who struggles to focus on a main topic, wandering from one idea to another without any apparent logic, should be encouraged to address broader issues before attending to word and sentence level concerns.
Focusing on Goals
Consider some of the most common global issues student writers need to address. While this list is by no means comprehensive, the examples included illustrate an appropriate scope for our comments:

· The ability to make a claim and to maintain focus on that claim
· The ability to develop a claim logically and thoroughly
· The use of evidence to support disputable statements
· The ability to communicate a distinction between their own ideas and the summary of others’ ideas

Recognizing Stages in the Writing Process
Our expectations and resulting comments should be informed by the stage of writing we’re evaluating. If we’re reading an early draft, we probably won’t expect polished prose and generally won’t comment at all on mechanical issues. Instead, our comments will emphasize one or two goals that will contribute to the student’s growth as a writer while enhancing this paper in particular.

Acknowledging Revisions
Effective writing is a process of revision, yet as writers many of us are reluctant to engage in the revision process. In order to encourage students to revise their writing, it’s important first of all to collect preliminary as well as final drafts of major assignments. Beyond simply collecting drafts, however, we should acknowledge the improvement we see from one draft to the next. After commenting on a particular area in a draft, we should always follow up on that area in later versions of the assignment.
Acknowledging revisions highlights improvement, reminding both students and instructors that even if problems still exist, the evidence of growth indicates a success.

Starting and Staying Positive
In the role of coach, not judge, we have tremendous potential to encourage students to invest themselves in the writing process in our classes and beyond. Remember that most students have at some point been labeled as either good or bad writers, and they likely have accepted that label as a lifetime sentence. Our encouragement can help students understand writing as a process in which they are equipped to engage.

Determining Grades
Even when we manage to focus our marginal and end comments on overall goals promoting students’ growth as writers, our students’ most immediate concern will often be their grades. We might become hung up on this letter or number as well, as we attempt to translate our carefully constructed comments into a grade.
It will help us to start with an idea of what an A paper, a B paper, a C paper, and so on will look like.

Sample Materials
The following materials are provided to illustrate the evaluation processes described in this guide. Instructors who choose to use criteria sheets or rubrics are strongly encouraged to develop versions tailored to their own course content and goals.

· Sample marginal comments
· Sample end comments
· Sample criteria sheet
· Sample rubric