Providing Effective Feedback on Writing Assignments Dr. Chloé Diepenbrock UHCL Writing Center Established in 1993

Why is it important for all faculty to comment on students’ writing? You are the expert in your discipline  You are the most powerful proponent of good writing skills.  You are the most effective model for research in your discipline.  Writing teachers can teach basic rhetorical skills, but you know the inside information students need to become experts. You understand the “hidden” rules  Most disciplines do not have a specific “rule” book that can be provided to students.  Formatting guides explain basic forms and procedures but not why such formats are followed or how they affect the production of knowledge.  Each discipline has a unique way of exploring/creating/understanding knowledge.

Questions to Consider At what point in the writing process will you provide the feedback? The most effective feedback is early feedback. Studies show that students rarely look at end-of-semester grade “rationales,” but they will carefully read comments on a draft if they know they can revise. Will you provide all of the feedback or will the class participate as well? Teaching students to provide response helps them learn to be better writers and takes some of the pressure off of the instructor. How will you deliver your feedback to students? There are many ways to deliver feedback. Being creative will save you long hours marking papers.

Questions to Consider Do you need to provide the same type of feedback for each assignment? Providing different types of feedback for assignments saves time and effort and can be more effective because students can focus on one skill at a time.  You can provide comments on higher-order concerns for early drafts: focus, development, organization, use of evidence.  You can identify for students more developed drafts that you will read for lower-order concerns: grammar, spelling, and formatting. What can you do if you have limited time to respond to students?  Use whole-class discussions and oral feedback methods in class.  Use the Writing Center! Let us know what type of feedback you want for your students; send us your assignment and grading criteria and we will provide the focused feedback you want.

When to Provide Feedback At the planning stages  In-class group planning  Proposal review  Annotated bibliographies On early drafts  In-class peer review—focused on development  Discovery draft comments from instructor  Focus on higher order concerns On later drafts  In-class peer review—focused on specific issues  Instructor comments on lower order concerns  Instructor comments on formatting

Helping Students at the Planning Stage Collect proposals to be sure students are on the right track. Requiring students to submit proposals allows you to do a quick review of their focus, early research, and planning. You can use this review to ensure that students are on the right course. (See handout) Ask for annotated bibliographies so students begin research early in the semester. Asking students to annotate their research texts can help them process information. You can ask for specific types of response to materials for a more focused reading experience. An added bonus is that students who begin the research process early rarely panic and plagiarize.

Using Class Time to Provide Feedback Initial classroom discussion Use a whole group discussion to respond to students’ ideas for their projects. Assist writers with focus and development, along with strategies for doing research. Model for students how you would go about planning a project—use a student’s idea and you will be amazed at how eager the rest will be to discuss their projects! Planning/brainstorming groups Put students into small groups (if possible according to their topics) and have them ask each other questions about how they are planning to do their research and focus their discussions. You can provide them with a list of questions to ask each other or have them play “Devil’s Advocate.” (See handout)

Using Class Time to Provide Feedback Progress Reports Spend 15 minutes doing progress reports. Students can use this time to discuss problems they are having before they become too overwhelming. If one student is having trouble, you can be sure that others are too. They will learn from the discussion even if all they do is listen. Peer response groups for drafts Put students into small groups (the same they used for planning) and have them respond to each others’ drafts. Provide them with specific questions based on your assignment criteria. Discuss Finished Drafts If you assign more than one writing project, hold a class discussion on the day the first project is due. Encourage students to talk about what they learned, what they struggled with, what they will do differently next time. Use this feedback yourself when you design the next assignment!

Delivery Methods for Instructor Feedback Oral discussion—working one-on-one with students Working with students in person is probably the most effective method of providing writing instruction because your interactions give you so much useful information. It also saves time because you can read a draft, make quick notes about what you wish to discuss, and then let the student take responsibility for making notes on your discussion. You can schedule one-on-one conferences during class time or in your office hours. They do not have to be extremely long periods; much can be accomplished in 15 minutes if you have read a draft in advance. If you have a computer lab, you can walk around the room and visit with students for five to ten minutes while they write. Don’t rule out phone conversations as well. If you have a draft in front of you, the discussion can be as effective as one held in person.

Delivery Methods for Instructor Feedback Written comments—some special challenges Sadly, writing comments on a paper can be one of the least effective methods for providing feedback on writing. Students often do not understand specific terms that teachers use and view comments as commands that leave them little authority over their writing. By their nature, written comments are asynchronous (to use a computer- based term) which means that they do not provide ready opportunities for discussion. When students receive written comments on a final draft, they rarely read them carefully. The paper is finished and the comments seem to exist only to justify a grade. However, there are many situations in which providing written comments is the most effective way to respond to a student’s writing. Written comments can be very effective, if done thoughtfully.

Offering Effective Written Comments Guidelines for providing effective written comments Always offer the writer encouragement: “I can see that you are very passionate about your topic and you have done some good research.” Tell the student what he/she did well: Students learn as much from hearing this as they do from knowing where they went wrong: “I like the way you ordered your arguments; the last point you discuss makes your case very powerfully.” Ask open-ended questions: “How might your reader respond to your tone here? What additional information can you add?” Engage in the student’s ideas and she will too: “I think the question of whether we should test all university students for the same competencies is an excellent one. I’ll be very interested to see where you go with this in your final draft.”

Offering Effective Written Comments Guidelines continued: Don’t label or rubber stamp: Instead of saying the essay has no thesis, ask the writer what he/she wants the audience to believe after reading the paper. Use the student’s topic to focus your questions: “Do you want your reader to believe that uniform testing should be done at the university level? In the beginning of your essay you say that testing will help students succeed, but in the middle you argue that the uniformity of such testing will dumb down education. Can you reconcile these two problems in a specific statement?” Remember that students are apprentices and will make mistakes—that’s why you are here! Take students’ writing seriously. They will soon be members of your discipline or some other professional group.

What are higher order concerns? Focus problems  Lacks a thesis or hypothesis  Does not address assignment or prompt  Has faulty organization Development problems  Uses inappropriate, inaccurate, or biased evidence  Fails to discuss evidence Audience problems  Uses ethos that is too formal or informal  Ignores opposition  Uses inappropriate tone with audience Formatting problems  Lack of documentation

What are lower order concerns? Paragraph problems  Lack of transitions  Lack of focus  Length/development—too long or too short Sentence-level problems  Structure  Misplaced modifiers  Mixed constructions  Faulty parallelism Subject-verb problems  Agreement  Tense Spelling and punctuation problems Some formatting problems

Responding to Grammar Errors How important is it to mark grammar errors? If you care about clarity and correctness, your students will realize how important it is to turn in a polished final draft. However, this does not mean you have to spend hours marking every grammar error you see. It is not effective to do so! How should you respond to grammar problems? The most effective way to respond to lower order concerns is to mark patterns of error. Mark several sentence problems, write a note to the student describing/explaining the problem and leave him/her to find out how to revise. If you feel it is necessary, you can model a revision for one or two problems, always indicating that it is the student’s job to do the rest. You do not have to edit for students. Doing so will teach them only that they do not have to do it for themselves!

Writing Center Staff Director -Dr. Chloé Diepenbrock Associate Professor of Writing Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature University of Southern California Business Assistant -Ms. Katie Hart B.A. in Graphic Design University of Houston-Clear Lake And... The Tutors and Receptionists Amy, Ann, Celia, Charley, Corey, Daniel, James, Jo Lynn, Katherine, Krasi, Matt B., Matt R., Alicia, Petranella, & Rohan

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