Managing the Paper Chase: Evaluating Student Writing in Large Courses

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Managing the Paper ChaseEvaluating Student
Writing in Large Courses

• Marcie J. Bober, Ph.D.
• Dept. of Educational Technology
• 619.594.0587
• bober_at_mail.sdsu.edu
• http/edweb.sdsu.edu/bober/paper.htm

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Why Students Write

• To learn material (notes) to analyze and/or
  synthesize information
• To demonstrate knowledge
• As a personal outlet, a form of self-expression
  and individual reflection to relax or work thru
  a problem
• To communicate ideas
• To inform or explain
• To persuade others
• To detail plans of action
• To entertain
• Others?

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Writing Challenges in Large Venues

• Selecting manageable writing assignments
• Determining the submission modality
• Providing just-in-time assistance (topical,
  grammatical, etc.)
• Providing useful/relevant feedback (interim)
• Scoring/grading (elements on which to focus)
• Scoring/grading (faculty time time to train
  TAs/GAs)
• Others?

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Writing (Assignment) Types

• Essays and research papers are not the only
  writing venues to consider!
• Brainstorming/concept mapping
• Journaling
• Summarizing the main points of a discussion
• Responding to a particular issue
• Timed, free writing
• KWL assignments (What I Know What I Want to
  Know What I Learned)
• Test preparation

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Writing (Assignment) Types

• Essays and research papers are not the only
  writing venues to consider!
• Preparing a lab report (analyzing, reporting,
  interpreting data)
• Documenting an investigation (purpose, methods)
• Preparing technical/design specifications

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Writing for Different Purposes

• To communicate letters and memos
• To communicate conversations
• To communicate directions or instructions
• To inform or persuade News reports
• To inform report of findings
• To share/persuade critiques (e.g., journal
  articles, debates, movies, TV shows)
• To brainstorm or conceptualize timed, free
  writing outlining, concept maps

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Struggles We Face

• Feedback v.editing (telling, showing, modeling,
  suggesting) the run-on sentence example
• Second-guessing our own competence
• Providing templates, models, and
  examples(benefits and drawbacks)
• Unclear intentions--our own (e.g., looking for
  growth/maturity with different formats,
  particular patterns, and so on)

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Struggles We Face

• Unclear intentions--students (purpose of the
  assignment)
• Unclear intentions--students (what were looking
  for job aids to remedy recurring problems)
• Personification
• Passive voice
• Descriptive language
• Jargon
• Colloquialism
• Pronoun usage
• Audience
• Tone/style

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Feedback Strategies

• Peer editing (with guidelines)
• Trait scoring (ideas, style/vocabulary spelling
  mechanical conventions grammar and usage
  sentence structure organization)
• Weighted rubrics
• Checklists (focused on whether or not specific
  elements are included)
• Informal quality marks (?, ?, ?-)
• Point values
• Anchored statements

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Writing Venues

• Listservs and discussion boards (individual
  contributions)
• Groupware (communications between project team
  members)

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Let Technology Work for You

• Database-driven feedback systems (Hoffman system)
• Plagiarism detection tools
• Comments/notes features (in Microsoft Word for
  example)

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Consider the Writing Portfolio

• Academic purpose
• Audiences/stakeholders
• Medium for maintenance and delivery
• Process (sample selection, reviews, etc.)