Harnessing the Power of Red Ink: Constructive Feedback for Student Writing

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Harnessing the Power of Red Ink Constructive
Feedback for Student Writing

• A Teaching-Learning Center Presentation
• by Tracy Constantine Laura Lease
• Friday, January 21, 2005
• Durham Technical Community College

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Concerns that May Inhibit Our Ability to Make
Effective Comments

• Grading essays and papers already takes too much
  time as it is!
• It doesnt really matter what I write my
  students dont use the comments to improve future
  assignments anyway!
• My students always expect my comments to justify
  their grades!

• My students write only one paper per semester
  anyway, so I dont see why I should bother making
  comments at all!
• My students papers are always so full of errors
  that I dont even know where to begin!

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Make more effective use of your grading time by .
. .

• giving earlier drafts close readings that help
  students identify which parts need more work.
• Then, when marking the final draft, you can make
  a quick summary comment or use a simple grading
  rubric Offering pointed spoken comments to
  students early in the writing process is far more
  valuable than a postmortem affixed to the final
  grade.1

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Make more effective use of your grading time by .
. .

• reading a paper through once, quickly deciding
  what you will focus on in your response. Then go
  back and begin drafting your comments and
  suggestions.3
• keeping a copy of comments and suggestions you
  make. As the semester progresses, you will be
  better able to refer a student to detailed
  suggestions you have made on previous
  assignments.

• having students themselves select two or three
  (or four) of their papers on which they want full
  comments. Assume that they will get the most out
  of comments on papers that they are most
  interested in looking back on and revising.2

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Make more effective use of your grading time by .
. .

• using alternative methods of response, such as
  individual conferences, typed comment sheets, or
  cassette comments.

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Make comments that encourage your students to
improve future assignments by . . .

• choosing your words carefully.
• Students generally seemed uninspired by
  critical comments and put off by criticisms with
  a sharp judgmental edge. It is not, according to
  their reports, that they dont expect or want
  teachers to identify problems in their writing
  they do. They simply dont like or respect---or
  seem interested in addressing---comments that
  talk down to them, not with them.4

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Make comments that encourage your students to
improve future assignments by . . .

• praising them for what they have done well.
• A word of encouragement, judiciously placed,
  may motivate a student to see the value of
  revisions.5

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Make comments that encourage your students to
improve future assignments by . . .

• resisting unprofessional comments.6
• Whenever you feel yourself becoming snide,
  hostile, or impatient, it is time to take a break!

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Make comments that encourage your students to
improve future assignments by . . .

• avoiding cryptic or rubber-stamped comments like
  revise or awkward.
• If the student does attempt to revise a passage
  based on a cryptic comment, the student has to
  make assumptions about whatever problem the
  professor believes is at issue but has not
  stated.7

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Instead of making comments to justify a students
grade, make comments that . . .

• initiate a dialogue with the student.
• Help your students see that you take their ideas
  seriously by turning your comments into a
  conversation Write out your comments,
  especially your most important comments, in full
  statements. . . . . Fuller comments help
  create an exchange between reader and writer,
  teacher and student . . . and they construct
  you as someone who is intent on helping them
  improve their writing.8

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Make comments that encourage your students to
improve future assignments by . . .

• offering students the opportunity to rewrite one
  of their assignments (by the end of the term) for
  an improved grade.

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Make comments that encourage your students to
improve future assignments by . . .

• writing text-specific comments that make the
  students own words part of the comment.
• For example, in response to a students assertion
  that animal conversations ramble, avoid
  comments like imprecise or word choice
  instead, try writing out a full sentence or
  question, like Do conversations ramble?9

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To help students appreciate the value of your
once-per-semester assignment. . .

• create meaningful opportunities for students to
  dialogue with you, and each other, about their
  work before the assignment is due.
• Suggestions individual conferences and
  writing groups

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When faced with student writing that is full of
errors . . .

• emphasize problems of content, focus,
  organization, and purpose first, particularly if
  you are commenting on multiple drafts. 10

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When faced with student writing that is full of
errors . . .

• consider minimal marking techniques for errors in
  punctuation, grammar, mechanics, and spelling.
• Instead of marking and explaining every error,
  just put a tick mark in the margin next to the
  line where the error occurs. Leave it up to the
  student to locate and correct the error. Have
  students meet with you if they have trouble, or
  check their work after theyve had a chance to
  make corrections. (Another option when you
  return the papers with your comments, have a
  15-minute workshop in which students find and
  correct the errors youve minimally marked in the
  margins.)11

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Regularly refresh your commenting skills by . . .

• periodically holding departmental grading
  sessions.
• This will give faculty members (especially
  part-time instructors) an opportunity to
• voice concerns.
• share innovative grading methods.
• agree on more consistent grading standards to be
  upheld from class to class.

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Two bits of advice to REMEMBER . . .

• Your comments should always model good writing
  for your students.12
• Good responding technique is at least 50 percent
  mental. Get your mind right . . . and resolve
  I will look for the good. I will go with
  anticipation to my students writings.13

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Endnotes

• Maynor, Louise, and Sandra Vavra. Teacher
  Commentary Put That Red Pen Down for Now!
  Teacher Commentary on Student Papers
  Conventions, Beliefs, and Practices. Ed. Ode
  Ogede. Westport Bergin Garvey, 2002. 78.
• Straub, Richard. The Practice of Response
  Strategies for Commenting on Student Writing.
  Cresskill, NJ Hampton Press, 2000. 256.
• Straub 247.
• Straub 273.
• Speck, Bruce W. Grading Students Classroom
  Writing Issues and Strategies. Washington,
  DC George Washington University, 2000. 73.
• Speck 73.
• Speck 68.
• Straub 247.
• Straub 40.
• Straub 248.
• Straub 249.
• Speck 74.
• Kirby, Dan, Dawn Latta Kirby, and Tom Liner.
  Inside Out Strategies for Teaching Writing.
  3rd ed. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann, 2004. 103.