DE Oracle @ UMUC

Managing the Challenges of Providing Feedback on Student Writing

Catherine Flynn

Adjunct Instructor

School of Undergraduate Studies

Published: November-December 2008

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-strategies

It will come as no surprise to those who review student writing that many college students demonstrate poor to mediocre writing skills. Poor writing is impacting business as well as academics, with many companies reporting substantial investments necessary to bring skills up to an acceptable level. A 2004 National Commission on Writing report, for example, estimates that American corporations spend approximately textarea billion annually to upgrade the inadequate writing skills of their employees. This monetary figure is based on the survey results of 64 leading U.S. companies with several million employees amongst them; chief among the report's conclusions is that "in today's workplace, writing is a 'threshold skill' for hiring and promotion among salaried (i.e., professional) employees" (p. 3).

Though a few years old, the discoveries of this report are still compelling—and telling. For instance, 50 percent of the responding companies indicated that writing plays a role in both hiring and promotion decisions; across the board, people with poor writing and communication skills are much less likely to be hired or even last long enough to be considered for promotion. In addition, writing was found to be part of the job of a majority (67%) of professional employees—no matter what the industry. E-mail and PowerPoint were identified as the main tools for communication, while reports, memos, guidelines, operating instructions, and plenty of other business documents also come into play.

Given that the ability to communicate with clear, logical, articulate, consistent, and persuasive writing is undeniably important in the working world, it is imperative that we faculty provide effective feedback to help our students improve their writing. While it is true that academic writing is different than business writing, we can still arm our students with valuable writing skills that will carry over to their professional careers.

Many colleges and universities track success rates among students in their programs and find a very clear link between writing abilities and completion numbers. We can all help address the problem by enriching our courses with writing assignments so that students can build their skill sets throughout their academic program. Of course, grading writing is an onerous, time-consuming process. This article will help faculty across the curriculum manage the challenges of providing students with feedback about their writing.

Reviewing Student Writing

When providing feedback to students on their writing, it is advisable to follow a few basic guidelines so that the experience is as positive as it can be for both you and your students. Here is a quick refresher for reviewing student writing:

• Provide your students with clear grading rubrics and use them.
• Do NOT mark everything; it is overwhelming and ultimately counter-productive.
• Sandwich your positive and negative comments; all writing does something well, so make certain you begin and end your feedback with the positives. Include the difficult-to-digest tough comments in the middle.
• Track problem areas and make students accountable for repeat errors.

When you go through the actual review process, follow these steps:

1. Ideally, review a full class at a single sitting for an objective perspective. This kind of review permits you to see overall patterns and issues, which can guide how you facilitate the classroom.
2. Rotate sections and the order in which you read assignments from project to project. If you are teaching three online sections, for example, and you always begin with section 1 and go through section 3, it's likely your students are being evaluated differently. We tend to mark more stringently in the early part of our review process and less stringently toward the end! For some assignments grade section 1 first, then do section 2 first, and continue rotating.
3. Read through the whole assignment without marking anything. This step may seem to take a great deal of time, but getting the full picture before marking errors actually speeds up the process as you see patterns of errors.
4. Return to the beginning of the document and mark only the first occurrence of any given error. If there are sentence fragments, mark only the first one. Likewise, mark only the first run-on or apostrophe errors. Let the student know this is how you will provide guidance.
5. Insert "master" comments into the document the first time you encounter a common writing issue. A master comment list from which you can simply copy prepared text can help lighten your load while still providing students with exemplary guidance to improve their writing abilities and guide their understanding of the course material.

Master Comment List 

It is likely that you find the same writing errors in different student papers every semester. Preparing a list of reusable master comments can reduce the amount of time you spend providing practical feedback to each student. Master comments cover the basics—such as recurring grammatical issues, problem areas in citation, and weaknesses in paragraph development. A master comment list compiles the notes you make over and over again in one easy-to-use document, providing you with additional time to comment on other aspects of the paper.

A master comment list can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. I create mine in Word, using a columnar format that identifies a specific issue and the master comment I want to use to address that issue. The table below highlights a few comments I have put together on a master comment list for use in reviewing my students' work:

I have prepared several master comments that offer encouragement as well as correction. These master comments can be customized for your courses, focusing on the objectives you have outlined for your students. For example, if application of critical thinking skills is particularly important, a master comment that praises students who successfully accomplish this objective would be appropriate.

When it comes time to enter feedback on your students' papers, a few copy-and-paste actions (MSWord 2003 | MSWord 2007) are all you need to enter your appropriate master comments into a specific student's paper.

It is important to supplement master comments with additional personalized comments and observations so that you can provide the best detailed feedback to your students. Where I have used master comments, I note in my closing comments to students that they need to review the errors and ensure that they understand how to avoid them in the future.

Conclusion

Writing is a highly complex and highly effective learning tool. The complexity of the process carries through to the grading of writing, which is also difficult and time-consuming. Despite the challenges inherent in grading student writing, writing remains one of the best means for evaluating students' understanding of the course material and their ability to convey that understanding.

Regardless of the discipline, students must be held to high standards in their writing. All careers demand competent writing abilities today, and failure to arm our students with this skill reflects poorly on both our institution and on ourselves as educators. Master comments prepared ahead of time can help provide an effective means for delivering some of the needed guidance in a convenient and efficient manner.

References

The National Commission on Writing for America's Families, Schools, and Colleges. (2004, September). Writing: A ticket to work . . . or a ticket out, a survey of business leaders. New York: Author. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.writingcommission.org/prod_downloads/writingcom/writing-ticket-to-work.pdf