Commenting on Student Papers
Commenting on Student Papers
Commenting, when done well, coaches revision. Revision leads our students to understanding more deeply what it is they want to say. Revision leads our students to a better understanding of what readers need and want. Revision is a higher order thinking and will often influence students’ abilities to think more critically.
What are Some Strategies for Commenting on Student Papers?
- Comment early enough that your students have time to reflect upon and make revisions with your comments as their guide (at least a week ahead of the due date).
- Look for the promise of a draft rather than its mistakes. See yourself as responding rather than correcting.
- Rather than commenting copiously on everything, limit your comments to two or three things the writer should work on that would immediately strengthen the draft—perhaps in dramatic ways.
- Develop a hierarchy of concerns descending from higher-order issues (ideas, organization, development, etc.) to lower-order issues (sentence correctness, spelling, grammar, mechanics, etc.). Proceed to the lower-order concerns only when a student draft is having some success with the higher-order concerns. (Sometimes, depending on the student, it is appropriate to address some of each in a more integrated manner.)