Responding to Student Writing: A Self-study Questionnaire

Instructions: Please take 15-20  minutes or so to reflect upon and respond in writing to these questions about your own practices of responding to student writing. 

Part A: Managing the paper load

1. How much time do you spend, on average, reading and responding, in writing, to a student’s paper? 

2. What would be a reasonable estimate for the least amount of time you spend, typically, on a single paper in a set? greatest amount of time?

3. What accounts for differences in  the amount of time spent on various papers? How would you characterize those papers you spend more time responding to as contrast with those that take less time?

4. How do you handle the paper load within the time span you have for responding and returning to the class? How do you pace yourself? integrate your response schedule with your course schedule?

Part B: Strategies of reading

1. Do you read and respond to papers one at a time, completing one paper before moving to another, or do you read through most or many papers before responding to any of them? Estimate as a fraction or percentage the likelihood of your  using either strategy. 

2. Do you respond immediately to a student’s text as you read it for the first time or do you read through the entire paper before making any marks or composing any comments? Estimate the  likelihood of your using either strategy.

3. Do you arrange the papers in any particular order as you read and respond to them?

Part C: Forms ( or “technologies”) of response 

1.What role does written response play in your repertoire of response practices overall? Do you also respond to papers orally, during individual (or group) conferences? Do you ever tape your comments? 

2.Do you  hand write or type your comments? If you do both, depending, estimate your likelihood of using either mode ? Do you have specific reasons for using one or more modes?

3.Do you use any commenting software, e. g.,  MS Word’s track changes function? 

4. Do you use particular instruments to shape your responses, e. g., formatted scoring or weighting rubrics?

Part D: Modes of response

1. As a general rule, what proportion of your responses are in the form of 

	a. in-text copy editing --

	b. marginal comments -- 

	c. end note -- 

2. To what extent do you mark and/or correct errors?

	a. as much as possible, wherever they appear

	b. when they appear habitual and systematic

	c. intensely, but only in selected sections or paragraphs
	
	d. minimally, with a brief note in the margin, thus allowing students to find and correct errors

3. What are your objectives in responding to error?

4. How many marginal comments do you  make, on average?

	a. several observations/reactions per paragraph

	b. one observation/reaction per paragraph

	c. less frequently that one comment per paragraph

5. What is the mode of address in your marginal comments?

	a. reader protocol (i.e., what you were thinking, liking, wondering about, etc.)

	b. suggestive (e.g., have you considered...; what about...)

	c. corrective (e.g., say it like this:...)

	d. evaluative (e.g., good, awkward, !, etc.)

	e. diagnostic (e.g., drawing visual connections between passages)

6. To what extent do you rely upon an established set of critical marks or codes?

7. How long, on average, is your typical end note?

	a. 150 words or more

	b. 100 - 150 words

	c. 50 - 100 words

	d. less than 50 words

8. What elements of response do you typically include in an end note

	a. praise

	b. critique

	c. personal reaction 

	d. goal setting

	e. correction

	f. explicit justification for a grade

Part E: Relationship between responding and grading

1. To what extent do your comments explicitly or implicitly support the grade?

2. What other teaching functions do your responses take final papers?

Part F: Feedback and Revision

1. How do you gauge the pedagogical benefit of your responses to student writing? 

2. What additional forms of response (e.g., peer response, self-critique, follow up) do you employ in conjunction with your own  activities?

Coda: These questions only touch lightly upon the many interlocking elements that contribute to the complex activities of response to written work.What additional issues or questions does this self-study exercise raise for you? What recommendations would you make for future interations of this instrument?