"Managing the Stack: Effective, Efficient Commenting on Student Papers"

a 'Teaching Matters' Workshop @ Rutgers University-Camden, February 16, 2007
facilitated by William T. FitzGerald, Ph. D.

how we see it, often how students see it, often

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        Confused and angry, he stared at the red marks on his paper.
          He had awked again. And he had fragged. He always awked
          and fragged. On every theme, a couple of awks and a frag or
          two. And the inevitable puncs and sp's. The cw's didn't bother him
          anymore. He knew the teacher preferred words like courage
          and contemptible person to guts and fink. The teacher had
          dismissed guts and fink as slang, telling students never to use
          slang in their themes. But he liked to write guts and fink; they
          meant something to him. Besides, they were in the dictionary.
          So why couldn't he use them when they helped him say what he
          wanted to say? He rarely got to say what he wanted to say in an
          English class, and when he did, he always regretted it. But even
          that didn't bother him much. He really didn't care anymore....

                      (Edward B. Jenkinson and Donald Seybold, "Prologue,"
                         Writing as a Process of Discovery, p. 3)


Questions to Consider:

What roles do writing assignments play in our teaching?

What goals direct our response practices when responding to student writing?

What enables, what constrains our efforts?

What for us are typical patterns of response to student writing?

How do these patterns vary with specific assignments or assignment sequences?

What would we do if we had more time?

What would we do (differently) if we thought it would make a significant difference?

**Here is a brief self-study of responding practices; also, a more extensive questionnaire to consider

Several excellent resources:

Haswell, Richard. "The Complexities of Responding to Student Writing; or, Looking for Shortcuts via the Road of Excess."
Across the Disciplines. Volume 4, Jan - Dec 2007.

Figure 1: The Circuit of Culture, from Du Gay, 1997, Production of Culture/Cultures of Production

Brady, Laura, West Virginia University, "Responding to Writing."(workshop handout)

Carbone, Nick, Bedford/St. Martins, "Commenting on Student Writing." (online resource)

Flash, Pamela, University of Minnesota, "Responding to Student Writing." (online resource)

Hesse, Douglas, University of Denver, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Responding to Writing." (workshop handout)

"Responding to Student Text," Dartmouth Writing Program (online resource)

Additional resources (a selective bibliography)

**Note: an extensive bibliography on responding, grading and assessment, compiled by Rebecca Moore Howard, may be found here

Anson, Chris M. Writing and Response: Theory, Practice, and Research. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1989.

Brannon, Lil, and C.H. Knoblauch. "On Students' Rights to Their Own Texts: A Model of Teacher Response." College Composition and Communication 33 (1982): 157-66.

Chandler, Jean. "Positive Control." College Composition and Communication 48.2 (May 1997): 273-274.

Clio, Max.  "Grading on My Nerves."  Chronicle of Higher Education 18 November 2003.  <http://chronicle.com/jobs/2003/11/2003111801c.htm>. 

Connors, Robert J., and Andrea A. Lunsford. "Teachers' Rhetorical Comments on Student Papers." College Composition and Communication 44 (May 1993): 200-23.

Cooper, Charles R., and Lee Odell, eds. Evaluating Writing: The Role of Teachers' Knowledge about Text, Learning, and Culture. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1998.

Elbow, Peter. "High Stakes and Low Stakes in Assigning and Responding to Writing." Dialogue on Writing: Rethinking ESL, Basic Writing, and First-Year Composition. Ed. Geraldine DeLuca, Len Fox, Mark-Ameen Johnson, and Myra Kogen. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002.

Elbow, Peter. "Ranking, Evaluating, and Liking: Sorting out Three Forms of Judgment." College English 55.2 (February 1993): 187-206.

Fife, Jane Mathison, and Peggy O'Neill. "Moving beyond the Written Comment: Narrowing the Gap between Response Practice and Research." College Composition and Communication 53.2 (December 2001): 300-321.

Gottschalk, Katherine K., and Keith Hjortshoj.  The Elements of Teaching Writing for Instructors in All Disciplines. Boston:  Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004.

Haswell, Richard H. "Grades, Time, and the Curse of Course." College Composition and Communication 51.2 (December 1999): 284-295.

Haswell, Richard H. "Minimal Marking." College English 45 (1983): 600-4.

Horvath, Brooke K. "The Components of Written Response: A Practical Synthesis of Current Views." The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook. Ed. Gary Tate, Edward P.J. Corbett, and Nancy Myers. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. 207-23.

Kim, Loel. "Online Technologies for Teaching Writing:  Students React to Teacher Response in Voice and Written Modalities." Research in the Teaching of English (Feb. 2004).

Knoblauch, C.H., and Lil Brannon.  "Responding to Texts:  Facilitating Revision in the Writing Workshop."  Dialogue on Writing:  Rethinking ESL, Basic Writing, and First-Year Composition.  Ed. Geraldine DeLuca, Len Fox, Mark-Ameen Johnson, and Myra Kogen.  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002. 

Moneyhun, Clyde.  "Less Is More in Response to Student Writing."  Strategies for Teaching First-Year Composition.  Ed. Duane Roen, Veronica Pantoja, Lauren Yena, Susan K. Miller, and Eric Waggoner. Urbana, IL:  NCTE, 2002.  326-238. 

Moxley, Joseph M. "Teachers' Goals and Methods of Responding to Student Writing." Composition Studies 20 (Spring 1992): 17-33.

O'Neill, Peggy, and Jane Mathison Fife. "Listening to Students: Contextualizing Response to Student Writing." Composition Studies 27.2 (Fall 1999): 39-51.

Peeples, Tim, and Bill Hart-Davidson. "Grading the 'Subject': Questions of Expertise and Evaluation." Grading in the Post-Process Classroom: From Theory to Practice. Ed. Libby Allison, Lisbeth Bryant, and Maureen Hourigan. Westport, CT: Heinemann Boynton/Cook, 1997. 94-113.

Phelps, Louise Wetherbee. "Images of Student Writing: The Deep Structure of Teacher Response." Writing and Response: Theory, Practice, and Research. Ed. Chris M. Anson. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1989. 37-67.

Prior, Paul. "Tracing Authoritative and Internally Persuasive Discourses: A Case Study of Response, Revision, and Disciplinary Enculturation." Research in the Teaching of English 29.3 (October 1995): 288-325.

Rutz, Carol.  "One Dimension of Response to Student Writing:  How Students Construct Their Critics." Strategies for Teaching First-Year Composition.  Ed. Duane Roen, Veronica Pantoja, Lauren Yena, Susan K. Miller, and Eric Waggoner. Urbana, IL:  NCTE, 2002.  329-337

Smith, Summer. "The Genre of the End Comment: Conventions in Teacher Responses to Student Writing." College Composition and Communication 48.2 (May 1997): 249-268.

Sommers, Nancy. "Responding to Student Writing." College Composition and Communication 33 (1982): 148-56. Rpt. Teaching Writing:  Landmarks and Horizons.  Eds. Christina Russell McDonald and Robert L. McDonald.  Carbondale:  Southern Illinois UP, 2002.  79-91.

Straub, Richard. "The Concept of Control in Teacher Response: Defining the Varieties of 'Directive' and 'Facilitative' Commentary." College Composition and Communication 47.2 (May 1996): 223-51.

Straub, Richard.  "Guidelines for Responding to Student Writing."  Strategies for Teaching First-Year Composition.  Ed. Duane Roen, Veronica Pantoja, Lauren Yena, Susan K. Miller, and Eric Waggoner. Urbana, IL:  NCTE, 2002.  355-365.  

Straub, Richard. "Response Rethought." College Composition and Communication 48.2 (May 1997): 277-283.

Straub, Richard.  "The Student, the Text, and the Classroom Context:  A Case Study of Teacher Response."  Assessing Writing 7 (2000): 23-55. 

White, Edward M. Assigning, Responding, Evaluating: A Writing Teacher's Guide. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's P, 1995.

FitzGerald, 2007