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Teaching Writing

Writing provides students with the opportunity to think critically, to develop their reasoning ability, and to engage the material of the course actively. Responding to students’ writing is crucial to their intellectual development. You will provide them with an intellectual model, encourage them to take ideas (including their own) seriously and to see the clear communication of ideas to an audience as a vital skill for them to develop. 

Evaluating Writing in a Large Lecture Course

Guidelines for Quick Evaluation: 

Try not to read the papers all at once. Organize your time so that you can do an equal amount each day and be sure to take frequent breaks. Do not begin the final evaluation of the students’ papers until you have a clear idea of what you are looking for. One idea is to develop a typology of what the papers should contain and then use it as a model for evaluating and commenting on each paper. Make sure to discuss your model with the professor before you begin. For example, you might decide that a well-written paper must have all or most of the following: 

• A strong thesis statement. 

• A cogently expressed argument – one relevant to the field, and one that requires thought and research. 

• Sufficient and well-documented evidence

• An exploration of possible alternative explanations, particularly those which address the other side of an active debate in the field. 

• A clear and easy-to-read prose style. 

• A well-informed discussion of the relevant literature in the field. 

This loose collection of ideas is an example of one possible typology or rubric. Your own should address the specific writing assignment you are evaluating. This may seem at first like just another chore, but it will save you considerable time and confusion; it will also satisfy students who have questions about their grades. If they have questions, however, you should direct them to the professor, who is the final arbiter of grades. You should be prepared to inform the professor of your rationale. You will find that by referring to the rubric: 

• You can go through the papers more quickly because you know what to look for. 

• You can keep concise notes for yourself as you go through the papers, making the final grading decisions more quickly apparent. 

• You can quickly write evaluative comments at the end of each student’s paper without having to re-invent a context for each one. 

• You can feel confident your comments provide students with valuable information, since they address the broad range of the individual student’s writing, the specific assignment, the course, and the field. 

Responding to Papers

Writing Comments: 

Providing students with constructive feedback is an important but challenging aspect of evaluating students’ writing. Try to make specific comments which anticipate students’ questions and help them improve their writing in later papers. A typical comment might be, “Good introduction,” but a more valuable comment for the student might be, “This is a strong introductory paragraph because it raises questions that engage me as a member of the historical profession,” or “This is a good introductory paragraph because it gives a clear explication of the issues and indicates what’s to come.” These clearer and more specific comments help students understand where they have failed or succeeded and what they can do to improve future papers. 

Another widespread challenge that TAs face is how to respond to the writing of students who are new and have not grasped the writing conventions of the discipline, especially when these students are used to doing well in their own discipline. 

Students who are good writers in one field may have difficulty writing a good paper in a new discipline. Making disciplinary conventions explicit at the assignment stage is an excellent way to teach students to be aware of differences between audiences. 

One way of doing this is to have students read and dissect a “classic” text in your field to see how language is used, evidence marshaled, and arguments made. 

If you play an active role in planning assignments and have course enrollments which allow you the time, you might consider teaching writing by building the process of drafting and revising into your assignments. Revising to clarify the theme to develop an argument, or to refine the overall structure of their work is often simply beyond students’ knowledge or experience. However, when offered structured opportunity to revise, students have a chance for feedback on their writing while there is still time to do something about it. 

If you are inclined towards allowing students to submit drafts for your comments, you should be aware that reading drafts can take up a lot of your time. When you encourage students to draft and revise, you add a dimension to the course that requires you to teach writing as well as your own subject. Since writing is such an important component in various disciplines, many TAs find themselves voluntarily assuming this additional role. You can also direct them to the Writing Center. Be careful to balance your time and theirs. 

Other Quick and Effective Commenting Strategies

In some cases, you might consider selecting just one aspect of the student’s writing on which to focus. Limiting yourself in this way is not simply convenient for your busy schedule but is truly helpful to students who cannot learn if they are overwhelmed by the comments you have made on their written work. You might consider some important aspects, such as how to structure an argument or how to support a position with appropriate evidence. 

Another option is what is commonly referred to as “reader-response” commenting, where you respond not as a teacher but as a reader. You will find that this is a faster process which aids your students but does not require that you become a grammarian. In fact, many writing instructors and researchers argue that this form of commenting is most beneficial for students who gain the valuable knowledge of how their writing is seen through a reader’s eyes. This method is especially useful for commenting on drafts. 

Students can also share drafts or papers and give each other responses. “Peer review” allows students to respond to papers as readers and it encourages student writers to keep their audience in mind when writing. 

Grammar, Syntax, and Spelling

Many teachers feel students benefit more if comments are focused on ideas, but grammar, syntax, and the like are still important. Resist any impulse you might have to correct their work for them but instead encourage students to take responsibility for these aspects of their own writing. There is certainly no shortage of appropriate and helpful texts which students are perfectly capable of using. You can also make grammatical and syntactical comments on one paragraph to give the student an idea of the kinds of changes that are required. By limiting this type of comment to one paragraph, you save time and avoid overwhelming the student. 

Hints and Cautionary Notes

• Students are less likely to pay attention to comments written on papers due at the end of the semester. Feel free to pace yourself with more extensive comments on the earlier work in the term. 

• Keep your own time limits in mind and the length of your comments reasonable. Remember that students have limits on how many corrections or recommendations for improving their writing they can absorb at one time. 

• Always provide at the end of the paper some summary explanation of the paper’s grade and its relationship to the student’s writing strengths or weaknesses. It can be short, but students expect this, probably have a right to it, and will learn from what you tell them.