![]() (The most common issues on early drafts are related to understanding the assignment and working with sources.) If you’re commenting on a final draft, consider how the paper has changed (for better and worse) across successive drafts. If you’re commenting on a draft, consider what two or three things the student needs to know or to do first in order to revise the paper. So you’re better off focusing on what you think the student most needs to know/hear/do in response to a given assignment and leaving the rest for later in the course. Research shows that students process one or two comments and ignore the rest. When you comment on individual papers, resist the temptation to write all over the paper. You can also look at a few of the papers in class (see below). If you find yourself writing the same comment over and over, consider instead sharing it with the whole class in a group email or memo, and then making a few specific comments on individual papers. Use your initial assessment of your students’ writing as a whole to guide your comments on individual papers.Instead, consider what you notice about the set of papers in general: e.g., are there aspects of the assignment that the class as a whole seems to resist or simply get wrong? What does the writing say about strengths/weaknesses of the class as a whole? What do students seem to come into the class knowing how to do as readers/writers? What kinds of things do they appear to need help with? (If it’s early in the term, consider whether there are individual writers who stick out as being, at least potentially, in need of additional help and arrange to meet with them ASAP.) Resist the temptation to do a lot of writing in the margins on this initial quick read. When you receive a new set of papers, read through all of them quickly to get a sense of the ways in which students have (and have not) understood the assignment. ![]() If you’re teaching with writing for the first time, here are some strategies you might find helpful for responding to drafts:
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