I still have many questions that plague me in this class! In fact, nothing so far seems really answered to me, as I haven't yet begun to put the theory into practice. Right now, as I've spent the morning grading first drafts of the 1.1 essay, I am wondering exactly how much feedback to give, and what type. For the students who haven't worked out their ideas fully yet, should I comment at all on their grammatical errors? For those who do have fully fleshed out ideas and papers that make me want to switch positions on ethical issues, should I point out every little mistake so that their final will be free of any error? Or should I let them find some of the mistakes on their own and let them feel good about the work they did on this first draft? It's a complicated question, and again, a problem with the online system of topic. If I had the paper in front of me, I'm certain that I would circle all of the errors I found in a paper like this. After all, it's bound to help in the end. But does it help in topic?
Also, how do you encourage voice? When a student does it have it naturally, how do you encourage it in their writing? Hand in hand with that issue, is that of tone. How do you teach them tone? Is the best way showing them writing that works and then that which doesn't? One article in academic tone, and then something in informal, non-academic tone?
2 comments:
I like your questions because they show that you really care about helping your students develop as writers. Even though it is so much information for all of us now, I think that the heart that you put into your worries will make you a good teacher- even if the system is flawed( lol).
I'm not sure I can give you a definitive answer on what is correct so much as egotistically just tell you how I've been grading papers :P I try to make my comments a mix of grammar correction and comments on content and style. Instead of pointing out every last grammatical mistake, I instead try to group them (ie once I've point out a certain type of mistake once, I don't go and pick out all the other instances in which they made the same mistake). If the paper is good and has few grammar mistakes, then I focus in on what they could do to make it better, be that making their paragraphs more topical or whatever. One thing I could probably do better is praising the students - it's about 1 or 2 lines praise and the rest errors for me #.#
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