Students benefit when an instructor reacts to their work not just as a teacher but as a reader, and when an instructor uses different modes of commentary. In The Practice of Response, Richard Straub identifies seven different modes of instructor commentary in order of student preference (266). Note that in many cases the same information can be expressed through different modes:
- Explanations: “When I got to this part I wanted to hear more about your relationship with your brother.” “You don’t need quotation marks around a block quotation.”
- Advice: “Before writing your next draft, you might try listing as many things you can think of that are legal and that are also dangerous—like cigarettes, firearms, skydiving, and over-the-counter drugs—and consider who these things are different from illegal drugs. Then choose the best arguments and work them into your essay.”
- Praise: “Your vivid language here really conveys how beautiful that landscape was.” “You’ve managed to very effectively counter his argument.”
- Open questions: “This really interests me. How did you grow up? How did you change? Is there some representative incident you can share with your reader to demonstrate your change?”
- Closed questions: “Is this paragraph really necessary?” “How long were you in Italy?”
- Commands: “Place this argument at the end.” “You need to support this argument with evidence.”
- Criticism: “This conclusion is too repetitive.” “It took me a while to figure out how this sentence follows from the previous one.”
The following documents provide guidelines for responding efficiently and effectively to student writing:
- For a comprehensive view of the types of oral and written response you can provide to students, see this feedback guide (PDF) (courtesy of Frankie Condon, Department of English).
- For a concise guide to responding efficiently to assignments, see Responding to Student Writing (courtesy of Jay Dolmage, Department of English).