Tips on Commenting
D.R. Ransdell
Commenting on essays is a complex process. It’s also challenging, time-consuming, frustrating, and fascinating! No matter how long you’ve taught, chances are that you still have doubts and questions about grading. These tips may be of some use in this important process.
1) Pay attention to the essay’s title. This is usually your first clue as to an essay’s effectiveness. This topic is also something you can have a lot of fun with in class. For example, read some of the students’ draft titles out loud to see which generate more enthusiasm.
2) Write margin comments for major paragraphs. Let students know what’s working as well as what might be missing.
3) Write end comments that help the students understand the major strengths and weaknesses of their essays. You also need students to understand why their work earned the grades that it did. Otherwise they will be tempted to challenge your grading. It’s good for them to ask questions about the effectiveness of their work, but you want them to be fully convinced that they received an appropriate amount of credit for it.
4) Use a friendly but straightforward tone: “I know you worked hard, but…” “I appreciate your careful attention to the drafting process, but….” Try to find something to praise even if the essay is ineffective.
5) Encourage students as much as possible. Assure them that their writing will get better and remind them that essay-writing is hard work.
6) Comment on “big” things. Unless the essay is very strong, don’t spend lots of time commenting on a small detail. Instead spend time commenting on the major factors that govern the essay’s grade.
7) When possible, comment as a reader by responding to the students’ ideas instead of merely evaluating their work.
8)Provide some clues as to your grading. In my assignment packet I explain that:
Guidelines for essay types differ, but in general, when I evaluate your essay, I will consider your focus (thesis), analysis (how well you explain and decipher your points), organization (how the pieces fit together), strength of proof (persuasiveness), ingenuity (novelty of approach), rhetorical awareness (the effectiveness of your essay given its context), style (tone/word choice), and mechanics (grammar and spelling).
More specifically:
A C essay needs to have a title, an introduction, a conclusion, a discernible, debatable thesis, and a coherent structure. The body paragraphs need to have at least minimal discussion and examples. The essay needs to adhere to the assignment, meet the minimum length requirement, and demonstrate an adequate use of mechanics.
A B essay needs to have a title that reflects the thesis, an organized introduction that has a balanced length, a logical conclusion, a discernible, interesting, and manageable thesis, a forecasting statement, a purposeful structure that is easy for readers to follow, multiple examples and associated analysis (PIE paragraphs), appropriate tone and style, a fairly accurate use of mechanics, and a mix of sentence structures. The essay also needs to match the assignment and meet the medium length requirement.
An A essay needs to have an unusual but logical title, a balanced and organized introduction that engages readers in your topic, an innovative thesis that is debatable and manageable, a forecasting statement, a purposeful structure that is crystal clear, in-depth analysis in the form of extended PIE paragraphs, a perfect or near-perfect use of mechanics, a mix of sentence structures, and accurate, college-level vocabulary. Your essay also needs to match or stretch beyond the assignment and demonstrate a deliberate and appropriate use of tone and style.
A D essay fails to satisfy one or more expectations for a C essay. An E essay misinterprets the assignment or the depth thereof or is riddled with errors.
If I followed this exactly, I would never find an A essay! But if a student with a B essay comes to complain about the grade, I sit down with him/her and carefully go through each one of these categories… until the student is convinced that a B grade is fair after all or maybe even generous.
9) To save time, be brief. Write: “You need a thesis” or simply “Thesis?” instead of writing: “Your essay would be much stronger if you had a clear thesis.” That’s four words vs. twelve! If you write ten comments per essay…. Well, you do the math!
10) In the wise words of Patrick Baliani, the worse the paper, the less you should write. Students who are really struggling can’t handle long explanations and probably won’t read them anyway. You don’t want to sound cold, but you don’t need to write three paragraphs explaining that an essay has no focus or organization.
11) Scrutinize a SMALL section of the essay in terms of grammar and take off points accordingly. I scrutinize one page if the essay is well edited but only a long paragraph is there are a zillion mistakes. I usually review the second or third page of the essay since I’ve often filled the first page with content comments. Note that in order to be motivated enough to improve their editing, most students need a tangible consequence.
12)Carefully consider whether or not to allow rewrites. Many teachers feel this is an effective way to teach writing. I let students rewrite for many years even though I was disappointed that the writers often made very small changes and expected much higher grades. Then one semester I had to go to several conferences and was too busy to allow this option. I noticed that my students tried so much harder on the second essay that their writing improved significantly.
13)If your end comments fail to convince a particular student that his or her grade is justified, offer to take the paper home so that you can look at it again. Once every other year or so, I find I was incredibly grumpy when grading a particular paper and assign a little more credit. More often, however, I make a new list of other things that were wrong with the paper that I hadn’t taken the time to comment on the first time around or perhaps find a new way to explain things I already pointed out.If you still feel that your grade is right but feel uncertain (sometimes essays are weak in strange ways), have a colleague review the essay. Almost always the essay will seem worse to an outside reader.
14) Practice tough love. For example, if the essay has so many editing problems that it’s incomprehensible, it shouldn’t receive much credit. Ditto if the essay fails to match the assignment prompt.
15) Make students accountable. Many times we point out important aspects of a draft, but the students ignore our sound advice. Point this out in your end comment in no uncertain: “As I warned you on your draft…..” You shouldn’t have to correct the same thing twice.
16)Make use of peer comments. If the students ignored useful advice they received during workshopping, my end comment might read, “As your classmate pointed out in Draft 3A, you don’t have any topic sentences….” (See attached peer rubric.)
17)Consider taking brief notes on each paper. The information helps jog my memory and gives me clues as to how to respond to a subsequent paper. For example, I might write: “As I mentioned on your previous essay….” This helps students realize that problems don’t go away magically but instead must be addressed. It also gives them the idea that I have an elephant’s memory!
Student A / Student BNo thesis
Some development
Minor grammar issues
B- / Great ideas, little development
MLA citations incorrect
Title One was the title.
C
Again, no thesis
Hardly any development
Editing has improved
B- / Ideas, no TSs.
No examples.
Half expected length.
D
18)Find a system to manage the grading comfortably. I grade a few each day and then stop. Others prefer to set aside an afternoon. At any rate, avoid the pressure that comes with too much procrastination!
19)After you’ve finished gradingan entire set of papers, review the first few papers to check for consistency.
20) Experiment. Teachers are divided on the effectiveness of using grading rubrics. Many say that rubrics help them grade objectively and help them explain writing to their students. To me rubrics feel cold and mechanical; I would rather write a lengthy comment instead. Either way you simply want students to understand how their writing is working and offer suggestions to help them improve.
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Abbreviated rubric adapted from Bryan Meadows:
Content / Stuff / Format / StuffDevelopment of Argument (thesis, examples, discussion) / Development of Paragraphs (PIE + topic sentences) / Organization of paper (intro & conclusion, sequencing) / Formal, academic grammar / Formal Spelling and Punctuation / Paper Format (12-point Roman, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins)
A / B / B- / B+ / C / B
*For a more theoretical explanation, please read my “Comments on Commenting.”
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Peer Review Comments
Your name ______
Essay title ______
Essay type ______
Date / Reader’s Name / Their Advice / Your Reaction/Solution1A
2A
1B
2B
3A
3B
Teacher comments