Making Comments Count

In Across the Drafts, Sommers articulates a clear perspective of feedback as an opportunity for students and instructors to interact in a partnership that promotes writing development. So often, comments are construed as teachers/professors expressing minor problems in grammar and form instead of overall composition. They neglect to understand that students who receive lackluster comments miss out on chances to learn from their mistakes so that they won't repeat them.

Comments on papers in a university setting may be the only outlet for writing instruction that some students receive. As a creative writing minor/future tutor, I realized while reading this excerpt that the writing-intensive instruction I receive is rare and not all students are lucky enough to have access to one-on-one or peer-driven writing workshops. In these settings, people don't typically point out simple mistakes, but rather overall issues in composition. I learn from the critiques because they occur in an exchange, not a simple relay of problems.

Successful comments must be specific. Check marks and drawn out lines don't do the writing or the student justice. It is hard to walk away from an essay with these kinds of corrections on them and learn anything of value. Who would say, "next time, I won't use that sentence" or "next time, I won't make my sentences so long so that I don't have any run-ons" or "next time, I'll capitalize that." This kind of feedback does not carry over across disciplines of knowledge. True feedback offers a perspective of your audience. An attentive reader shares feedback that has continuity for future writing endeavors.

Quality feedback teaches meaningful lessons to budding writers. The more practice students have in writing, the more appropriate feedback they may receive. Over time, well-planned and constructive criticism paired with instruction will benefit students who are willing to accept and appreciate the commentary.