How Can We Address Surface Conventions with Such Limited Time to Teach Writing?
by Liane Robertson and Mike Gregorich
Students learn to improve conventions best by focusing on just one or two issues at a time.
- Give students time to re-read or engage in peer review, after a review where they focus on content, to catch the estimated 67% of errors that research tells us can be caught by the writer before submitting a paper. The student’s own edit marks on a paper will indicate whether they understand the correction of an error, and if so, other errors can then be addressed by the teacher.
- Surface conventions are best indicated on drafts prior to final submissions. Research tells us most students don’t read comments on final drafts, so teachers may be able to save time by limiting focus on errors to previous drafts.
- Prioritize errors to be addressed by the entire class. Research from 1979 (Hairston) to 2003 (Gray/Heuser) demonstrates that there are some errors perceived, at least by professionals, to be the most egregious. By addressing the few errors that result in the most negative reaction, teachers can help student writers eliminate the worst culprits of negative perceptions.
Can technology help?
Using technology is a natural extension to analyze errors in student writing.? New, technology however, challenges teachers to use computers to assist their commenting process.By using technology in the classroom to check for error, teachers bring in a new medium for their pedagogical practices.
- Computers can be used as a tool in improvising with student texts
- Teachers can “co-create” a text with students to assist them:
-Insert questions and reactions- allows teachers to question and react to error “exactly where they occur as we are reading” (Newman 113).
-Commenting on error- teachers can use the computer to highlight fragments, misplaced modifiers, and commas splices.
Use caution with computer-assisted error recognition:
- Electronic commenting programs like Editor, RightWriter, Correct Grammar, and Grammatik are dangerous because “computer grammar and style checkers will never be able to assist students directly until they can think and respond as we do” (Beals 71–72).
- Students should understand their errors before applying the use of a computer-assisted program, such as SEARCH, and be able to correct those errors before relying on technology to save time.
- When teachers create proofreading strategies in class, they can utilize technology to go further in helping students understand error. With the necessary processes of focusing on single errors, and proceeding with proofreading journals, error analysis exercises in class, and in class workshops, the various editing programs can be used to their full potential.
Resources for more information on feedback are listed on the references page.
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