Although this will be a relatively short post, I consider the topic vitally important. I suggested a few months ago that writing argument comes naturally to those who are seasoned in the art. Thus, I especially struggled on how best to teach crafting an interpretation. I since then have been relatively successful.
My next challenge, and one that I have faced all semester, is combating wordiness and awkward phrasing in freshmen writing. Of course, writing is most effective when practiced constantly, in which one is engaged with the language, oftentimes becoming part of the written production. But on the other hand, it seems to me that there must exist exercises that can push students to become more aware of their sentence structure and construction. Indeed, I am tired of writing “wordy” and “awkward” on their papers, only later to see little improvement on future essays.
Part of the problem is merely a product of the college life: writing a formal essay at 3:48AM, while battling–or embracing–the distractions of social media, pop culture, and the disruptions of a dorm, will necessarily produce a sloppy first draft. Yet, how can we combat this? How can we get students to think more about the language, the presentation, the product? I often tell my students that writing is, by definition, a very personal experience, which reflects exclusively on how they portray themselves to the larger public. Such philosophical musings, however, often go unheard.
I am very interested in hearing strategies you employ to address these issues. Have you been successful? Here’s one thought to get the conversation going. I allow revisions on all written work, for obvious revisions. But, I allow revisions up to an A. Next semester, I am thinking of allowing revisions only up to a letter grader higher than that which they received on the original assignment. That should signal more attention to the original draft, and to future drafts, once students become familiar with my style. Thoughts?
Andrew,
This is a common problem. Resubmission of drafts can be helpful. You may find that many students don’t realize the depth of changes that can be made to drafts. To combat this I have two suggestions.
First, you must model the writing and editing process. In writing classes, I preferred to work together with the class on a short piece (1 page max). We’d start with a “draft” to a prompt. Then students would asses the item and propose changes. We’d then vote on changes and implement them immediately. Then we’d reassess the piece and compare it with the original. You’ll want to do this using a rubric. This is helpful when you’re grading their work later on because you’ve already shown them how to develop things to fit your style.
Your goal as an instructor during this process is to provoke the class to attend to different elements to move the piece as fas as possible from its initial presentation. You can divide the class into small teams to work on specific items such as grammar, thesis development, effective use of examples, and so on. This will encourage diversity in editing suggestions. You can always break this up into homework assignments to split this process to 15-20 minutes over several sessions. (First, work on big concepts, then on implementation, and finally on refinement.)
Second, there must be real incentive for revision. There are a lot of ways to arrange this. Making initial drafts required and a substantial portion of the final grade works. So does the possibility of higher grades from revising. The thing you have to avoid is wasting time reviewing dozens of essays that have only superficial changes. I’ve found, however, that even with minimal training undergraduates can make useful comments on the work of their peers. As I suggested above, modeling is key here, but so too is the sense that suggested revisions are worth something. Rather than grade the draft itself, I’ve found it more helpful to incentivize editing. Grade the recommendations, not the draft. The draft is mandatory and you’ll get the chance to skim it while you’re grading. (You can also keep it at this point to compare with the final draft you’ll receive. This avoids the awkward instance of having to ask for the papers back.)
If these help ideas help, great! Their viability depends substantially on your class size and how tightly your schedule is packed. I don’t think a day on editing and good writing practices is ever wasted. I’m definitely a less is more content guy. I may also have a slightly different set of suggestions if you were dealing with a very large lecture course. Let me know if that’s more of what you’re up against.