Commenting on Drafts--OMGDEATHKILL@#!

Greetings, all.

I passed back class's memoir rough drafts last week after spending a very long time reading and writing lots of comments on them. I've always admired and appreciated teachers who take the time to really let me know what they think about my work and who really try to offer helpful, detailed feedback for revision, so I try my best to devote myself in this way to my students. It takes lots of extra time, but in the end, I think it's worth it--they find out you really do care about their work, and due to the additional criticism, students often put forth more effort to improve upon the draft. I let my students know that my proper feedback for them is important to me, and I let them know I spend lots of time thinking about ways they can improve as writers. I believe this subconsciously binds them to a work-ethic contract with me, because they hear about me staying up late and spending lots of extra time working on their drafts, so to speak, and in turn, they feel that they owe the same amount of hard work back to me.

The class period after I returned the drafts, I began the day by asking if there were any illegible comments or questions concerning my feedback. One student, who I thought during the first week might turn into a behavioral problem throughout the semester, raised his hand. I could see he was holding the draft in his hand.

"I just want you to know that I think what you wrote on the back of my draft was actually a lot better than my actual memoir," he said. He is a funny guy, and all the students in the class chuckled. "I've never had a teacher write this much on one of my papers, and I want you to know I really appreciate it. It's really helpful."

Often when I comment on papers, I find myself spending more time than I know I should. Usually it makes not a difference that I can trace, but sometimes, the revised version is much, much better because of my extra time and a student's extra effort. I think if I show that I truly care about their writing, they will, in turn, begin to care, too.