At a glance:
Save time
commenting
Kern's best
practices--conferences
Writing Center's
services
Commenting
on style & grammar
Criteria
sheets for assignments save time
Professor Kern Uses Writing Conferences To Respond to Students (top)
Distinguished Research Professor
Stephen Kern finds it challenging to balance time between his scholarly
writing and teaching. However, he recently told a group of new GAs
in History 595: Seminar in Teaching History that he never compromises on
one thing: the writing conferences he holds with his students.
Kern discovered the value
of writing conferences when he worked closely with his dissertation mentor.
The mentor spent hours going over Kern’s drafts with him. The immediate
feedback and the close attention to the quality of his writing and development
of his ideas transformed Kern’s understanding of how to integrate writing
into his own classes.
Kern provides students with
a sheet of 24 items that commonly trip up writers when drafting and editing.
He jokes that the first words he utters in class are: “You will learn how
to use pronouns.”
However, Kern really means
that students will learn to replace vague thinking with precise language—and
he sets aside at least an hour every semester for each student, just for
the conferences. He helps students go over their prose style, their ideas,
their organization, their critical grasp of reading, and other “high-order
concerns.”
Kern doesn’t assign research
papers, but prefers detailed reading responses in essay form. He
feels that the reading/writing connection is crucial to students’ development.
Students must gain a knowledge base before they can write knowledgeably.
His dedication to this teaching approach underscores how faculty can make
a powerful difference in students’ lives.
Writing Center Supports Faculty by Providing Supplemental Response to Students’ Writing (top)
The Writing Center at Reavis 306A has aggressively increased its outreach. Tutors are spreading the message to faculty that students can get extra feedback on their work.
The Writing Center operates
on the principle that writers need to have honest, specific response about
where their work succeeds as well as where it requires improvement. Writing
Center tutors don’t “remediate”—they help students communicate. They
draw students’ attention to a draft’s development, organization, rhetorical
proficiency, disciplinary styles, and grammar. They encourage and
show students how to take responsibility for revising thoroughly.
Faculty may tell students
to call 815-753-6636 for appointments. Students can also get online
to email drafts at:
http://www.engl.niu.edu/writing_center/
Commenting on Style and Grammar (top)
Style involves rhetorical choices— matters of effectiveness and grace rather than right or wrong. E.g. wordiness, choppiness, excessive use of passive voice, indicatives (It is… There are…), ambiguous pronoun reference (This proves that…). Identify 2 or 3 instances of stylistic choices that bother you, and ask for revisions.
E.g. Ching, on p. 2 paragraph 4, you say “There are four points I want discuss in relation to this problem.” Here’s an improvement: “I want to discuss four causes of poverty.” Please find other place where you begin a sentence with “it is” or “there are” and revise. Do you also see how more specific language helps?
Grammar involves errors that are rule-based. E.g. correct use of their, there, they’re; it/it’s; spelling; punctuation, subject/verb agreement, pronoun/antecedent. Help students find error patterns—maybe even line-edit a paragraph—but require them to edit thoroughly.
E.g. Stuart, you have many
grammatical errors here, but I see three types that you repeat often: 1.
apostrophes with plurals rather than possessives; 2. “of” instead of “have”
with conditional verbs such as “could” or “would”; 3. incorrect past perfect
(e.g. “have went”) instead of (“have gone”). Make corrections for
a better grade.
A Criteria Sheet Can Clarify Expectations (top)
Identify no more than 5 to 8 criteria, and attach the criteria sheet to the draft. You can combine this sheet with your end comments. Indicate “S”= strong, “OK,” “W”= weak, or “NC”= no credit, or assign point values. For example: