Exploratory Draft

Commentary that is Effective
Feedback by teachers should encourage students to become better writers. My research has shown students usually only scan the feedback looking for a quick path to a better grade. Responsibility falls on the teacher to modify their comments or feedback to promote an improvement in the writing of their students.
The main research question that guided my research was: What types of commentary enhances revision on students’ papers? This research question led me to different insights on the topic with the sources I found. I have found ways to make my argument stronger with sources that vary from the past to present. The results are all cohesive and my personal surveys from my peers have also strengthened the point I am trying to make. After doing my research I now, want to separate my Inquiry paper into 4 subtopics/categories: what teachers have been doing, what students reactions are to their forms of feedback and what they prefer, the progression in time there has been, if any and I will close with a list of time efficient strategies that other educators have used that are proven to work. My articles all touched on each topic in some way shape or form, I will use them to respond to my main subject heading and show the different insights they give.
What teachers have been doing? Teacher commentary has not been effective for students according to my results. The comments are too vague, contradictory or they are appearance comments. These comments do not help the student understand what they did wrong. In my paper I will use some examples of these types of commentary. I will show that none of these focus on the form, style, or content of the paper but instead give the student the impression that writing is about rules. These types of commentary often leave the reader confused on what is of higher importance to understand for next time and what they should do to improve. Contradictory comments are a popular case among student papers, a teacher will put ‘omit’ in the text but on the margin write ‘expand’. These types of comments often leave the student wondering which they should do for the reader to understand their paper. But most times they wonder which they have to do for the teacher to like and give them a better grade. Students’ reactions to teacher commentary are most times like this, confused or changing the paper just for a better grade.
The area that depicts the students’ responses I think will be the most interesting due to the fact that I surveyed my peers. Their responses all corresponded with the negative aspects of the studies I found. Students believe that their teachers sometimes did not read the paper because their commentary does not coincide with what they were saying. They also believe that teachers write comments that are too vague and leave them left to wonder how to fix the problem. Or often times, what the problem is. The word ‘vague’ will be written in the margin, but what part exactly is too vague? However, articles that I have found from present times have said that students have grown a positive response toward teacher feedback. They say that teacher commentary helps them understand their mistakes and how to improve for next time. Due to the contradicting views I believe that this part will enhance my argument in the way that some educators are improving however, others are still leaving their students to modify the paper for the grade. That will lead me into my progression of change over time with teacher feedback.
I will show here what present studies have concluded about where teacher feedback is now and the students’ opinions on that. Many are positive and so I believe that will be encouragement to the reader to know that it is possible to create better student writers. I would hope this will flow nicely into my conclusion that will depict the methods I have found that increase students’ motivation to write and make sure they pay attention to the comments and use them for a later use. Some methods suggest that the responsibility can be placed in the student hands to enhance revision by editing strategies the students do for themselves. This will be to be instructed by a teacher but the students will be held accountable for learning new ways to revise their papers. I have found articles that promote time efficient ways of responding that are better than just commenting. They provide a lot of work from the student to learn from their mistakes or they show ways to comment that are effective.