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[history_grrrl]

On occasion, when I notice a clear "group" pattern in students' papers, I will make a few comments at the start of the class at which I'm handing them back: "I noticed that almost everyone was able to do X, which is great! But also, many of you seemed to have trouble with Y. It's possible that this is because of Z, so consider that next time." I never say "everybody" did something, and of course each student gets individualized comments from me.

I'm handing back papers tomorrow, and in some of them, the writing is absolutely appalling -- totally unacceptable for this level (graduating fourth-year students). I am tempted to say something about this, making clear that my concerns apply only to some of them. For some I think it's pure laziness; in one case I think there might be some sort of learning disability (this student also constantly pronounces proper names incorrectly when speaking in class -- but it could also just be that he's sloppy and inattentive); and in many cases, I fear students simply don't know correct grammar, punctuation, etc. I'd like to make these general comments to the group precisely because I don't know the reasons for any particular student's problem, and it seems to me that offering several possible explanations might get some of them to sit up and take notice. And I can make some general suggestions: proofread, read your paper out loud, take it to the Writing Center, have your mom read it, etc. (FWIW, almost everybody was able to do something conceptual that's often very hard for students to do, and I want to share that news with the group as well.)

But I'm wondering if, in general, it's a bad idea to give "blanket" feedback. Do others do it? Are there particular issues you raise to the group?

[lohai0]

I do it all the time. I make up a fake student assignment with all the mistakes I want to talk about first. (Note: this is not too time intensive in math) Then I put it on the document camera and we all discuss it together.

[sciencegrad]

I was in a senior level history course that seemed to have something similar happen where many students had produced a very poor paper.  The two professors essentially turned the next lecture into an elementary school grammar lesson, complete with a tone and word choice that made them sound like they were speaking to young children.  I was pretty offended, to be honest, because there were a good number of us who did fine on the paper.  I don't know if the problem students actually paid attention, though.

[prof_cj]

I was in a senior level history course that seemed to have something similar happen where many students had produced a very poor paper.  The two professors essentially turned the next lecture into an elementary school grammar lesson, complete with a tone and word choice that made them sound like they were speaking to young children.  I was pretty offended, to be honest, because there were a good number of us who did fine on the paper.  I don't know if the problem students actually paid attention, though.

Having recently had to schedule a similar class for this week (taking time away from the actual lessons of the class), I can tell you that while it might be insulting to you and "a good number of [you]," it's unfortunately not meant for you. It's not even necessarily meant for the students who are not doing that well but want to do better. It's a reminder to deceptive and lazy students that I know what they're up to and will not stand by it. If they wanna try to skate by with the bare minimum, then they're going to get treated as if they don't even know how to do the bare minimum.

[aliasme]

I do it all the time for papers, but I do not take up class time for it. I write up a 1-2 page overview of the assignment. I note what the acceptable answer(s) were and how the better papers exceeded the standard. For answers that seem to trend one way or the other, I'll say "many of you answered the question like x, but this misses the larger factors of y and z." For especially good answers, I will paraphrase and include for all the students: "a particularly insightful way of answering the question was approaching it like this...."

At the end, I'll note some of the more egregious grammar errors, but at the beginning of class, I've given my students a list of my grammar pet-peeves. The students lose "more" points if they screw those up after the first assignment.*

*My student body is composed of military officers, so they are generally more thick-skinned to harsh criticism than most traditional undergrads.

[ursula]

I often do it.  When the average on a test is particularly low (as in the 55% last week), I tell the class that and give them some of the reasons why, and give them tips on how to do better on the next one.  If a bit of care in differentiating adverbs and adjectives, or present from past tense, will help many of them improve their score, I like to let them know that.

[dr_alcott]

I often do this too. Sometimes I've put my group comments in writing--a memo to the class, for example--but I don't know that it gets read.

Like you, History Grrl, I like to start with at least one positive trend I noticed in the writing, and then I'll follow up with perhaps two major problems I noticed. If the problem is poor writing, I do briefly mention the resources students should use.

Usually my comments go something like this: "The most successful essays did a really good job of X and Y. Nice work! But I'm concerned about the essays that showed weaknesses in Z. This is a problem because . . . so before the next essay is due, you should . . .  If you don't address these problems, I'm afraid you'll be earning Ds and Fs for the rest of the semester. But again, really nice work on X and Y!"

[arty_]

I give blanket feedback.  I will take 5-10 minutes out to discuss a few grammar points, but I have never spent a whole class on this.

We are lucky to have a writing center on campus.  If I notice a LOT of very bad writers, I will (in order of escalation) discuss the writing center, invite the writing center staff over to discuss what they do, or require individuals to use the writing center. If I notice students who are truly illiterate or dyslexic enough to be functionally illiterate (not often, but has happened 5 times in about 14 years of teaching), I strongly urge them to go to disability services for accommodation information.

Oddly, most bad writers don't seem to know they are bad writers. This makes the blanket advice difficult sometimes.

[archman]

This is a cool thread. Very nice tips here.

[polly_mer]

Oddly, most bad writers don't seem to know they are bad writers. This makes the blanket advice difficult sometimes.

This is what I've seen (times about a thousand for the science content in my classes).  Consequently, while I do blanket feedback for most assignments, lecturing seems almost worthless for what I'm trying to do in waking people up; the ok students freak out and the need-a-lot-of-improvement students ignore it.

Instead, we do a quiz (psst, consult your neighbors, check your notes, then holler out an answer) or other short whole-group activity that forces the students to engage with the material again and is hard to ignore when you yourself biff it.  Some of my students are great at wishful thinking, so they still do ignore the blanket feedback, but others, after the activity nudges them in the right direction, get back their papers and say, "Oh.  Yeah, I'll do better next time since that's wrong."  Some students feel pretty good and don't begrudge the time on the activity because "For once, I got it and led my group!"  It's a win all around.

[zuzu_]

DON'T DO IT!!

See my argument in an earlier discussion:

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,53723.msg1059205.html#msg1059205

[educator1]

I am certainly not a writing instructor, so I am still strugglingwith this. I am convinced that our students need to have a significant amount of practice in writing the results of their analyses in a manner that can be understood by non-academics.
When I notice common mistakes or ways to improve, I write a memo to the entire class and incorporate the comments into an ever growing set of recommendations that, along with appropriate models, becomes part of the subsequent semester's assignment. Not following these recommentations becomes tantamount to not following directions and I treat it as such.

[polly_mer]

DON'T DO IT!!

See my argument in an earlier discussion:

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,53723.msg1059205.html#msg1059205

As I probably said last time you made that case (I say it every time I see that case), the brainwashing effect only works when students rely on the professor for information.  For students who do talk with a substantial portion of the class, pretending the majority are doing well with a very tiny minority failing just makes the professor look <insert pejorative here> if the reality is a good quarter to half the class aren't earning A's.

When the data show people aren't doing well and students have access to those data, pretending the majority is doing well can backfire just as badly as trying to address a quarter of the class who aren't listening anyway.

[profreader]

This is mostly echoing what Polly has said, but - I find that blanket feedback doesn't reach the people who need it, and frustrates those who don't. (That said, some of the techniques proposed here seem very workable if the majority of the class did need work on a particular technique.)

Nobody ever thinks it's aimed at them - unless they are already self-aware, in which case they freak out. I was one of those people in class, once upon a time.

[dochalladay]

I do a bit of general feedback after students turn in their first papers, because the first paper is specifically designed for me to gauge where students are with their writing (and is discussed as such in class) before they have to write a substantial research paper for me at the end of the semester. I always frame my discussion as "These are ways for you guys to get better grades on your final papers" more than as "These are why you dummies failed this first low-stakes writing assignment." Then I take about 10-15 minutes tops to go over some basic grammatical/stylistic issues that recurred. I also make sure that students have received their papers before I launch into this, so they know specifically which issues pertain to them. I also try to come up with fun examples to illustrate points. My favorite is with my regular battle with the passive voice.

Students, what's the difference between these two sentences?
1. Lois was beheaded.
2. Aloysius beheaded Lois.

As always when I have to deal with some of the more "boring" and mechanical topics, I try to keep 'em smiling while we cover it. It seems to pay off most semesters.

Also, I make note of regular mistakes and include a list of them on my assignment sheet. This way, when students look at the assignment to write the paper, they see a list of common mistakes that they will hopefully avoid. Again, I always frame it as "Here's a way to make sure you get the highest score you can."