Liz Hijacks us For a Worthy Cause

The following was originally a comment, but I think it's worthy of a post:

This is a bit of a comment hijack, but I thought I'd pass this along:

Julie Meloni, who writes No Fancy Name,

http://nofancyname.blogspot.com/2006/10/calling-all-rhetcomp-instructors-survey.html

Calling all rhet/comp instructors! survey of grading/response styles [grad student project]

I hereby call on the Academic Blogosphere to help out one of my fellow grad students. If you have taught composition at any type of college/university, as a grad student/adjunct/prof, for any length of time, my classmate would very much like to hear your thoughts on grading papers. She says:

My name is Michelle Perry and I am enrolled in a class at San Jose State University on Composition Theory. I have decided to write my final paper on the grading insights of people in the field of teaching composition. Many theories abound regarding the "correct" way to grade papers, but I am curious to see what people have to say about their own styles and successes. Thank you for your time in answering the questions. I appreciate your time and I look forward to your responses.

How to reply:
- anonymously/pseudonymously or not, doesn't matter
- you can leave your responses in a comment below and I'll forward them along OR
- you can email responses to me at [email protected] and I'll send them along OR
- you can email responses directly to her at [email protected]

Please spread the word, if you are so inclined, because I know all the rockstar rhet/comp people I read have no reason to come to my wee "life and everything" blog, although I do know I am two degrees of separation from them all through some of you who do hang out here.

Basically, I want Michelle to get some great responses, write an outstanding paper (she's very smart), win the research paper of the year award at our school, then win the CSU-wide research paper award, and then go on to great things. I'm not writing about anything nearly as interesting for my project in the same class.

On to the questions...

1. How many years have you been teaching?

2. During those years has your grading system or method changed? If so, how?

3. How would you describe your current grading/feedback system on composition papers? Comments? Grammar? Endnotes?

4. How many papers do you grade per semester on average?

5. How much time to you spend, on average, grading each paper? (If your time grading varies depending on the type of essay please provide examples)

6. Does your grading method on papers differ based on the type of essay presented? Descriptive vs. analytical or Final version vs. Draft? If so, how?

7. How do your students react to the type of grading/commentary you provide on their papers? (please provide specific examples if possible)

8. In your opinion, how does your grading process affect your student’s writing? Do you see improvements? Are these improvements consistent?

9. If you had more time and a lighter teaching load would you change your grading style? If so, how?

Posted by: Liz | October 07, 2006 at 07:38 PM

Comments

[joanna]

Liz, tell Michelle that she can email me with her questions and a deadline, and I'll go through her questions and send back answers.

[michael benton]

I would like to extend an invitation to you to join in on a collective blogging section of our upcoming winter issue of Reconstruction. The issue is the “Theories/Practices of Blogging.” In addition to the special section of posts on blogging there will be about a dozen essays on blogging.

The deadline is October 27th.

Our intent in this section of the issue will be to collect a wide range of bloggers and link up to their statements in regards to why they blog (something many of us are asked) and any statement they have on the theories/practices of blogging.

If you already have a post on this you can feel free to use it, or, if you are interested, you can submit a new one.

We will link to each statement from the issue at our site, with the intent of creating a hyperlinked list of statements on blogging that can serve as an introduction to blogging (or an expansion of knowledge for those already blogging).

If you are interested please contact me at mdbento @ gmail.com

[Michelle Perry]

Joanna,

I'd be happy to send you (or anyone else) the questions directly. Please send me your email address to: [email protected]

Michelle