Many good ideas emerged from this Writing Committee-sponsored workshop. Thanks to all who attended and offered these suggestions:

• 25-word summary: to ensure students watch a video attentively or complete an assigned reading, assign a summary which is just 25 words long. Because this is such a brief assignment, it is neither burdensome for students to write nor for the instructor to read. An additional plus is that it forces students to write concisely and think about every word.

• 1-page single-spaced report: like the 25-word summary, this is quick for students to write (one page single-spaced sounds easier than two pages double-spaced) and convenient for the instructor to correct.

• If you assign multiple essays, consider making one a collaborative essay. This will cut down on your grading load and also give students experience at working together, an important life and workplace skill.

• Stagger the due dates for assignments from different classes so you donít have to grade them all at once.

• If possible, use the same criteria for all essays throughout the semester. This way, you can establish the criteria at the beginning and continually reinforce them (like a mantra!).

• Circle grammatical errors, but donít correct or identify them; this forces students to figure out what was wrong and how to correct it. It also reduces your grading time.

• Alert students to common errors at the beginning of the semester. Many find this helpful so they know what to check in their papers.

• Instead of writing long comments which students may not even read, keep comments brief and spend time on short conferences with students. They often value and attend to this face-to-face contact more than written feedback. One to one contact can often take place during class time while other students are working in groups.

• Write extensive comments on the first paper only; inform students that you wonít do the same on subsequent paper(s).

• For take-home exams, give students 5 questions ahead of time that cover all of the content they should know. On the day of the exam, choose just ONE of the questions for students to write on ó do this by rolling dice.

 
[summarized by Beth Kupper-Herr]