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Teaching Writing

Written assignments prompt students to think critically, develop a sustained line of reasoning, and engage actively with course materials. Providing constructive feedback on students’ writing is crucial to their development as thinkers and communicators.

Grading Criteria for Written Work

TAs should discuss the grading criteria for specific written assignments with the course instructor. Many instructors will have a clear idea of the metrics by which written assignments should be evaluated, or they may have a formal rubric that TAs are expected to follow when grading. If the course instructor does not provide a formal rubric, the TA may benefit from making their own based on the criteria provided by the instructor. Rubrics often speed up grading and provide blueprints for giving students feedback

The following are criteria that are often taken into consideration when grading written assignments and may be included in a rubric:

• A strong thesis statement or argument.
• Sufficient and well-documented evidence to support the thesis statement.
• An exploration of possible alternative interpretations.
• A clear and easy-to-read prose style.
• A well-informed discussion of research or relevant literature in the field.
• Clear transitional sentences (signposts) between sections of an argument.

Written assignments can take more bandwidth to grade than other assignments. To ensure that they are approaching each written assignment with enough bandwidth to grade them fairly, TAs should split up grading over several sessions or days and take frequent breaks.

Feedback on Written Work

TAs should try to be specific with their comments to help students to understand how they can improve. A typical comment might be, “G�Ǵǻ� ���Գٰ��ǻ�ܳ��پ��Dz�,” but a more valuable comment for the student might be, “T�󾱲� is a strong introductory paragraph because it raises questions that engage me as a physicist/mathematician/art historian/classicist/archaeologist/chemist),” or “T�󾱲� is a good introductory paragraph because it gives a clear explication of the issues and indicates �ɳ󲹳�’s to ���dz���.” These clearer and more specific comments help students understand where they have failed or succeeded and what they can do to improve future papers.

Another widespread challenge that TAs face is how to respond to the writing of students who are new to the discipline and have not grasped its writing conventions, especially when these students are used to doing well in their own discipline. Students who are good writers in one field may have difficulty writing a good paper in a new discipline. Making disciplinary conventions explicit at the assignment stage is an excellent way to teach students to be aware of their readers. One way to do this is to have students read and dissect an exemplary text in the field to see how language is used, evidence marshaled, and arguments made.

TAs who play an active role in planning assignments might consider building both drafting and revising stages into their assignments to foster their students’ writing development. Structured opportunities to revise written work offer students the chance to put feedback into action.

While TAs may feel inclined to read drafts ahead of due dates to provide guidance, they should be aware that this can be very time consuming. To limit the additional time this can take up, TAs may wish to set a boundary of how much time they can devote to reading drafts and refer students to the Writing Center for more detailed assistance.

Many teachers feel students benefit more if comments are focused on ideas, but grammar, syntax, and the like are still important. TAs should resist the impulse to simply correct the mechanics of students’ writing, but instead encourage students to learn the principles behind good syntax, grammar, etc. TAs may want to make grammatical and syntactical comments on one paragraph to give students an idea of the kinds of changes required. TAs can also refer students to grammar reference guides, such as: Strunk, William, Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 4^th ed. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2000. .