Perhaps no aspect of teaching with writing provokes as much instructor anxiety as providing written or oral responses to student texts. I never get enough response to my comments to know what works or what doesn't. I spend a lot of time writing comments.
Students look for instructor comments.
In fact, in our assessment work at the Manoa Writing Program, we find that no other topic generates more student comment than what professors say about their writing. The professor corrected all my grammar errors on my first draft. I was really confused. In the last issue of Writing Matters , we listed several questions students want to ask their professors about writing assignments. Here we list two questions students tell us they want to ask their professors about comments on their writing.