Teaching In The Margins:
Commenting On Student Writing

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Authors & Contributors

Here are some questions you can use to help you think strategically about major components of most writing assignments to decide which ones to emphasize in your assignment.

Purpose:

• What are the learning objectives for the assignment? How can those objectives best be met?

Audience:

• Who is the intended audience for the writing? The instructor? A disciplinary audience? A particular journal audience? An audience educated generally in the discipline? An audience new to the discipline?

Development:

• What are the criteria for effectively developing the paper or supporting the focus/thesis? (Evidence from research sources? Lecture notes? Observations?)
• Is development guided by genre or aim of discourse? (for example, argumentative writing often requires anticipating opposition, refutation, etc.)
• What distinguishes exceptional development from minimal development?

Organization:

• What is the most effective organizational strategy, given the purpose and audience of the assignment?
• How should the author achieve coherence? Through visual organizational strategies (lists, bulleted information, headings, etc.)? Through transitional words/phrases or topic sentences?

Style:

• What stylistic choices (e.g., using "I" and "you"; relying on technical jargon; using long, passive sentences) are appropriate for the intended audience? What choices are inappropriate?
• What stylistic conventions are common for the intended audience?

Conventions:

• What conventions-disciplinary (e.g., documentation procedures), grammatical, or mechanical-are most important for this assignment?

• Insight from a Colleague