The easiest thing for teachers to find and the easiest to quantify but—unfortunately—too often the sole criterion for evaluating writing. It is what students have been penalized for throughout their writing careers, and it often causes them to feel inadequate as writers. They can grow to hate writing when the problem is simply that they do not know basic rules of grammar, and their grades have often been determined solely on that basis.
While correctness is important in writing, it should be de-emphasized in a portfolio-writing classes and in LOW-STAKES WRITING or WRITING TO LEARN assignments. Some suggestions for helping correct error in students’ papers include
- Peer editing and peer review
- Reading papers aloud
- Individual tutoring
- Group conferences
- A visit (or several visits) to the writing center.
Grammar lessons for the whole class are usually not effective, because students who have no problems with comma splices, for example, will lose interest in a lesson about comma splices, and students who need the lesson will comprehend better if they are shown their problems directly in one-to-one sessions.
See PROOFREADING and the WAC handout, Put Down That Red Pen!.