by Lauren Bender, Art History

I vividly recall my first experience receiving feedback on my writing, when I proudly showed my father my first five-paragraph essay and asked him what he thought. A lawyer by training and a perfectionist by nature, he enthusiastically marked up the essay with a red pen, returning it to me with entire sentences crossed out and many suggestions for edits. Although I was crestfallen at first to see his response, the process of rewriting improved the essay so significantly that I turned it into my fifth-grade teacher with pride. It taught me two valuable lessons: the first, that writing is not just the act of putting words on a page but also the process of improving them, and the second, that writing and receiving feedback are intensely personal endeavors that can evoke strong emotional responses.

I quickly learned to trust the feedback process. Prior to beginning graduate school, my career as a writer and copyeditor involved both giving and receiving frequent feedback to produce polished, publication-ready writing. This included everything from complete rewrites to checking that the inclusion of a hyphen was aligned with our style guide. I also became a ruthless editor of my own writing, never completely satisfied with the finished product.

When I began as a teaching assistant in UGA’s Writing Intensive Program for advanced undergraduate courses in the art history department, I knew that my process of giving feedback would have to change. Although both courses I TA emphasize drafts and revisions, a newspaper article and a class research paper have different audiences and different purposes. While a newspaper article must be edited to meet the highest standards of accuracy and clarity, the goals of student writing are learning, skill acquisition, and progress, rather than standardized perfection. So how was I to manage the conflicting priorities of maintaining high standards, teaching students how to trust the revision process, avoiding time-consuming line edits, and being sensitive to the balance of praise and critique?

As we near the end of the semester, I’m still figuring out the answer to that question. I expect I will continue to struggle with it throughout my academic career. Although I aspire to be like the editors and professors who have encouraged me and guided my evolution as a writer, the prospect of providing feedback on a stack of essays often fills me with dread. I am proving to be a slow grader, and I still find myself spending far too long on each student’s writing. And yes, I have trouble letting things like minor spelling errors or misplaced commas slide.

But I have learned a few lessons. The first and most important is to meet students where they are.

But I have learned a few lessons. The first and most important is to meet students where they are. Tearing apart a student’s poor first draft would be both discouraging for the student and inefficient for me as a grader. Instead, it is more effective to limit my feedback to a few broad elements of focus. If the student can successfully incorporate that feedback, their grades and performance will gradually improve over the course of the semester.

Second, I have found that feedback is often best phrased in the form of a question. For example: Can you elaborate on what you meant by this sentence here? How might your argument change if you incorporated more visual evidence from the painting? How could you bring in one of our readings to provide a counterargument to your thesis? The Socratic method is traditionally considered to be a tool for facilitating in-class discussion, but it can also be beneficial in the written dialogue between student and instructor.

Third, writing mechanics do not have to be sacrificed upon the altar of “content.” I can’t fix every mistake, but I can give a student a link to a resource on the proper use of commas and encourage them to review it. One of my most frequent comments is pointing out the use of the passive voice and encouraging students to be bolder and more confident with their verbs. This satisfies my inner copyeditor while allowing students to focus on one or two writing mechanics concepts at a time.

Finally, I am still struggling to strike the right balance between praise and criticism. But I continue to work at it, knowing that the goal is for students to feel both proud of their accomplishments and inspired to aim higher.