Writer’s Note: This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of comments, but should be enough to give examples of how to give comments, what types of comments to give, and the time you should spend on each paper and a writing TA. My most important piece of advice for comments is to ALWAYS keep this phrase in mind as you comment: “Would the comment that I’m writing be helpful to ME if I were the writer of this paper?”
How to give comments:
Use the comment tool on elearning (TurnItIn now? –Josh, 2018) to give comments. There are 3 kinds of comments that you will want to use:
Preset – use these for generic errors, e.g. comma errors and parts you think should be deleted (TIP: BE POSITIVE, it may be a crappy part that should be deleted or a good part that is off-topic, either way, you are telling someone to delete something they worked on to show you for help. You may be tired of a terrible paper at 2 AM, but always keep criticism constructive). You can also make your own for frequently used comments. (I used these about 10% of the time -Chris).
Custom – use these for when you need to talk to the student directly about part of a sentence, whole sentences, or even paragraphs. Making all of these is very time consuming and can leave the paper covered in comments. Make sure to use different colors for adjacent/overlapping comments (it also makes the paper look cool). (I used these about 90% of the time -Chris).
General – use these for comments about the entire paper. There is a separate tab where you can write comments about the whole paper about your thoughts on the paper when you’re done. Most importantly, you should ALWAYS tell the student to reach you at your.email@tamu.edu if they have questions or need clarification about their comments and that you hope they find your comments helpful. BE POSITIVE HERE. Also, if the student REALLY needs help and you are feeling gracious with your time, ask them to email you to set up a meeting time.
What kinds of comments are helpful?
Ask questions to the student! Most of the comments you make should be questions (that would be answerable with the knowledge the student has or should have, or is a good topic for them to think about). For example, if a student says that the proton orbits the nucleus, ask a selection of:
Why do you say this? (this is a good one to ask for most situations –Chris)
What particles are in the nucleus? What orbits the nucleus?
What is the charge of the nucleus?
If you ask tough questions, remind the student that they can email you if they have trouble (The idea is for the students to learn, not to make them suffer with tough questions.)
Focusing comments: If the student loses track of where they are going in the paper by writing off-topic or goes from correct to incorrect statements, you will want to help them get back on track. Say something like:
This is good, but you begin to lose focus here. Tell me more about X.
Correct, but your explanation of why is incorrect. (insert #1-style questions here).
Organizational comments: sometimes the students do things in the wrong order. Say something like “This is good, but I think you should move this sentence/discussion/paragraph to after ___”
Links: If there is an explanation or diagram in the textbook/lecture notes/Wikipedia that the student can look at, it saves a lot of time to just link it instead of writing a long comment. Don’t overuse links (once, maybe twice, per paper maximum), you should be a person that gives helpful comments on papers and writing, not a link-machine. (Note from Josh, 2018: we particularly don’t want to give the impression that the class requires outside research to understand the topics; the textbook should have everything they need)
Explanations: These are probably the most time-consuming comment. If the student seems close on the topic or is using a poor analogy, you may want to give the final push to being correct or you may want to give a better analogy (and explain why it is better).
Beware writing the paper for the student. Don’t make your comment something they would copy and paste into their paper. It is a good idea to put #1 style questions in there to check their understanding.
How long should I spend on each paper/Being a writing TA?
It depends. For the first set of papers, you will be toying around with different ideas and styles until you find what works for you, in addition to still be figuring out how elearning works. There will also be probably the most papers this weekend, but not necessarily. Each paper can take 15-30 minutes, depending on the paper and how verbose you are.
BE PREPARED FOR SPENDING AT LEAST THE BETTER PART OF A DAY ONLY DOING PAPERS WHEN THEY COME IN. If the rough drafts are due Friday, be prepared to spend Saturday reading and commenting on them.
Be ready to spend a lot of time doing regrades. These can be very painful to do, and one regrade can easily turn in to 3 more regrades if you find a poor grader. Regrades are tough because they come when you’re at the busiest time of YOUR semester too, and can’t always be done on the weekends. My only advice is:
Do them soon, but don’t go the extra mile to get them done in a day or two.
Don’t get behind on regrades. These will pile up if you let them, and even if you keep up with them, you will still get cases when you have to look at Paper 1 regrades when you’re working on Paper 4 drafts (and other Paper 2 and 3 regrades). Put on your favorite songs/albums when you work on these.