The Goal:
For Rough Draft Papers you should be careful to make good comments that will help the student get a straight ‘A’ paper. To do so keep in mind that the paper needs to cover all the elements in the rubric, but DON’T let them know what the rubric is, nor which items they got right and wrong. (We don’t provide the rubric because we want them to build the argument themselves; remember, they have everything they need in the textbook– we’re checking that they understand the argument presented there and can communicate it to others.) Instead, suggest them the changes needed in all the parts of the rubric that you would grade negatively. Also, don’t tell them a score.
You might also want to make them think and help them improve the missing/wrong concepts that they express. In principle they might have some mistakes of this kind in the essay, but if you are able to point them in the draft then not only they will submit a good essay but also fully understand the physics behind it.
Feel free to just point them back to the book or some of Prof. Toback’s lecture slides if they get their physics wrong. Avoid bringing in outside information sources here, though; these are not research projects and we don’t want the students to think they have to look for extra information beyond the book.
Similarly, don’t expect fully precise scientific language in the papers; remember our goal here is to teach non-physics-majors how to communicate with other non-physics-majors. You can leave notes about how to better phrase things, but make it clear that you’re only leaving suggestions.
You might say our goal here is accuracy instead of precision. We want the students to be able to communicate broad concepts correctly without scaring them off with extensive terminology and minutiae.
The Process:
Students will submit rough drafts to TurnItIn in eCampus. On eCampus, go to Course Tools -> Turnitin Assignments -> Optional Rough Draft Paper ‘X’ (make sure you are looking at the rough drafts!). You will see the list of students who have turned it in, and the ‘similarity’ percentage. Click the pencil icon (or number, if graded) in the ‘grade’ column for any student, and you will be taken to a Turnitin platform to grade.
Giving good feedback quickly will take experience and familiarity with the assignment. According to Josh W, though, the best approach to the feedback process is this:
Read the whole paper once without marking anything. No rubric.
Go through the paper again with the rubric (copies of the rubrics are linked here). Now mark where they would be missing points
Final sweep if you have time. Identify problem areas for which you might not take off points, but a reviewer might—or where the argument is unclear
You can highlight text on the paper to leave quick, localized comments and marks or click the blue tablet icon on the right side of the screen to get a space for general remarks and improvements for the draft (as well as positive feedback).
You can also apply various plagiarism-checking overlays (the red items) if anything looks suspicious.
After you are done putting your comments, you need to give a grade for Turnitin to recognize that you are done evaluating, and thus the student is able to see the feedback. Click in the upper right corner, where two dashes are found, and ‘grade’ it putting 0, (it will look like 0 out of 0). This is not really a grade but a flag telling the system that the paper has been evaluated.
Remember that the purpose is that the papers are EXCELLENT!