Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Responding to Student Writing--What role do you play?

In a 1989 article, “Response Styles and Ways of Knowing” Writing and Response: Theory, Practice, and Research, Chris M. Anson identified three kinds of responders to student writing:
  • Dualistic responders  are often guided by a clear-cut concept of right and wrong, focus mostly on surface features, and assume the tone of critical judges or evaluators. 
  • Relativistic responders provide feedback almost exclusively to the ideas expressed in the writing, often ignoring significant linguistic and rhetorical aspects.
  • Reflective responders attend to both ideas and stylistic devices while attempting to offer options for revision without being controlling.
While I hope to be a reflective responder, in practice I often resort to the dualistic response role.   I can say that at times I embrace the relativistic role and ignore (or attempt to ignore) surface features in student writing. 

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