Grammar and Editing: Resource Sharing Page

Tips on not going insane:

• Keep the big picture in mind: In ten weeks, students can only progress so much.Be proactive about working with students who will fail the portfolio if they don’t fix their errors; that is, grab them after class and ask when they can meet with you. Let the other students come to you if they want help with grammar.

•  If you are grading papers and come across one that would earn a C or above except for grammar errors, mark the rubric and write comments but do not assign it a grade. Hand it back to the student and tell him you won’t grade it until grammar is “at standard.” Tell him to meet with you in your office.

• Make error correction manageable for you and for them by helping them identify their top one to three errors. Tell students these are the only errors you will work on with them. Typically, a student who addresses her one or two top errors is probably addressing 70% of the problem.

• When grading papers, don’t mark errors at all. Instead, circle the rubric that shows they are below standard or at standard in grammar and make a comment in the end note about their top one to three errors. (First paper: Your top three errors are comma splices, fused sentences and fragments. Second paper: I see that you improved the comma splices but there are still a lot of fragments, etc.) There is one case where I mark errors on papers, and that is students who have few grammar errors but have one small recurring error, such as apostrophes with plurals. I’ll mark a couple of examples and, in the margin, make a note that this error occurs a number of times through the paper.