A Gateway to Professionalization: An Undergraduate Researcher Poster Session Conference on College Composition and Communication, St.

Louis, MO March 22, 2012

Twos Company, Threes a Conversation:

A Study of Dialogue among a Professor, a Peer-Writing Fellow, and Undergraduates around Feedback and Writing Alyssa-Rae Hug St. Johns University alyssarae.hug09@stjohns.edu

Although teachers often aim to facilitate growth with their feedback on student writing, teacher commentary on written work can sometimes become an authoritative monologue that stunts development (Fife and ONeill; Haring-Smith 124; Holmes 174-175; Sommers; Welch; Zawacki). The presence of a peer-writing fellows feedback can give students a different perspective on their writing, reading from the position of both teacher-authority and peer-reader (Haring-Smith 124; Soven 58; Zawacki). In this study, I trace the development of a collaborative comment dialogue between an art history professor and myself, a writing fellow, through analysis of our Review comments. Each of us commented in turn on student writing, creating a visual conversation between our two sets of comments. I map patterns and transitions in the commenters attitudes about, engagement with, and understanding of writing and feedback. Here I offer the studys central discoveries and implications for teaching: A collaborative approach to commenting on student writing may help to lessen the authoritative singularity and product-orientation of a teachers comments, especially across the disciplines. Despite the collaboration that evolves between the professor and writing fellow, students voices remain excluded. This study reveals the usefulness of approaches like Welchs sideshadowing and Berzsenyis Comments-to-Comments, which would invite students into the dialogue around feedback (Berzsenyi; Welch). As I interact with students and their writing beyond the collaborative written feedback, my individual comments improve from picky and technical (e.g., commenting on grammatical errors only) to readerly and development-oriented. Two independent commenters may struggle to identify what is important enough to note in feedback on a students paper, leading to an intimidating wall of comments (Beach and Friedrich 227; Zawacki). Acknowledging a guideline for the number of comments that each independent commenter should produce alleviates this problem.

Negativity in comments (unfortunately) prompted students responses. This communicates that students were engaging with the comments and with their own writing when we demonstrated that we were doing the same in our comments. Teachers (and writing fellows) should strive for both positive and negative comments that engage students in this way. References
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Beach, Richard and Tom Friedrich. Response to Writing. Handbook of Writing Research. Ed. Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, Jill Fitzgerald. New York: Guilford Press, 2006. 222-234. Print. Berzsenyi, Christyne A.. Comments to Comments: Teachers and Students in Written Dialogue about Critical Revision. Composition Studies 29.2 (2001): 71-92. Print. Fife, Jane Mathison and Peggy ONeill. Moving Beyond the Written Comment: Narrowing the Gap between Response Practice and Research. College Composition and Communication 53.2 (2001): 300-321. Web. Haring-Smith, Tori. Changing Students Attitudes: Writing Fellows Programs. Rewriting Across the Curriculum: Writing Fellows as Agents of Change in WAC. Spec. issue of Across the Disciplines 5 (2008): 123-131. Web. Holmes, Lynda A.. What Do Students Mean When They Say, I Hate Writing?. Teaching English in the Two Year College 29.2 (2001): 172-178. Web. Sommers, Nancy. Responding to Student Writing. College Composition and Communication 33.2 (1982): 148-156. Web. Soven, Margot. Curriculum-Based Peer Tutoring Programs: A Survey. Writing Program Administration 17.1-2 (1993). 58-74. Web. Welch, Nancy. Sideshadowing Teacher Response. College English 60.4 (1998): 374-395. Web. Zawacki, Terry Myers. Writing Fellows as WAC Change Agents: Changing What? Changing Whom? Changing How?. Rewriting Across the Curriculum: Writing Fellows as Agents of Change in WAC. Spec. issue of Across the Disciplines 5 (2008). Web.

Acknowledgements Thank you to Dr. Anne Ellen Geller, Dr. Susan Rosenberg, and Dr. Harry Denny for all of their encouragement, guidance, and support at every stage of this project. Thank you to Dr. Neal Lerner and Lauren Williams for help with references. Also, thank you to Dr. Alison Hyslop, Mary Kate Hinshaw and Victoria Doose for their review of my poster, and to Dr. Jessie Moore, Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark, and Dr. Paula Rosinski for organizing A Gateway to Professionalism: An Undergraduate Researcher Poster Session and giving me the opportunity to share my research.