In Their Words: Students Reflect on Positive Experiences with Writing this Semester

Welcome to the last two weeks of the semester! Amid the rush of completing and assessing final projects and navigating end-of-term challenges, we invite students and instructors to pause and reflect on positive writing experiences—perhaps even milestones—from this semester. Doing so can provide a much-needed dose of motivation and gratitude during these final days of shortened light, dropping temperatures, and fervid intellectual labor. Looking back can also inspire us as we begin to look ahead to the Spring semester: “Blue skies, nothing but blue skies from now on….”

Continuing a tradition in the end-of-the-Fall-semester blog post (see Taking Stock, A Quick Look Back, Making the Grade), we’ve asked undergraduate students to share positive experiences this semester that have contributed to their development as writers. This year, the reflective wisdom comes from five students in Biology, Anthropology, Journalism, English, and Applied Economics.

We asked these students the following: What is one learning experience this semester that has been constructive to your development as a writer in your primary field(s) of study? Was there something your instructor, or TA, or classmate did in class? Was it the way a writing assignment was designed or scaffolded? Did specific feedback help you in some way? Or, perhaps, was it a positive learning experience that had nothing or little to do with an instructor’s specific intervention or planning, but contributed to your development as a writer? Please share details!

Here is what they told us (answers have been slightly edited), followed by a brief comment and a tip or two on how we can draw on these students’ experiences in our teaching.

Writing Checkpoints

For an anthropology course, the final project can take many forms, but I'm choosing to write a paper. In working through the project, the professor for the course has structured the assignment to have a few "checkpoints" throughout the semester whereby she provides feedback on our drafts to that point and offers any insights into what she thinks may be helpful for the rest of the process. I have found this structure especially helpful as I've worked through my writing process; knowing that I'll have an opportunity to ask clarifying questions on content I don't understand and on stylistic choices that I think may be beneficial has helped me improve my process as a writer, especially within the field of anthropology. I am grateful for the structure of this assignment in supporting me through that process.

—Abby, a student majoring in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior

Comment

Abby’s positive experiences touch on several intertwining practices that have been well supported by the research in writing pedagogy. She attributes her learning to well sequenced and well scaffolded assignments that support her development along with timely and actionable periods of feedback and consultation. She also mentions a final project that offers student options, which reinforces three underlying principles in Universal Design for Learning: offering students multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression.

Tip

Drawing from Abby’s positive experience, instructors can design checkpoints for their students by requiring earlier drafts before final drafts, providing time for feedback on key stages of writing, designing brief, in-class revision workshops focused on specific components of a writing assignment, and encouraging writing conferences within office hours. The WAC team is delighted to consult with instructors on creating writing checkpoints in their courses.

An Attentive Reader

My Journalism class really changed my writing. The class focused more on technical writing than any class I have taken in the past. What I really valued was the teacher's detailed feedback. Each week we would have writing assignments that he would grade somewhat ruthlessly, but with great attention to detail. He also left long and encouraging comments at the end of each piece. I really appreciated how this teacher spent time with my work, and he even scheduled a one-on-one meeting with me to discuss my plans for journalism.

—Yvette, a student studying Journalism

Comment

That Yvette characterized her experiences from an occasionally “ruthless grader” as positive may seem puzzling at first. But what she vividly describes is an instructor who allocates significant energy in providing detailed feedback that can be applied to subsequent writing in and beyond the class. As James Lang explains in Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It (2020), giving “attention to the student—the individual student, named and valued—invites attention from the student” (123). Students like Yvette are less inclined to view critical feedback negatively when it is clearly offered in the form of attentive reading and includes opportunities for one-on-one discussions. 

Tip

Instructors with large classes or a heavy teaching load may not have the opportunities or energy levels to provide the detailed feedback that Yvette received. However, they can create conditions for effective feedback by focusing on formative assessments. Research has shown that earlier formative feedback (from peers, teaching assistants, writing center tutors, and instructors) is most likely to lead to revision and improved student performance. A key pedagogical principle is at work here: commenting on student writing before it is finished will do more to promote students’ ongoing development as writers and learners than expending a great deal of energy on justifying a grade. The WAC team can consult with instructors on practical and timely ways to use formative feedback effectively in their classes. We also strongly encourage instructors to promote Student Writing Support in their classes.

Modeling and Situating the Writing Process

Hands-on editing has helped me become a better writer. One professor provided straightforward feedback. Some considered it harsh, but I think it was helpful to see examples of how he would edit, format, and write. Too often, I get an essay or story back with ambiguous, technical language that I have to make sense of.

—Anonymous, a student studying Journalism

Comment

This student emphasizes the value of hands-on feedback that models the instructor’s own writing practices and the writing processes used in the field. Providing this kind of feedback helps the instructor avoid abstractions about writing and makes more explicit the strategies needed for successful communication.

Tip

Modelling writing practices in class with students can be an effective way to teach writing. Five-minute revision-oriented activities are a highly adaptable and efficient way to reproduce the positive, hands-on experience this student describes. Instructors can also provide students with less ambiguous feedback by providing annotated examples of effective writing. Feel free to reach out to the WAC team to chat about ways to integrate hands-on writing activities into your classes.

Playful Revision

I have had a very positive experience in my creative writing class this semester. My instructor has changed my perception of revision in a very positive way by emphasizing that "revision is play." During class, we work on creatively revising our pieces through specific prompts that our instructor gives us to reframe our poems. These revision practices are designed to be fun and experimental to encourage us to think critically about our revision in an enjoyable way that doesn't feel like we are tearing our work to shreds. My instructor has made a point to instill the philosophy in us that revision is not making a piece better but, instead, trying something new with it and making it different. In working through different revision exercises, we are able to find the "soul" of our poems and keep what is consistently meaningful across versions. We can also pick up an exciting idea and run with it while getting rid of what is not serving the poem or resonating with us as writers and readers.

—Reilly, a student studying English and minoring in Creative Writing

Comment

We don’t often see “playful” and “revision” in the same sentence. Indeed, for many students, revision often conjures negative associations with writing—an indicator that they have failed at writing, that they are not naturally gifted writers, that writing is a labor of second-guessing and nit-picking, that writing needs to be corrected. Reilly’s instructor undercuts these deficit-oriented notions of revision by promoting and enacting an approach to revision that emphasizes its root meaning: re-seeing and re-imagining ideas.

Tip

Instructors who do not teach creative writing courses may think that a playful approach to revision is not possible or practical. However, a key takeaway from Reilly’s experience is that revision can be refashioned and reconceptualized as an iterative process used earlier in the writing process. Instructors in all disciplines can foster a more playful and generative approach to revision by providing examples of how writers have used revision to spark new ideas. Sources like The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Scholars Talk Writing are useful for identifying examples of writers who have used revision imaginatively and productively. Instructors can also share and discuss with students how revision has often been persistently misunderstood as something that good writers do not need. And, for a super-local example, instructors can encourage students to tour the Scholars Walk on the East Bank campus with special attention to the Wall of Writing, an inspiring montage of lined-out ideas, rewrites, and the messy and generative thinking that produced amazing insights. Want to talk about how to foster a more playful approach to revision? You got it: request a consultation with the WAC Team.

Revision Memos

In one of my Applied Economics courses, we have had a few assignments following the draft-peer review-revision process. While I appreciate having the time to edit and revisit a draft as opposed to a one-and-done process, sometimes the peer review process can fall flat, feeling as though I only received superficial line edits with a meager “good job” attached.

For our assignments in this course, we wrote our reviews narrative style. The most helpful aspect of this assignment was the revision memo. Submitted alongside our final draft, this is where we outlined our process of revision and reflection as we compiled the final draft. I really appreciate having this space to recognize and evaluate my own writing process, which made me more cognizant of the changes I was incorporating and what I had learned from my peers. I liked having the chance to explain myself, and it motivated me to put those extra touches and care into the final draft.

—Madeleine, a student studying Applied Economics

Comment

Madeleine describes an experience most students and instructors can relate to; peer response can be a hit-or-miss endeavor. However, even when it misses, it can be an effective learning experience when coupled with a reflective activity. As the research in peer response shows, it is often more beneficial to the student giving the feedback than the student receiving it. The key, as Madeleine’s instructor has shown, is to make the experience meaningful for the student writer by asking them to reflect on the writing process. 

Tip

Revision memos are terrific on several levels: they can help students process conflicting or underwhelming feedback; they can cue students to think metacognitively about their own learning and writing process; and they can provide a key step in deciding on the revision choices students will make for their final drafts. We can’t say enough about the benefits of reflective writing and revision memos. Make an appointment and we’ll share why.

In Your Words

Have you had a positive experience with teaching writing this semester? If so, please use the comments below to share your experiences.