How do your students react when they read your comments—if they read them? Do those comments help your students write better?

Research suggests that instructors’ written comments—at least the more typical kinds of comments—do little to help students improve their writing. Since making those observations can be time-consuming, it’s worth taking another look at how to make your comments matter. Perhaps the most helpful way to think about paper comments is to imagine sharing your own writing with a colleague. You’d expect a respectful tone, an honest (but kind) sense of the worth of your effort, and—most of all—some specific guidance on how to proceed. With that in mind, here are some additional suggestions.

Time your words.

Commenting on final papers is largely futile; once you put a grade on a paper, students have little interest in anything else you say. Reserve the bulk of your comments for earlier drafts, when students can consider your advice in their revisions.

Find your focus.

Ideally, when you give students an assignment, you have a specific pedagogical goal in mind. Perhaps you want students to summarize both sides of an argument or use research to defend their position. Keep that goal in mind as you read, so you can focus your comments on bigger issues. That’s more efficient for you and less overwhelming for students.

Ask questions.

By asking questions, you can encourage students to expand their assumptions, or push the limits of their knowledge. When you ask questions rather than make suggestions, you keep students engaged in the process and remind them that it’s ultimately their work, not yours.

Be specific.

When you’re working through a batch of papers, it’s tempting to rely on stock phrases: “Good introduction” or “Needs more analysis.” But such wholesale comments are of little use to students when they revise. The more specific your questions and comments, the more likely you are to see improved final drafts.

Be quiet.

Sometimes students don’t need an instructor to say anything about their writing, particularly on brief assignments or explorations leading to a longer project. Or take a few minutes of class time to give general impressions about what you read. (“From your journals, I see that many of you are confusing two key concepts.”)

Resist the urge to correct.

When most instructors see grammatical mistakes and spelling errors, they feel compelled to correct them. Unfortunately, correcting errors for students doesn’t teach them much. It also sends the message that you’re hunting down errors rather than considering what students have to say. If a draft has an overwhelming number of errors, you might mark up one paragraph or one page and write a note offering to discuss the problems in person or suggesting the student get help from he University Writing Center. You can also er models for students to revise as a class or in a group. Another option: teach students to correct the three or four errors that paricularly frustrate you as a reader, and limit yourself to identifying only those. But isn’t it a teacher’s job to point out errors? Not if pointng them out will do nothing to help students eliminate them in the future.

Resist the urge to rewrite.

Just as it’s tempting to fix errors, it’s also tempting to rewrite a wordy passage or awkward sentence. But making such editorial changes denies students the chance to learn to revise for themselves. Furthermore, there are countless ways to revise a sentence; by choosing one, you impose your preferences on your students. Besides, if students are going to undertake a major revision, they may cut or reword the problematic section anyway. If you’d like to teach students how to revise for style and clarity, consider having the class work together to rework a model—perhaps a less-than-stellar piece of “professional” writing from your field.

Be a reader.

Writing is ultimately about communicating ideas and information to a reader, a fact students often forget. Let them know you are, first and foremost, a reader, trying to make sense of their words. The reader’s comment “I can’t follow your meaning here” is less hostile than the teacher’s “Faulty syntax!” and more likely to encourage students to revise.

Make it a conversation.

Before students turn in a draft, ask them to write their own comments about it. Then you can address their concerns and answer their questions, which allows you to be teacher and advisor, rather than judge and jury. It also encourages them to take responsibility for their written efforts and reflect on what is and isn’t working for them in their writing process.