Developing Research Questions #6

Blog #6

Sarina Rizzo, Julissa Lopez, and Rachel Palmer

Group Research Question: How do questions within instructor comments aid in student revisions? What do they tell the student about their writing?

Categories for analysis: (features to determine effectiveness)

1. tone of questions

2. questions asking for elaboration

3. questions describing readerly feedback

4. questions regarding structure

5. questions on reorganization

6. questions on generalizations of comments made in the paper

7. questions on importance of situations in the paper

8. questions on the readers understanding of the paper

9. questions on necessary information to include in paper

Effectiveness: 
In order to determine the effectiveness of how the comments given to students aid in their revisions there are a few ways to determine this. The first would be to compare the essays that received comments to the final draft to see if the comments were applied. If there was a significant change in the essay, or it seems that the comments/question were addressed/answered, then how did that help the fluency of the paper. I think it would also be interesting to interview the writer and get his or her opinions on the questions that they received.

The things I would ask the writer would be:

What did the comments tell you about the paper?

Did they help you add or delete written material?

How were some of the comments encouraging, or discouraging? If either describe the effect it had on whether or not you revised your writing?

Did some of the questions confuse you or make you question your writing? If so, how or in what way?

What did the questions tell you about how your paper was interpreted by your reader? Did this knowledge tell you if you were successful or unsuccessful in your delivery of your work?

Do you overall find questions helpful in revising your paper? If so how, and what kinds questions are most helpful/important to you when you are writing?

Do you feel as if the professor’s comments were a little to personal ?(ex. gut  feeling,   feels out of place)

Overall did all the professor’s comments help you with your revisions on your paper?

Do you read all of the professors comments before you revise?

These questions to the writer would explain the effectiveness/ineffectiveness that the questions within the comments present to the writer. Also as an interviewer I would learn about what the student feels about the comments and would show how the writer used/disregarded the questions in revising his or her essay.

Also I think interviewing the instructor asking the big question of What are the intentions of the questions given, and how do you think they are going to help the writer? The answer to this question will then be compared to the answers from the student writer and that would show whether or not the questions are effective. If the student response proves the instructor response then the questions were effective in revision. If not then in turn, the questions would be ineffective. .  These questions determine whether   or not the professor or the student needs to change their behavior to get the writer to revise. For example if the teacher is asking the  wrong questions for this individual students that don’t persuade the student to want to revise but at the same time if the student just isn’t revising no matter  what the professor states  then its the student who is making him or hers writing ineffective by not reading and comprehending the professors comments.