Responding-Really Responding--To Other Students Writing Reading Response

Well if that title isn't a mouth full I dont know what is. Professor Richard Straub, at Florida State University writes an article explaining the do's and dont's of responding to other students writing. He starts out by saying exactly what everyone does, sliding by making a few comments and correcting gramatical errors, pointing out awkward sentences or fragments, just so you can move on with your life. He then asks you to consider yourself a "friendly reader." What he means by this is, be that friend that that is critical  yet understanding. "Friends dont let friends think their writing is the best thing since The Great Gatsby," he says. So that being said, make sure you are helping the writer and building their confidence in way that they know they can improve their essay. Remember your not the teacher, or an editor, and you're most certainly not the writer so do not re-write anything. He breaks the responding process down even more when he begins to talk about the assignment, the writers interests, the work of the class and the drafting stages. These are key things to keep in mind when reading. He asks rhetorical questions like, Is the paper supposed to be personal? What does the writer want to accomplish? Is it a full but incomplete draft? These are all things to think about when reading and responding to another students essay. When you decide to write your comments, placement may be based on the teacher or students preferences. And when you do start writing a comment try to sound like a friend or peer "who's helpful" and not a teacher or editor, and most of all do not be "stingy." He says to respond with what i like to call "but sentences," for example This statement is interesting but these ideas in this paragraph aren't so hot. Straub says to challenge yourself to write as many praise comments and you do critical comments. Using examples of other essays that have responses already on them he critiques and explains exactly why they said what they said to the writer and why the reader responded in that way.

Because Straub broke everything down into sections and even gave examples of essays with responses I'm not left wondering or thinking theres any holes left. He explains himself well and has completely given me a fresh and new understanding on how to comment on essays. I love his assumption on how he thinks we as students respond to each other. It works in the article, because he is exactly right. I never new someone could write so much, about how to write comments on someones writing, theres another mouthful.

I agree with most everything Straub says. I never thought to think of myself as a friend reading an essay, I always thought whenever we traded essays in class we were all supposed to become mini teachers and act as if we knew the way they act. This changes a lot of my thinking towards essays my peers write, and they way I respond to their blogs.

The one golden line from this article is "Get in and get out. You're okay, I'm okay. Everybody's happy. Whats the problem." This is Straub's correct assumption on just how students think when they try to respond to someone elses writing. Simply because they probably dont care about the essay their reading. This article is something to change their minds though.